London Records

London Records is a record label in the U.K. that marketed records in the U.S, Canada, and Latin America from 1947 to 1979 before becoming semi-independent. London arose from the split in ownership between the British and American branches of Decca Records. The American branch released British Decca records in the U.S. since it could not use the "Decca" name there. The label was noted for classical albums made in then state-of-the-art stereophonic sound, and such artists as Georg Solti, Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti.
The London name was also used by British Decca in the UK market for releases taken from American labels which British Decca licensed, such as Imperial, Chess, Dot, Atlantic, Specialty and Sun. After British Decca was acquired by PolyGram in 1979, London followed a more independent course with subsidiary labels such as Slash, Pete Tong's Essential Records and FFRR. Universal Music Group (the owner of American Decca) acquired PolyGram in 1998; however, by this time, London Records had become a semi-independent label within the PolyGram group operated by Roger Ames. When Ames moved to the Warner Music Group, he took the label with him, and so almost all of London's recent back catalogue was acquired by Warner, which also acquired the London name and trademark from Decca. The name is still used, mainly for UK-based artists, and for ex-Factory Records artists.
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