In this section you will find all the 78rpm original records released by the labels Billie was under contract, organized by label name. It covers the period 1933 – 1954.

LABEL INDEX

ALADDIN

Aladdin Records was founded in 1945 by the Mesner brothers with headquarters in Hollywood, CA. Originally called Philo Records, changed to its better-known name in April 1946. Aladdin was known for its wealth of recordings of rhythm & blues and early rock & roll music; it also recorded some jazz sessions. It was virtually devoted to black music.

The label was sold to Imperial Records in 1961 and is today owned by Capitol Records. (Wikipedia)

images © Cross Taro Collection

BLUEBIRD

Bluebird Records is a sub-label of RCA Victor Records originally created in 1932 to counter the American Record Company in the “3 records for a dollar” market. Still active.

    images © Cross Taro Collection

The B side was recorded only by Artie Shaw Orchestra. Notice that Bluebird used two different logos.

BRUNSWICK

Records under the “Brunswick” label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company and first began producing phonographs in 1916, then marketing their own line of records. In April 1930, Brunswick Records was sold to Warner Bros then in 1931 to American Record Corporation. ARC kept Brunswick as their flagship until 1939, when ARC was sold to CBS-Columbia Broadcast System.

Columbia discontinued Brunswick label in favor of their own Columbia, as well as OKeh replacing Vocalion, the cheaper ARC label. These two brands were reverted to Warner and sold to Decca in 1941 that revived Brunswick label in 1943.

Brunswick, series 7000

Brunswick series 8000

               images © Cross Taro Collection

CAPITOL

The Company was founded in Los Angeles by songwriter Johnny Mercer in 1942. On June 5, 1942, Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra recorded four sides. On June 12, the orchestra recorded five more, including one with Billie Holiday. Still active.

 image © Cross Taro Collection

This is the only side Billie recorded with Paul Whiteman. The other side is just instrumental.

CLEF

Clef Records was formed in 1948 in California by Norman Granz. Originally associated with Aladdin Records (see above) became independent in the early fifties. Clef recorded jazz and popular music and was discontinued in 1957 when newly founded Norman Granz’s Verve Records became the dominant label in the jazz scene.

Clef-Mercury

Mercury Record Corporation was formed in Chicago in 1945. Its jazz division had two distinct and important fathers. John Hammond brought his expertise and connections when Mercury bought Keynote Records in the late 1940s. And Mercury was the issuing company and distributor for Norman Granz’s pre-Norgran/Verve recordings, including Clef. Therefore, sometimes certain titles were released by both labels.

       images © Cross Taro Collection

Clef

images © Cross Taro Collection

(Clef 89132 not available)

COLUMBIA

A premier recording label, the Columbia Phonograph Company was originally the local company run by Edward Easton, distributing and selling Edison phonographs and phonograph cylinders in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Delaware, and derives its name from the District of Columbia, which was its headquarters.

The 78rpm era – On February 25, 1925, Columbia began recording with the new electricrecording process licensed from Western Electric. The new “Viva-tonal” records set a benchmark in tone and clarity unequaled on commercial discs during the “78-rpm” era. In 1926, Columbia acquired OKeh Records and its growing stable of jazz and blues artists.

In 1923 the company was sold to its subsidiary in UK; that in 1931 merged in a new venture called EMI and was forced to sell its American operations to Majestic Radio. At that time, the company in great decline was still producing remarkable records, specially those producued by John Hammond. Those were the days when Billie, under Hammond lead, recorded her first 78rpm in Columbia (see that chapter). However, in 1934 the company was sold to ARC – American Record Corporation. ARC premium label was Brunswick, followed by Vocalion – and this relegated Columbia as a third-class label.

The LP era – In 1938 ARC was bought by CBS – Columbia Broadcast System (curiously co-founded in 1927 by Columbia Records that soon left the society). CBS revived Columbia as its premium label over Brunswick and OKeh over Vocalion. In 1948 Columbia introduced the Long Playing “microgroove” LP record format which rotated at 33⅓ revolutions per minute, to be the standard for the gramophone record for half a century. First Billie album for Columbia was the 10-inch Favourites in 1950.

CBS sold its recording division to Sony in 1988, where Columbia Records remains a premier label.

     images © Cross Taro Collection

Note: the B-sides of 2856D and 2867D are solo instrumental, by Benny Goodman.

COMMODORE

Commodore Records was founded in the spring of 1938 by Milt Gabler in NYC.

After World War II Gabler went to work for Decca Records, and his Commodore label was later used by Decca for reissuing earlier jazz recordings on LP. In the early 1960s a series of Commodore albums were compiled by Gabler and part of the Mainstream label.

           images © Cross Taro Collection

DECCA

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929. Its U.S. label was established in 1934. American Decca embraced the new post-war record formats adopting the LP in 1949. They merged with MCA in 1962.

                        images © Cross Taro Collection

HARMONY

Harmony Records was a label owned by Columbia Records. It was originally used as a label for low-price 78 rpm records in the 1920s and 1930s; subsequently it was revived as a label for budget albums of reissued tracks during the 1950s with nine or ten songs per album. The label was most active during the 1960s and Columbia continued to issue new repackages on the label into the mid-1970s.

 images © Cross Taro Collection

OKEH

Okeh Records (rendered by Sony Music as “OKeh”) began as the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corp., a supplier of phonographs based in the United States of America in 1916, branching out into phonograph records in 1918. From 1926 on, it became a subsidiary of Columbia Records.

              images © Cross Taro Collection

V DISC

The V-Disc project actually began in June 1941, six months before the United States’ involvement in World War II, when Captain Howard Bronson was assigned to the Army’s Recreation and Welfare Section as a musical advisor. Bronson suggested the troops might appreciate a series of records featuring military band music, inspirational records that could motivate soldiers and improve morale. By 1942, the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) sent discs to the troops from eight sources: special recording sessions, concerts, recitals, radio broadcasts, film sound tracks and commercial records. “V” stands for Victory.

These 78rpm discs were manufactured with some special features.The diameter was increased to 12″ instead of the usual 10″ so as to allow reproduction of classical music and the press material used in most discs was vinyl instead of shellac, fragile material that could not withstand the distribution operation.

Eleven BH songs were issued in seven V-discs. However, I will just list five of them (in four discs) as this page is dedicated only to 78rpm original records (other were reissues). All of them were from live recordings.

images © Cross Taro Collection

VOCALION

Vocalion was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Piano Company of New York City, which introduced a retail line of phonographs at the same time. In 1925 the label was acquired by Brunswick Records who used it in its portfolio as a cheaper label. In April 1930, Brunswick Records was sold to Warner Bros then in 1931 to American Record Corporation. ARC kept Brunswick as their flagship until 1939, when ARC was sold to CBS-Columbia Broadcast System.

Columbia discontinued Brunswick label in favor of their own Columbia, as well as OKeh replacing Vocalion, the cheaper ARC label. These two brands were reverted to Warner and sold to Decca in 1941 that revived Brunswick label in 1943.

Vocalion 3000 series

                  images © Cross Taro Collection

Vocalion 4000 series

              images © Cross Taro Collection

Vocalion 5000 series

images © Cross Taro Collection

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