American, formed by songwriter / publisher Aaron Schroeder. Schroeder had enjoyed success with his Musicor label, which he started in 1961 and sold to Art Talmadge in 1964 ('Billboard', 23rd May 1964). After selling Musicor he didn't sit on his laurels. 'Billboard' of the 6th of February 1965 was able to state that his new label, Aurora, had been formed; several artists had already been signed and recorded, and a release schedule was being put together. A distribution agreement with Bell-Amy-Mala had been signed, and the first single was ready to be pushed. The singles duly started flowing. A couple by Eddie Hodges, 'New Orleans' (SS-442; 7/65) and 'Love Minus Zero' (SS-469; 11/65) surfaced in Britain on EMI's Stateside label before the end of 1965, and one by James Galt, 'With My Baby', came out here on Pye in January 1966 (7N-17021).
Aurora's next mention in 'BB' came in the issue of the 30th of March 1968, which reported that the label was to make its bow in Britain 'next month', with distribution by CBS. After visiting the UK and completing the details of the agreement Schroeder had returned to America on the 16th of March with the intention of signing a couple of new artists. Behind him he left Mike Stone, who had been named as 'general professional manager' for both Aurora and publishing company Schroeder Music in London. 'Record Retailer' of the 22nd of March carried the same details, but for some reason nothing happened. Aurora in the USA had a very reduced number of releases by that time - one single in 1967 as against seven in 1966 - which suggests that all was not well, and 1968 was again to see the release of just a solitary single. Nevertheless the prospect of developments in the UK was mentioned by 'RR' of the 27th of November 1968, which put forward the possibility that the plans for Aurora's launch could be finalized at the start of the new year. 'BB' of the 14th of December 1968 confirmed that Schroeder was expected to visit London in January to complete the introduction of Aurora to the UK market via CBS, and finally 'RR' of the 29th of January 1969 was able to announce that Aurora's first single was ready for release and would be available through CBS the following month.
When they at last emerged here, Aurora's singles shared a numerical series with the other CBS labels, sometimes using an 'AU' prefix. Somewhat anti-climactically there were only four of them: three came out in 1969, and a final one was added 1971, which latter qualified the label for this site. Two of them were British productions, two American, but none of them made any impact, as a result of which they are now moderately collectable. The final three were not released in America; in fact Aurora appears to have effectively bitten the dust over there in 1969. 'BB' of the 16th of January 1971 said that the A. Schroeder Music Corporation was looking to launch a new label, but it made no mention of the old one, Aurora. 'BB' of the 23rd of October 1971 was able to put a name to the new label, 'Dove'; it added that the parent company had undergone a change of name to A. Schroeder International, or 'ASI'. Schroeder gave the reasoning behind Dove in 'BB' of the 15th of January 1972, saying that songwriters and publishers needed their own outlet in order to compete in the modern market. Sadly there's no sign of ASI-connected Dove records online, which suggests that the label didn't get very far. Going back to Aurora, one label design served throughout, and there was a company sleeve, which isn't seen very often. Thanks to Dr. Doom of the 45cat site for permission to use his demo scan here.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.