MERCURY
American, out of Chicago. Mercury was started in
1944 by Irving Green, Berle Adams and Arthur Talmadge. According to a
retrospective in 'Billboard' of the 27th of May 1972 its first records were
released in 1945 in the States, under the banner of The Mercury Radio
And Television Corporation, and it soon had its own pressing facilities - 'BB'
of the 13th of October 1945 noted the opening of a factory in Chicago and said
that, in combination with another in St. Louis, the aim was to manufacture
700,000 records per week. On the 1st of March 1947 various strands of the
business were brought together and The Mercury Record Corporation was formed.
Berle Adams left in 1947 ('BB', 19th July) but Mercury continued to grow, and, as a 'BB' obituary for
Irving Green was to observe, it became 'the first really strong
independent to embrace all repertoire' ('BB', 15th July 2006). It had
interests in Country music from early on, and it took a big step
forward in the R&B field with the purchase of the Keynote catalogue in 1948.
When it bought Majestic Records later that same year it established itself as 'the fifth
largest company in the USA' according to the 1972 'BB'
retrospective. Mercury's interests extended to Classical music: 'BB' of
the 15th of November 1947 reported that it intended to start
a new line in co-operation with Keynote Records, 'Keynote Classics', which would
feature material licensed by Keynote from a Czechoslovakian company called Gramophone. The issues
eventually led to a legal tussle with Capitol, as there was some dispute as to
whether or not Gramophone was entitled to license out material sourced from
German firm Telefunken, Capitol having arranged a similar licensing
deal with the actual Telefunken company. The courts decided in Capitol's favour ('BB', 11th October
1952), and the decision was upheld on appeal ('BB',
23rd April 1955). By that time Mercury had established its own
classical division, which was in its third year of existence. Another
division, devoted to Jazz, was set up in 1954, an advertisement for its first
three releases was featured in 'BB' of the 1st of May.
Looking back, the 1972 'BB' retrospective claimed that the company was the
first to separate out Jazz and devote a whole arm to it. In addition
to Jazz, Mercury was also a force in the area of
Soul and in the 'crossover' ground between the two genres.
Mercury appears to
have been a go-ahead kind of concern, with an eye for new developments. In
1949 it became the second major company to enter the 33 1/3 LP market, and in May
of that year it announced plans to replace shellac with a substance
called 'Mercoplastic', which it had been working on for the past couple of years -
in addition to being the company's president, Green was a plastics engineer, which must have helped
('BB', 7th May). As well as being forward-looking it was also highly successful in the business of selling records.
September 1949 saw the company setting a new record for itself by
occupying both the No.1 and No.2 positions in the Singles chart, and the 1950s were amply
successful, with Mercury enjoying thirty-one million-selling singles ('BB', 27th May 1972). In 1960 another member
of the founding trio, Arthur Talmadge, left - he went to United Artists ('BB', 13th June). He missed out
on the formation of a new label, Smash, for Pop and
other material by lesser-known artists which, the company felt, might have been lost if it had been
issued among all the popular things on the main Mercury label.
There was a change of ownership in the early 1960s. Dutch electrical giant Philips had licensed the
American Columbia label for the UK, but Columbia was eager to
have its product out on its own label. With the prospect of losing the main source of material for its Philips label, Philips looked around to see if an American label was available for purchase. It opened
negotiations with Mercury, and those negotiations were successful. A six-million-dollar deal led to
Mercury being merged with the Consolidated Electronic Industries Corporation, whose controlling stockholder was
the US Philips trust. The arrangement meant that material could
flow in both directions, Mercury gaining British and European
artists from the new parent company while Philips was
able to make use of the artist roster and back
catalogue of its new acquisition. The availability of masters originating with Philips in
Britain eventually led to Mercury putting out records by popular artists such as The Troggs,
The Walker Brothers, Manfred Mann and The Herd in the States. There were
no changes in staff at the time of the takeover, and Irving Green remained
president. From that time onwards Mercury's fortunes were closely tied to
those of Philips / Phonogram / Polygram.
In Britain, selected Mercury records were licensed to Decca initially, and appeared
on the Brunswick label. A switch to
Oriole took place
in 1952, and the following year,
after enjoying a hit with Patti Page's 'That Doggie In
The Window' b/w 'My Jealous Eyes' (Oriole, CB-1156;
3/53), Oriole gave Mercury a label of its own. Its singles were
all in the then-standard 10" 78rpm format but from 1955 a number of 7" 45rpm
EPs came out. In 1954 the two companies joined together to form a new
firm, Oriole-Mercury, in which each took a 50% share. The intention was
to promote material recorded by both of the parent companies, with
Mercury supplying American recordings and having the option of releasing in America
product recorded by Oriole-Mercury. As a contribution to the new firm
Mercury provided additional machinery to expand Oriole's pressing plant at Aston
Clinton ('BB', 15th May 1954). That same year Oriole-Mercury was
responsible for introducing the Embassy label for department store Woolworths.
Embassy specialized in budget-priced cover versions of hits, recorded
quickly and made available in the stores as soon as possible.
'BB' of the 20th of November said that the first singles had
come out the previous week and that they cost a little over half the price of standard singles,
which had led to dealers being worried that
the public would buy them instead of the hit
versions by name artists.
The arrangement with Oriole doesn't seem to have been wholly satisfactory, as 'BB'
of the 26th of November 1955 commented that although the deal had a
year to run there had been rumours about Pye taking over distribution of Mercury's
records. These rumours turned out to be well founded. Mercury's
licensing deal was ended a year early and a long-term manufacture and distribution
deal was signed with Nixa / Pye early in 1956 ('BB', 21st January).
It extended to records on Mercury's
Emarcy and Wing offshoots - Wing was a budget-priced label. Another move, to
EMI, took place in September 1958. This proved to be longer lasting; it didn't
expire until the end of 1963, by which time Mercury had been owned by Philips for a year and a half. In January 1964 Philips at last took over manufacture and distribution, and Mercury
remained welded to its new owner from then on.
Unsurprisingly, given its American
origin and headquarters, much of the material to be found on Mercury was American
in origin. In 1968, however, Philips made an attempt to broaden
its scope. 'Record Retailer' of the 24th of January reported that Mercury
was being given its own division in the UK, and, under the leadership of
Paddy Fleming, was to enjoy a greater measure of independence in
this country. A roster of British artists was already being built
up. Sadly this attempt seem to have been less than successful, and just under
two years later 'RR' of the 20th of December 1969 broke the news that the UK
operation was being closed down. Its various functions were being returned
to Philips, and, according to the article, only American recordings would be
released on Mercury in future. That proved to be not quite the case, as
Rod Stewart records came out among all the American ones, but
until the summer of 1974 he appears to have been the sole British artist to
be regularly featured. There were solitary singles by Eddie Hardin and
Medicine Head in that year, and in 1975 10 c.c. came on board. In 1976
Philips seems to have made another attempt at providing British material for
release on Mercury, this time a more prolonged and more successful
one.
In terms of UK Singles Chart action, Mercury relied heavily on
The Platters in the late 1950s. The Crew Cuts gave the label its biggest
hits of 1954-55, getting to No. 12 with 'Sh-Boom' b/w 'I Spoke Too Soon' (MB-3140;
10/54) and to No.4 with 'Earth Angel' b/w 'Ko Ko Mo' (MB-3202;
4/55), while Freddie Bell & The Bell Boys also hit the No.4 spot with
'Giddy-Up-A-Ding-Dong' b/w 'I Said It And I'm Glad' (MT-122; 9/56). The Platters
scored their first hits in that year, with 'The Great Pretender' b/w 'Only
You' (MT-117; 9/65) and 'My Prayer' b/w 'Heaven On Earth' (MT-120; 11/56) both making
the Top 5. Their next two singles were less successful but they hit
a new high with 'Twilight Time' b/w 'Out Of My Mind' (7MT-214; 5/58) in 1958,
which got to No.3, and finally made it to No. 1 in 1959, 'Smoke Gets
In Your Eyes' b/w 'No Matter What You Are' (AMT-1019; 1/59) doing the
trick. The Diamonds, Big Bopper, Billy Eckstein and Sarah
Vaughan also contributed Top 20 records during that period, The Diamonds
'Faithful And True' b/w 'Little Darlin' (MT-148; 5/57) getting highest by
reaching No.3.
1960 saw the last of The Platters' hits,
but Johnny Burnette supplied two big hits in short order, 'Running Bear' b/w 'My
Heart Knows' (AMT-1079; 1/60) hitting the top spot and 'Cradle Of Love' b/w
'City Of Tears' (AMT-1092; 4/60) falling one short of that. His two
subsequent singles charted but less impressively, and his final hit came in the
same year as his first. Brook Benton added some lesser hits in that year
and again in 1961, but Mercury's next big success came early in 1962 with Leroy Van
Dyke's 'Walk On By' b/w 'My World Is Caving In' (AMT-1166; 12/61), which got to
No.5. Bruce Channel provided another big hit shortly afterwards, his 'Hey!
Baby' b/w 'Dream Girl' (AMT-1171, 3/62) stalling at No.2, but the label was now
lacking a consistent hit-maker. Lesley Gore did well with 'It's My Party'
b/w 'Danny' (AMT-1205; 5/63), which reached No.9, and Julie Rogers improved on
that, hitting No.3 with 'The Wedding' b/w 'The Love Of A Boy' (MF-820;
7/64) and adding a couple of lesser successes with her
follow-ups, but the only other acts to register during 1962-64 were Little
Richard and The Angels, neither of whom broke into the Top 40 with their singles.
The mid- to late-Sixties were a thin
period for Mercury, as far as Chart singles were concerned.
Horst Jankowski's instrumental 'A Walk In The Black Forest' b/w 'Nola' (MF-861;
7/65) was a big hit, getting to the No.3 position, but it
was one of only two in 1965, the other being the final entry from Julie Rogers. 1966 yielded only
a No.48 from Kenny Damon, and 1967 wasn't a great improvement, with hit
singles by Keith and Flatt & Scruggs not getting into the Top 20. The
best that 1968 could offer was a No.19 placing for Roger Miller's 'Little Green
Apples' b/w 'Our little Love' (MF-1021; 3/68) and a No.30 from Aphrodite's Child,
'Rain And Tears' b/w 'Don't Try To Catch A River' (MF-1039; 7/68). 1969 was
even worse, the only Chart single being a reissue of 'Passing Strangers'
b/w 'Always' by Sarah Vaughan & Billy Eckstein (MF-1082; 2/69), which had originally
been a hit twelve years earlier. There were no Mercury Chart entries
at all in 1970, though that year did provide two singles which
eventually turned out to be of great interest: they were the first made for the
company by David Bowie. 'The Prettiest Star' b/w 'Conversation Piece'
(MF-1135; 3/70) and 'Memory Of A Free Festival (Parts 1 and 2)' (6052-026;
6/70) both flopped, as did a third, 'Holy, Holy' b/w 'Black Country
Rock' (6052-049; 1/71), the following year. All three now command
three-figure sums.
Happily for Mercury the remainder of the '70s found them getting back
on track. For a start they found two artists who could be relied upon
for frequent big hits, and another whose popularity was undoubted even if it was
more short-lived. First came Rod Stewart, who, after switching from Phonogram's 'progressive'
offshoot Vertigo, provided both of Mercury's 1971 hits
and two of its three in 1972, finding the No.1 position twice in
the process, first with 'Maggie May' b/w 'Reason To Believe' (6052-097; 7/71), then with its
follow-up, 'You Wear It Well' b/w 'Lost Paraguayos' (6052-171; 8/72). He
followed those five with three more Top Seven entries before departing for
Warner Bros in 1974. Fortunately an adequate replacement was at hand. 10
c.c. joined from Jonathan King's 'UK' label in 1975 and continued the run of successes that they
had enjoyed with that company. Their first single for Mercury, 'Life Is
A Minestrone' b/w 'Channel Swimmer' (6008-010; 3/75) reached the No.7 spot, and
their second, 'I'm Not In Love' b/w 'Good News' (6008-014; 5/75) went all the way
to the top of the Charts. They went on to have five
more singles in the Top Six from 1975-78, including another No.1, 'Dreadlock Holiday' b/w
'Nothing Can Move Me' (6008-035; 7/78). The third act to score
highly in the '70s was the exotic American Disco band Village People.
After three misses with DJM they moved to Mercury in 1978 and
registered a No.1 at their first attempt, in the form of 'Y.M.C.A.' b/w 'The
Women' (6007-192; 11/78). Its follow-up, 'In The Navy' b/w 'Manhattan Woman'
(6007-209; 3/79) did almost as well, making No.2. The Law of
Diminishing Returns set in after that, a No.15 being followed by a couple of
misses, but they bounced back briefly with 'Can't Stop The Music' b/w 'I Love You To Death' (MER-16; 7/80),
which climbed to a respectable No.11 in 1980.
The British Punk phenomenon
didn't make much impression with Mercury, though they did put out records by American
punk bands The Runaways and the New York Dolls, none of which charted. They
had more success with straightforward Rock. In terms of singles successes the Steve Miller Band
didn't do much for them in the '70s, with just 'Rock 'n Me'
b/w 'The Window' (6078-904; 10/76) making any impression on the Charts -
it achieved a No.11 placing - but the band went on
to much better things in the early '80s. Likewise, Rush only managed one Top 40
single in the '70s - in January 1978 - but scored heavily in the following decade. Earlier, Bachman Turner Overdrive had registered twice in 1974, 'You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet' b/w 'Free Wheelin' (6167-025; 10/74)
being the more successful of the two; it climbed to second position
in the Charts. Soul, Funk and Disco provided Mercury with a
steady stream of Chart entries, though apart from the Village People's records they were often in relatively
minor placings. Dee D. Jackson's 'Automatic Lover' b/w 'Didn't Think You'd Do It' (6007-171; 3/78) did
best, reaching the No.4 spot, and James & Bobby Purify, The Bar-Kays,
Hamilton Bohannon, Crown Heights Affair, the Ritchie Family and Kurtis Blow all chipped in. Additionally, in 1979 Kool
& The Gang finally made their Chart breakthrough in
the UK after almost a decade of trying. Their coupling of short and
long versions of 'Ladies Night' (KOOL-7; 10/79) rose as high as No.9, and
more successes followed in the early '80s. There were hits in other
genres, too, in the second half of the decade,
some from British artists as diverse as Twiggy, Lindisfarne,
David Essex and Peter Skellern. As an aside, Mercury can take the credit
for getting the first non-round single into the charts -
initial copies of Richard Myhill's 'It Takes Two To Tango' b/w 'I
Wanna Know Why' (TANGO-1; 3/78) were square, though sadly the
grooves on it followed the usual circular pattern. Later copies were round, were
numbered 6006-167, and were less popular. All in all, the end of the
decade found Mercury in good shape. Its subsequent history is beyond the scope of
this site.
The numbering of Mercury records started
off simple but ended up rather complicated. As far as singles
are concerned, Oriole-era 78s were numbered in an MB-3100 series; this changed to MT-100 with
the move to Pye. Towards the end of Mercury's time with Pye 7"
singles began to appear; the prefix of these gained a '7', becoming 7MT.
The move to EMI led to the introduction of the AMT-1000 series; then when Mercury moved to
Philips the AMT-1000s were replaced by the MF-800s, which eventually grew
into the MF-1100s. Phonodisc introduced seven-figure numbers in 1970, that for Mercury being 6052-000. The final
few MF-1100s had 6052-000 matrix numbers, but those numbers were promoted to catalogue status
with 6052-016. The 6052-000s got as high as 6052-403 towards the end
of 1973, with a few lower numbers coming out in early 1974, and then things
started getting complicated. A 6008-000 series was introduced at the start of
1974, running alongside the 6052-000s; it seems to have covered
much the same ground as the 6052s
at first but was used for singles by 10 c.c. from
1975-79. Then from April to July the 6052 numbers leaped into the 6052-600s, with a
solitary 6052-500 tagged on the end. In August the 6052s were replaced by
a new series, 6167-000, which saw the decade out. Several other series were
used alongside these. In January 1976 a 6007-000 series was introduced, which appears to
have featured material originating with, or licensed by, Mercury in the UK.
A 6078-800 series seems to have been used for records
by the Steve Miller Band, and the 6168-800s for records from De-Lite in
America. The 6160-000s appear to have been reserved for three-track maxi-singles.
Singles - sometimes solitary ones, sometimes a few - also
came in the following series: 6001-110, 6005-000, 6008-100, 6008-600, 6008-800, 6011-000,
6027-000, 6168-100, 6190-000, 6198-100, and 6198-200. Presumably they were sourced from various Philips companies worldwide. At
the end of 1977 'Music Week' revealed that Phonodisc were to trial a return
to letter / number combinations as dealers didn't care for the seven-number ones ('MW',
24th December). Mercury was affected by the change, and from the start of 1978 catalogue numbers
such as 'DUSTY-1' began to appear alongside the various 6000-000s. The trial
must have been successful, because from the start of
1980 Mercury's main series became an MER-0 one.
EPs had several numerical series of their own, but as they didn't last long
enough as a format to be affected by the change to seven-figure numbering their
system is comparatively simple. Oriole Mercurys came in the EP-1-3000
or EP-1-6000s, and Pyes in the MEP-9000s. Initially
EMI had different series for Classical and Popular music and for mono and stereo
recordings: ZEP-10000 for mono Pop, SEZ-19000 for stereo Pop, XEP-9000
for mono Classical and - rather daringly - SEX-1500 for stereo Classical. The final series to be used was a
10000-MCE one, which covered a spectrum from Gospel through Jazz and Country
to Pop. It lasted from 1964 to 1966, after which the EP format
was no longer used.
Turning to the matter of label designs, it can
be seen from the scans above that there were only two basic types, but there was some variety in
them. The Oriole-era EPs had black labels similar to those of the 78rpm singles, except
that the 'Head' logo was smaller and the text 'Extended Play' was added (13). Likewise,
during the Pye years 7" records of both types had blue labels which resembled
those of the 78s, the main differences being that the 'head' moved from the
top to three o'clock and the Pye logo from the bottom to
9 o'clock (1, 14). When Mercury moved to EMI the labels
kept the same basic layout but the label name shrank and was enclosed in a pair
of ellipses. Pop records had black labels (2, 15), while those of the 'Olympian' Classical
series were crimson (16) and those of the 'Emarcy' Jazz series were mid-blue
(17). When Philips took over manufacture, in January 1964, the colour and logo remained unchanged, but
the Philips 'grid' appeared and there were changes in the various legends and typefaces
(3). In December 1968 the logo was simplified slightly: the 'Records' was dropped, along with
one of the ellipses, and the font used
for the label name was simplified (5).
Philips-era singles in the '60s
and early '70s had paper labels. Until late 1968
they were either given three-pronged 'push out' perforations (3) or, more rarely,
were left intact (4). At that point some singles began to
be given large spindle holes and plastic 'spider' adaptors (5); these became
more and more numerous while
the paper labels were still being used. In June 1973 injection moulded labels became
the norm. They came in a variety of
colours. Silver (6) was used for the first few singles, but it was soon replaced by
fawn (7). Metallic silver-blue (8) began to make an occasional appearance at the start of 1978,
and by the end of the year it had replaced the fawn.
Very occasionally singles came in other colours, such as
purple, green, red (9) white (10), and lime green (11). Sometimes the same
single can be found in more than one colour (8, 9), or
with both paper and injection moulded labels (5, 10). Paper labelled singles from
later than 1973 tend to be contract pressings made by other companies. The
one from 1978 (12) seems to have been made by Pye, while the EP with
the white paper label (24) - a product of Phonodisc's Special Products division, made for
Yardley's - looks as though it was manufactured either by EMI or RCA. That scan
appears by courtesy of Robert Bowes.
With
regard to demo records, the white demo
(18) is an EMI pressing and dates from the 1950s; from the start of 1961 EMI
demos had a solid red 'A' across them (19). Early Philips demos had 'Sample
Record' on them either in the
form of a sticker (20) or later a crude yellow hand-stamp, while from early 1969
to early 1971 white labels with the
usual Phonodisc family 'Hollow red A on white label' design (21) were used. After
these were discontinued, smaller 'Sample Record' stickers made an
occasional appearance (22). In the injection moulded period pressings were made of only
a few special promo singles (23).
Several different company sleeves were used. Pye-era
Mercurys came in the common Pye-group sleeve (25). EMI ones from the late
1950s ones were red-and-cream (26), while the
tartan variety (27) dates from the early '60s. The first ones
under Philips were pink and white (28), but they evolved into
red-and-white (29). Initially the red-and-white sleeves were printed sideways-on; the opening on
the one shown is at the right-hand side. Early
'70s company sleeves featured a new design, in brown-and-yellow (30); the colours sometimes shaded towards greeny-brown-and-lemon (31)
or, less commonly, orange-and-yellow (32). Along with those of the
other Phonogram labels these discrete sleeves were replaced by a standard Phonogram Group one
(33) in 1973; the design was changed in 1978 (34). The discography
below, which has many gaps, only covers the 1970s. Most of the gaps are due to
the fact that those numbers were not used for British releases. I have
grouped the various blocks of numbers together, rather than attempting to put
the releases into chronological order.
Copyright 2006 Robert
Lyons.