The Vocalion Label

[Teasing the Korean]

I always thought this was a Decca subsidiary/budget label.

However, I found a Jo Stafford LP on Vocalion consisting of tracks from the Columbia vaults.

What's the story?

[Stereojack]

I always thought this was a Decca subsidiary/budget label.

However, I found a Jo Stafford LP on Vocalion consisting of tracks from the Columbia vaults.

What's the story?

Do you know for a fact that these are from Columbia, or are you just assuming? I've seen the Vocalion LP many times, and since she never (to my knowledge) recorded for Decca or any of its subsidiaries, I've never been able to pin down where these tracks come from. It seems unlikely that Columbia would have licensed these tracks to Decca, since Columbia had its own budget label, Harmony. My theory is that perhaps she made a few singles for Decca at some point when she was between contracts, and they were compiled onto this LP at a much later date.

[Christiern]

When it comes to Vocalion, a very thin line separated Columbia and Decca. Sometimes, reissue producers inadvertently crossed that line, but neither label did anything about it.

Here's the story.

Edited December 23, 2007 by Christiern

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Vocalion was a record label started up in the US in 1916 by the Aeolian Piano company. It was taken over in 1924 by Brunswick-Balke-Callender, who ran it as their budget label. Brunswick and Vocalion records were sold to Warner Bros in 1930, who sold the labels to ARC in 1932. Brunswick became the main ARC label and Vocalion the main mid-price label. When ARC bought the very ailing Columbia/OkeH from Grigsby-Gronow in 1933, those labels were closed down in favour of Brunswick/Vocalion.

When British Decca started its US subsidiary in 1934, Ted Lewis got Jack Kapp, who was the manager of Bruswick, to run the new company. ARC didn't know, but Kapp had signed most of the best Brunswick artists to himself, personally, rather than to Brunswick records. So those artists and their masters that had been recorded under those arrangements transferred to Decca. CBS bought ARC in 1939 and shut down Brunswick and Vocalion and revived the Columbia and OkeH labels.

Brunswick-Balke-Callender remained in business (bowling alleys) and licensed the trademark Brunswick to WB, then ARC. In the early forties British Decca licensed the Brunswick trade mark from B-B-C; it's not known whether the agreement also included the Vocalion trademark, but I think it probably did. US Decca also licensed the Brunswick trademark for reissues (eventually it became an R&B company).

So what you had, in the thirties, was a bunch of recordings originally issued on Brunswick and Vocalion, some of which passed into the ownership of CBS (Columbia), while others passed into the ownership of US Decca and became available to be reissued in Britain by British Decca. I don't know whether there would have been any Jo Stafford recordings among these as I don't know anything about her career.

Incidentally, in the LP era, British Decca weren't using Vocalion as a budget label as far as I know. They began to use the trademark to replace Vogue in the early '60s. Material from Fantasy and Duke/Peacock (perhaps also some Contemporary albums) was issued on that label at the full price. This may have changed later.

MG

Just seen Chris' post above - I've got a couple of dates wrong.

[Teasing the Korean]

Do you know for a fact that these are from Columbia, or are you just assuming?

Most of the tracks on this album are from "Happy Holiday," and I think a few are from "Ski Trails," both on Columbia.

[Teasing the Korean]

Here are the details:

Happy Holidays - Jo Stafford - Vocalion VL 73856 (enhanced stereo)

Winter Weather

Winter Wonderland

Sleigh Ride

Let it Snow

The Christmas Song

Night Before Xmas

Toyland

O Come Emmanuel

Oh Little Town of Bethlehem

Silent Night

Tracks are mildly rechanneled with mild reverb. Also, it does not have the celeste segues on the Columbia Happy Holidays album.

[Stereojack]

Here are the details:

Happy Holidays - Jo Stafford - Vocalion VL 73856 (enhanced stereo)

Winter Weather

Winter Wonderland

Sleigh Ride

Let it Snow

The Christmas Song

Night Before Xmas

Toyland

O Come Emmanuel

Oh Little Town of Bethlehem

Silent Night

Tracks are mildly rechanneled with mild reverb. Also, it does not have the celeste segues on the Columbia Happy Holidays album.

Obviously Columbia & Decca must've made a deal. The Stafford Vocalion album I've seen a number of times is not a Christmas album, so there are at least two instances of Columbia-owned Stafford material showing up on a "rival" label.

The Vocalion story related by MG refers to recordings made in the late 20's and early 30's, long before Stafford's career. Columbia "owned" the Vocalion & Brunswick names up until about 1939, when they passed to Decca. At that time Columbia switched the Vocalion catalog (lower priced) to Okeh, and the Brunswick (higher priced) to Columbia. Decca revived the Vocalion logo as a budget label in the 1950's-60's. Perhaps there are other instances, but this is the first time I have seen anything but Decca-owned material issued on a Vocalion LP.

[Bluerein]

To add to the confusion.....One of Mike Dutton's labels is also called Vocalion. This label reissues mainly British jazz and popular music from the UK labels Argo/Decca etc.