HIS MASTER'S VOICE (HMV)

Category: British-owned record label Date: ca. 1909 - present Location: Sydney, NSW (EMI head office) Ownership:  - primary label of The Gramophone Company, 1909-1931 - subsidary label of EMI, 1931-present Staff producers / A&R managers: Joe Halford (1950s - ca.1965)

History

His Master's Voice -- typically referred to by its abbreviation HMV -- is one of the oldest record labels in the world, and HMV's famous "Nipper" trademark is probably the most famous of all label logos. HMV was one of the four main subsidiary labels operated by EMI in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and other countries from the 1930s to the 1970s, alongside the Columbia, Parlophone and Regal Zonophone labels. 

The HMV name originated with EMI's ancestor, The Gramophone Company, which was founded in the UK in 1898. The renowned trademark that gave the label its name is the famous picture of the Jack Russell terrier "Nipper" listening to a gramophone recording of his dead master. The original image was created by English artist Francis Barraud, A.R.A. According to contemporary publicity material, the dog in the picture, Nipper, had originally belonged to Barraud's brother Mark. When Mark Barraud died, Francis inherited Nipper, along with a cylinder phonograph and a number of recordings of Mark's voice. Barraud noted the peculiar interest that the dog took in the recorded voice of his late master and decided to create a painting from it, since sentimental or comical scenes of domestic animals were very popular in the Victorian period.

In early 1899, Barraud applied for copyright of the original painting, using the descriptive working title "Dog looking at and listening to a Phonograph". He was unable to sell the work to any cylinder phonograph company, but later that year The Gramophone Company purchased it, on the condition that Barraud would paint over the cylinder machine and repaint one of the company's disc machines. On the original painting, the overpainted image of the cylinder player can apparently be discerned under the newer paint if viewed in the right light. The image was first used on the company's publicity material in 1900, and numerous additional copies were subsequently commissioned from the artist for various corporate purposes. In all it is thought that Barraud painted around 26 copies of the original image.

In Commonwealth countries, the Gramophone Co. did not use Nipper on its record labels until 1909, when the company started replacing of its earlier 'Recording Angel' trademark with the 'Nipper' image. Some recordings produced during this change-over period feature Nipper on the top half of the label, with a reduced version of the Recording Angel at the bottom, but the Angel logo was soon phased out completely. The Gramophone Co. was never formally called "HMV" or "His Master's Voice" -- except in New Zealand, where its subsidiary traded as His Master's Voice (New Zealand) Ltd -- but the company was typically referred to as HMV because of the trademark. 

Records issued by the Gramophone Co. before February 1908 were generally referred to as "G&Ts", while those after that date are usually called "HMV" records. The Gramophone Co. / EMI was a very productive company, and between 1898 and 1958 it released around 500,000 different 78rpm titles through its various labels -- HMV's venerable British "B" series (1909-1958) includes about 9400 titles.

At the request of the disc gramophone's inventor, Emile Berliner, the American rights to the picture were purchased by his Victor Talking Machine Company. Victor used Nipper as their trademark in the USA, Canada, Latin America and it was also used by Victor of Japan. From 1902 on all Victor records used a simplified drawing based on Barraud's painting, and magazine advertisements urged record buyers to "Look for the dog". When RCA purchased Victor in 1929 it took over the Nipper logo, and this became the RCA Victor logo until the early 1970s. However, in Commonwealth countries (except Canada) the name 'His Master's Voice' and the Nipper logo remained the property of the Gramophone Co. and its subsidiaries. . 

The Gramophone Co. became EMI through a convoluted series of takeovers and divestitures. In 1920 The Gramophone Co. (UK) was taken over by the Victor Talking Machine Company, and in 1927 The Gramophone Co. UK bought a controlling interest in the Carl Lindstrǒm Company of Germany, which owned the Parlophone label. In 1929 Victor was itself taken over by RCA, which thereby gained a controlling interest in The Gramophone Co and ownership of the American rights to the Nipper logo. In 1931 RCA merged The Gramophone Co. with Columbia Graphophone and the Parlophone and the new Anglo-American group was incorporated as Electric & Music Industries Ltd (EMI).

Around 1934 EMI was forced to sell Columbia US because of anti-trust actions taken by its competitors, and in 1935 RCA sold its stake in EMI. Columbia (US) was initially bought by ARC-Brunswick, and this firm in turn was taken over by CBS in 1936. Columbia became the main CBS label in the Americas and Japan. However, EMI retained the rights to the Columbia name in most other territories and it operated Columbia alongside its other labels until 1972, when the label was retired and replaced by the EMI Records label.  The Columbia trademark is now used exclusively by CBS-Sony.

From the 1930s to the 1950s EMI released a wide range of popular and other titles on HMV, including famous recordings of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas. and after 1958 (when 78rpm records were phased out) it took over many artists from EMI's Regal Zonophone label, which was also closed at this time (although it was revived in the late 1960s). In the late 1990s HMV was restructured to become EMI's classical music label, while Parlophone continues to release a wide range of popular music.

HMV in Australasia

The Gramophone Co. opened its first Australian record plant in Erskineville, Sydney in 1925. With record sales booming in the late 1920s, a new and bigger plant was opened at Homebush in 1927, and this became the company's main production and distribution centre in Australia for the next 60 years. The opening of the Homebush complex coincided with the first locally-made titles in HMV's long-running "EA" Australian series. Titles sourced from HMV's enduring British "B" series were also pressed locally, and there were many other local Australian and New Zealand series of varying duration, including 'EB', 'EC', 'ED', 'HR' (NZ), 'LA' and 'TA', a late 1950s children's series pressed on yellow vinyl.

The 1931 merger that created EMI brought HMV, Columbia and Parlophone under the control of one company, and created the new Regal Zonophone label with the merger of the Gramophone Co. subsidiary Regal and the Columbia subsidiary Zonophone. The Gramophone Co. (Australia) continued trading under that name until 1949, and HMV label recordings continued to carry the credit "Made by/for The Gramophone Co. (Australia) Ltd" into the 1950s. Similarly, Columbia records pressed in Australia continued to carry the credit "Made for Columbia Graphophone (Australia) Ltd", and it would appear that the two companies were not formally wound up and absorbed into EMI (Australia) until around 1958, although it is assumed that both became wholly-owned subsidiaries of EMI (UK) after 1931.

From the 1920s to 1958 The Gramophone Co / EMI issued records in Australia through its four main labels -- HMV, Columbia and Parolophone were its full-price labels, and Regal Zonophone was its lower-price label. Thousands of titles were released on these labels; EMI's main archive of 78rpm recordings at its Hayes (UK) headquarters reportedly contains a copy of almost every title ever released -- about 500,000 in all. HMV's venerable "B" series (1909-1958) numbers around 3400 titles alone.

Prior to 1958 most EMI recordings of Australian artists were released on the Regal Zonophone label, which discovered and signed pioneering "hillbilly" (i.e. country) artists like Slim Dusty, Reg Lindsay and Chad Morgan. In 1958 EMI ended production of 78rpm records worldwide and switched to the new vinyl microgroove format. At the same time, the company wound up the old Regal Zonophone label; its last release in Australia was on 1 May 1958. RZ was revived in the UK in the late 1960s and used for acts such as The Move, who were signed to an independent deal with producers Denny Cordell and Tony Visconti, and it continues in use to the present. With the closure of Regal Zonophone, the Australian acts who recorded for the label were moved to either HMV or Columbia; it appears that few if any Australian performers recorded for Parlophone prior to 1964. 

Under the supervision of English-born producer Joe Halford -- A&R manager from the late 1950s until 1965, when he moved to Festival -- HMV recorded many leading Australian and New Zealand popular artists of the early Sixties and helped to launch the careers of several, including Little Pattie and Patsy Ann (Trisha)  Noble. Between 1958 and 1975 HMV recorded many prominent Australian singers and groups including Chad Morgan, Jay Justin, The Chessmen, popular pianist Warren Williams, perennial vocal group The Delltones, Bryan Davies, Dave Bridge, The Allen Brothers, The Denvermen, Lonnie Lee, The Spinning Wheels, The Librettos, Jade Hurley, Buddy England, Grantley Dee, The Mixtures, The Masters Apprentices, The Town Criers, Johnny Farnham and Russell Morris. 

In a business that was heavily dominated by male performers, a notable feature of HMV's Australian roster was the relatively high proprtion of material it released by female performers, beginning with The Shepherd Sisters in 1957, and HMV can claim the credit for laqunching the careers of several of our most successful female singers of the 60s -- Bandstand discovery Patsy Ann Noble, Little Pattie, "Dynamic" Dinah Lee, Lynne Randell, Cheryl Gray (aka Samantha Sang) and Bev Harrell -- as well as Michelle Myers, Robyn Alvarez, Carol Deene, Vicki Forrest, The Taylor Sisters, Anne Reilly, Lynn Fletcher, Ann Sidney and Maggie Jodrell.

Although information on his career is scant, Joe Halford was evidently a multi-talented individual and he contributed musically to many of the songs he produced; he collaborated as a composer with a number of writers and musicians including guitarist Dave Bridge, and in the early Sixties he formed a productive writing partnership with HMV singer Jay Justin, with whom he composed many songs recorded by Justin himself and by several other HMV artists including Patsy Ann Noble, Little Pattie and Robyn Alvarez.

HMV figured prominently in surf music boom of the early Sixties, and especially the shortlived "Stomp" dance craze that swept the country in 1963. They issued Little Pattie's 1963 debut hit "He's My Blonde-Headed, Stompie Wompie, Real Gone Surfer Boy" / "Stompin' At Maroubra", which became a double-sided hit and launched her career. Encouraged by this success, HMV issued eight other local singles in this period with songs that featured the word "stomp" in the title. Other HMV surf-related recordings include The Denvermen's "Surfside", The Dave Bridge Trio LP Surfing Down Under and their 1964 single "Surfie Guitar". On the novelty side, HMV also released the two classic surf singles recorded by that most unlikely of pop singers, Robert Helpmann -- the fabulously awful "Surfer Doll" and its follow-up "Surf Dance" / "Let-A-Go Your Heart". The author of the B-side of this second single was Hawaiian-born composer and businessman Eaton Magoon Jr [9]. Magoon and Helpmann later collborated on the musicals Aloha! and Heathen!

Although the popular Nine network music-variety series Bandstand is strongly associated with Festival Records, several of the so-called "Bandstand Family" recorded for HMV, including Little Pattie, Bryan Davies, Patsy Ann (Trisha) Noble and The Allen Brothers. Another prominent and popular HMV act in this period was the influential Dave Bridge, who was widely regarded as the foremost electric guitarist in Australia at that time.

Another important HMV act of the mid-1960s, sadly not well remembered today, was singer Jay Justin, who recorded a more than a dozen singles, two EPs and three albums for the label between 1963 and 1967. Jay is a particularly interesting performer because he was one of the few solo singers of the period in Australia (Buddy England is another) who also composed his own material; as noted above, many of these songs were co-written with producer Joe Halford.

During 1964 the surf-music craze was overtaken by the onslaught of the "Beat Boom" and the global breakthrough of The Beatles. HMV scored an early lead in the new genre thanks to powerhouse vocalist "Dynamic" Dinah Lee, who had been discovered and signed to HMV in New Zealand. As well as being a pioneer of "Mod" fashion, Dinah's breakthrough 1964 single "Don't You Know Yokomo" made her the first New Zealand female artist (and only the second NZ act after Ray Columbus & The Invaders) to score a pop hit on the Australian Top 40. Her recordings also did much to promote the emerging Jamaican music ska craze in Australia and New Zealand and she was undoubtedly the first local artist to record singles in this new genre.

The following year HMV signed another Mod icon, Melbourne teenager Lynne Randell, who scored a hit with her debut "I'll Come Running". Her early recordings for HMV are highly regarded and are now collector's items for aficionados of the so-called "Northern Soul" genre.

In 1968 EMI Australia ended the separate cataloguing systems used by its house labels and on the labels it distributed, including Capitol, Decca, Deram, London, Stateside and Tamla-Motown. All labels were combined under a single unified numbering system which began at 8301. The '8000' series was presumably chosen because Parlophone's cataloguing, the highest range in use at the time, was numered in the low 8000s. In 1972 EMI closed down the Columbia label and  replaced it with the new EMI Records imprint; the Columbia name was eventually sold back to CBS-Sony, which now owns the trademark worldwide.

Discography

Singles

Australian recordings, 1958-75

EMI unified series (commenced 1968)
EA-9473	Mar. 1971	Fantasy	"Universal Sun" "Suzie"	-
EA-9525	1971	The Masters Apprentices	"Future Of Our Nation" "New Day"	-
EA-9527	1971	The Town Criers	"Laughing Man" "Living In A Dream World"	-
EA-9539	1971	Russell Morris	"Sweet, Sweet Love" "Jail Jonah's Daughter"	-
EA-9554	1971	Graham Chapman	"Sing Along Song" "Scratchin' Ma Head"	-
EA-9567	1971	Sweet Wine	"Summer's Gone" "If I Could Have You Back"	-
EA-9608	1971	The Flying Circus	"Finding My Way" "Ballad Of Sacred Falls"	-
EA-9633	1971	Graham Lister	"Harper Lee" "Wrote A Midnight Song"	-
EA-9639	1971	Hot Cottage	"Made To Love You" "Sour Lovin'"	-
EA-9668	1971	Johnny Farnham and Allison Durbin	"Baby, Without You" "That's Old Fashioned"	-
EA-9709	1971	Johnny Farnham	"The Floor On My Hands" "My Favourite Occupation"	-
EA-9720	1972	The Town Criers	"Love, Love, Love" "Chorus Girl"	-
EA-9824	1972	Russell Morris	"Live With Friends" "Alcohol Farm"	-
EA-9890	1972	Kerrie Biddell and Neil Williams Kerrie Biddell	"Hail All Hail" "My Boy's Different"	from the stage musical Man of Sorrows
EA-9935	1972	Jackie Christian	"Rosy" "You Chose A Fine Time"	-
EA-9978	1972?	The Delltones	"Birmingham" "Tears Began To Fall"	-
EA-9999	1972	Johnny Farnham	"Rock Me Baby" "Nobody's Fool"	-
EA-10030	1972	Russell Morris	"Wings Of An Eagle" "Satisfy You"	-
EA-10050	1973	Carole King	"Back In The World" ?	-
EA-10071	1973	Simon Heath	"Lady Love" "Have You Seen My Rosie"	-
EA-10083	1973	Johnny Farnham	"Everything Is Out Of Season" "It's Up To You"	-
EA-10092	1972	Johnny Farnham	"Don't You Know It's Magic" "Sweet Cherry Wine"	-
EA-10098	1973	Fantasy	"Forty Days Of Rain" "Marrow Song"	-
EA-10147	1974	King Harvest	"Dancing In the Moonlight" "Marty and The Captain"	-

EPs

Albums

References / Links

1. ketupa.net media profiles - EMI
http://www.ketupa.net/emi.htm

2. Wikipedia - HMV
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMV

3. EMI Australia corporate site
http://www.musichead.com.au/site/corpHome.asp

4. Ross Laird / Screensound
The First Wave: Australian Rock & Pop Recordings 1955-1963
The Sixties: Australian Rock & Pop Recordings 1964-1969

5. Globaldog Productions
Australian HMV EA series discography
http://www.globaldogproductions.info/h/hmv-oz-4000series.html
EMI unfiied Australian singles catalogue
http://www.globaldogproductions.info/e/emi-unified-series-oz.html

6. Classical Records in Australia
http://www.qualityrecords.lavalink.com.au/classical%20enter_files/collector.htm

7. HMV 78 record labels
http://www.normanfield.com/hmv.htm

8. Music Australia
http://www.musicaustralia.org

9. Honolulu Advertiser
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2008/Mar/16/bz/hawaii803160335.html
Note: According to this article, the Magoon family are descended from Hawaiian royalty. Eaton Magoon was a well-known Broadway musical composer and his son also composed several musicals in the early 1960s, although he is now chiefly known as a businessman. The Magoon family's fortunes were greatly boosted in 1961 thanks to a remarkable property swap deal, in which they surrendered 34 acres of land to the University of Hawaii in return for a 23,000 acre property (formerly owned by actress Lily Langtree) in what is now the heart of California's the Napa Valley wine country. Interestingly, Eaton Magoon Jr's is in partnership in a Hawaiian wine-growing business with James Cotter, CEO of Reading international, the former railroad company that now owns the Reading cinema chain in California, Australia and New Zealand, and which recently paid almost US$70 million to purchase 15 cinemas in Hawaii and California.

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