Foundation The origins of the Decca Record Company were not in making records but in making the
gramophones on which to play them. Shortly before the
First World War the first Decca product was offered to the public: the "Decca Dulcephone" a portable gramophone, retailing at two
guineas (£2.10 in decimal currency, and equivalent to about £250 in 2023 terms). It was manufactured by the musical instrument makers Barnett Samuel and Sons Ltd, a company founded in 1869. There are various theories about the derivation of the name "Decca", but the
musicologist Robert Dearling describes it as "a word whose origins are lost".
Edward Lewis, a London
stockbroker, acted for the company, despite his reservations about its business model: Lewis tried to convince Decca's board that the way forward was to expand into record production and manufacture, and recommended buying out the struggling Duophone Record Company in south London, arguing that "with the well-known Decca trademark and ... distributing organization ... a Decca record would surely succeed where others were failing". The first classical recording took place four days later at the
Chenil Galleries in
Chelsea, and featured the
violist Cecil Bonvallot in an arrangement of
J. S. Bach's . Among the fledgling company's releases in its first year were a set of numbers from
William Walton and
Edith Sitwell's
Façade conducted by the composer and recited by Sitwell and
Constant Lambert, and a set of
Handel Concerti grossi conducted by
Ernest Ansermet, who made more than a hundred recordings for Decca between then and 1968. A premiere recording of
Delius's
Sea Drift conducted by
Julian Clifford was in less than ideal sound, but marked Decca's first association with the
baritone Roy Henderson which lasted for the rest of his career.
1930s The
Great Depression of the 1930s hit Decca hard. Lewis, although he remained nominally merely a board member, effectively took over the direction of the company and at his instigation Decca made substantial cuts in the prices of its records. In 1930, Decca acquired the British rights to the German
Polydor label, gaining access to a wide range of classical recordings. During the decade Decca also bought the British rights to the and
Ultraphon catalogues, but sold its French subsidiary to
Edison Bell. Decca bought a majority shareholding in the American
Brunswick Record Company from the
Warner Brothers film studios; its catalogue contained recordings by leading popular artists such as
Bing Crosby,
Guy Lombardo and
Al Jolson. Decca established an American subsidiary, Decca Records US, in 1934, funded and chaired by Lewis and led by
Jack Kapp,
Milton Rackmil and E. F. Stevens. American Decca boosted its presence in the popular market by signing the
Andrews Sisters and the
Mills Brothers. In 1935, the
Compo Company became the Canadian distributor of American Decca recordings. Between 1929 and 1938, record sales in Britain fell by eighty-five per cent, and Lewis sought new ways of keeping Decca afloat. He signed popular artists such as the singers
Gertrude Lawrence and
George Formby, the best-selling dance-band leader
Jack Hylton and the singer
Vera Lynn, who later became the first non-American singer to top the
Billboard charts. In 1935, Decca made the first recording of Walton's
First Symphony and in the same year lured
Sir Henry Wood away from
EMI, although he later returned there. Other classical artists recruited by the company included the newly formed
Boyd Neel Orchestra in 1934, followed by the
Griller Quartet in 1935 and
Clifford Curzon in 1937. Lewis's biographer
Peter Martland writes that "through a combination of Lewis's adroitness, good luck, and a gradual upturn in the global economy, by the time the
Second World War broke out in 1939, it appeared that Decca had weathered the storm". The American offshoot of Decca was less affected by the war than the British company. It bought out Warner Brothers' residual stake in Brunswick and floated as an independent company on the New York Stock Exchange in 1942. The company's popular music catalogue now included recordings by, among others, the
Ink Spots,
Jimmy Dorsey,
Judy Garland,
Count Basie,
Louis Armstrong and
Ella Fitzgerald. American Decca pioneered original cast albums of musicals with the Broadway cast of
Oklahoma! in 1943, and other shows followed, including
Carousel,
Annie Get Your Gun,
Guys and Dolls and
The King and I. The company's publicity manager, Francis Attwood, suggested a new trademark consisting of the letters "ffrr" coming out of a human ear. This was adopted and Lewis later observed that Attwood's design was "to become of immense value". The dramatically enhanced frequency range now possible prompted Decca to move its main London recording venue from the
West Hampstead studios to the acoustically superb
Kingsway Hall in 1944. Ansermet conducted what Dearling calls "the first important ffrr release",
Stravinsky's
Petrushka, recorded there in February 1946. Another technical advance that greatly benefited Decca was the invention of the
long-playing record (LP), pressed on vinyl rather than shellac and playing for five times longer than
78 r.p.m. discs. The technology was pioneered in the US by
Columbia Records, and in Europe by Decca. From 1948 to 1950, Decca concentrated its efforts on exporting LPs for the American market, and it was not until June 1950 that Decca LPs became available in Britain. The playing time of LP made recordings of complete operas considerably more viable than hitherto, and Decca recorded
Mozart's (The Seraglio) in Vienna in June 1950 and
Wagner's four-and-a-half-hour (The Mastersingers) in 1951–52. Decca's main British rival, EMI, comprising the
Columbia,
His Master's Voice and
Parlophone labels, lagged behind, having initially reached the conclusion that there was no future in LP, devoting itself instead to an unsuccessful two-year attempt to perpetuate the 78 format. Most recording contracts had expired or lapsed during the war, and consequently many eminent artists, previously exclusive to rival labels, could be enticed by Decca's technical edge. The company instituted an ambitious programme of international classical recordings in many European centres, building up an artist roster comparable with those of its pre-war competitors. For the first time since the 1930s, Decca was able to resume full-price releases. A mainstay of the orchestral catalogue was provided by Ansermet and his
Suisse Romande Orchestra in
Geneva, who recorded for Decca from 1949 to 1968.
Peter Pears signed with the company in 1944,
Kathleen Ferrier in 1946,
Julius Katchen in 1947 and the
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company – hitherto exclusive to EMI – in 1949. In 1950, the
Vienna Philharmonic, also contracted to EMI until then, entered into an exclusive contract with Decca. Other former EMI artists who joined Decca were
Wilhelm Backhaus and
Wilhelm Kempff. In 1947, Lewis, finding the now independent US Decca uncooperative in distributing British recordings, set up a new American subsidiary,
London Records.
1950s Despite having the Vienna Philharmonic under contract, Decca began the decade at a disadvantage to EMI so far as orchestral recordings were concerned. On the
His Master's Voice label EMI had
Sir Thomas Beecham's
Royal Philharmonic and on Columbia
Walter Legge's
Philharmonia. The London orchestras available to Decca were the
London Symphony Orchestra and
London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), described by Decca's discographer Philip Stuart as "in rather run-down condition in the post-war years". Among the Decca recordings with the LPO is a cycle of
Vaughan Williams's symphonies, conducted by
Sir Adrian Boult in the presence of the composer between 1952 and 1956. The Vienna Philharmonic recording of conducted by
Josef Krips with singers from the
Vienna State Opera was the first of a long series of opera recordings.
Stereophony – a system for recording and reproducing sound using separate microphones feeding separate loudspeakers in playback to give a spatial effect – had been known for many years and had been used in the cinema from the 1930s. When the prospect emerged in the mid-1950s that domestic equipment could be manufactured to reproduce stereophonic recordings, Decca began recording in stereo, first in Geneva on 13 May 1954, experimentally in London from December 1954, and in Vienna from April 1955. Decca's first stereo recording, produced by
James Walker, was
Rimsky-Korsakov's
Antar symphonic suite. The producer
John Culshaw was a strong advocate of stereophony, but not all his Decca colleagues agreed. Launching stereophonic recordings only five or so years after the introduction of LPs would require considerable fresh outlay by record producers and purchasers alike: the former needing to re-record all their back catalogues and the latter to buy new playback equipment. It was not until 1958 that Decca began issuing stereo recordings, both in Britain and in the US. In popular music American Decca assembled a substantial list of performers in the 1950s, including
Bill Haley & His Comets – whose 1954 "Rock Around The Clock" was a big success, and
Buddy Holly. British Decca had
Tommy Steele and
Lonnie Donegan. British Decca also licensed from independent record companies
Chuck Berry,
Johnny Cash,
Eddie Cochran and
Jerry Lee Lewis which were issued in the UK on the London label. The acts from American Decca and its
Coral Records subsidiary were issued by British Decca on
Brunswick Records and Coral. British Decca also issued licensed American records on the London label. Beginning in 1951 the independent American Decca, led by Rackmil, bought shares in
Universal Pictures, holding a controlling interest by 1954. An agreement between the two companies allowed artists exclusive to one label to record for the other, and Decca producers and engineers made nearly 200 recordings in Europe to be sold under the RCA label. Artists thus recorded included
Pierre Monteux,
Arthur Rubinstein,
Leopold Stokowski,
Jascha Heifetz,
Joan Sutherland,
Birgit Nilsson and
André Previn. Decca production teams also worked on recording sessions for the company's subsidiary but largely autonomous labels
Argo and, later,
Oiseau-Lyre. Also in 1951 American Decca bought its Canadian distributor the Compo Company. American Decca actively re-entered the classical music field in 1950 with distribution deals from
Deutsche Grammophon and
Parlophone. American Decca began issuing its classical music recordings in 1956 when
Israel Horowitz joined Decca to head its classical music operations. To further American Decca's dedication to serious music, in August 1950, Rackmill announced the release of a new series of disks to be known as the "Decca Gold Label Series" which was to be devoted to "symphonies, concertos, chamber music, opera, songs and choral music." American and European artists were to be the performers. Among the classical recordings released on Decca's "Gold Label" series were albums by
Leroy Anderson, the
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conducted by
Max Rudolf and guitarist
Andrés Segovia.
1960s In the 1960s Decca consolidated its position as the only British record company to rival EMI. By the end of the decade Decca had 22.8 per cent of the British LP market, second only to EMI, which had 26.5 per cent. Technically it surpassed its competitor – in 1965
The Times commented that Decca's engineers were incomparable – and it had expanded its overseas operations to include not only the completion of the
Ring cycle but extensive repertoire from
Karl Münchinger and the
Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in baroque music, Solti and
Tullio Serafin in Italian operas with the
Santa Cecilia Academy Chorus and Orchestra, Sutherland in the repertoire, and the Vienna Philharmonic in operatic and purely orchestral works with
Herbert von Karajan and in a
Beethoven cycle conducted by
Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt.
Luciano Pavarotti made his first recordings in 1964. Legge's Philharmonia became the self-governing New Philharmonia in the same year, and made more than 70 Decca recordings, with conductors including
Benjamin Britten, Stokowski,
Carlo Maria Giulini and
Claudio Abbado. Britten, both as pianist and conductor, maintained a long association with Decca, recording most of his major works as well as those of other composers. Culshaw left the company in 1967 to become head of music for BBC Television, but Decca had a team of experienced producers to replace him, including
Erik Smith,
Christopher Raeburn and
James Mallinson. In 1962 MCA completed its acquisition of Decca Records Inc. with American Decca stock exchanged for MCA stock to American Decca stockholders. In popular music British Decca missed some opportunities in the 1960s, including blocking the release of
Ray Peterson's "
Tell Laura I Love Her" in 1960, and rejecting
the Beatles in 1962. According to legend the Decca executive
Dick Rowe told the group's manager, "Guitar groups are on the way out", but in fact the Beatles auditioned for Rowe's assistant,
Mike Smith, who – as his opposite numbers at
His Master's Voice and Columbia had already done – turned the group down. The Beatles were later taken up by
George Martin of the small
Parlophone branch of EMI. Decca did not repeat the mistake with
the Rolling Stones, whom the company signed up in 1963. In 1966, Decca set up a "progressive" subsidiary,
Deram Records, which became home to bands such as the
Moody Blues, whose
Days of Future Passed became one of the best-selling albums of its time. Others recording for Deram in the 1960s were
Amen Corner,
Chicken Shack and
Ten Years After. Decca lost an important source of American recordings when
Atlantic Records switched British distribution to
Polydor Records in 1966, so that Atlantic could gain access to a greater number of British artists. In 1966 the American entity Decca Records Inc was dissolved and from that point on, Decca Records was a division of MCA Inc. In 1968 American Decca parent MCA founded
MCA Records in the UK which took over the handling of American Decca material as well as MCA's sister labels
Kapp Records and
Uni Records. In 1969 Decca Records released the album
From Genesis to Revelation which was the debut album of British progressive rock band
Genesis.
1970s In 1970 American Decca's Canadian subsidiary the Compo Company was reorganized into MCA Records (Canada). British Decca's fortunes declined during the 1970s. Lewis and his principal associate Maurice Rosengarten were growing old and less interested in new talent. Culshaw cited as an example Rosengarten's opposition in the previous decade to the signing of Pavarotti because it might upset the ageing tenor
Mario del Monaco, who had been recording for British Decca since 1952. The producer
Hugh Mendl had attempted at the end of the 1960s to convince Lewis that the company needed some modernisation of its structure and practices, but Lewis thought Mendl's ideas revolutionary and nothing was done. on the classical side the company launched two new labels in 1974. James Mallinson's "Headline" series was devoted to contemporary music and during the rest of the 1970s issued recordings of works by, among others,
Berio,
Birtwistle,
Cage,
Henze,
Ligeti,
Maxwell Davies,
Takemitsu and
Xenakis. The "
Florilegium" label was dedicated to early music, in competition with
Archiv and
Das Alte Werk. During 1979, the new system was used in Tel Aviv from March, the US from April, London from June, and Geneva from December. It superseded analogue in the US by late 1979, and elsewhere by mid-1981. In May 1979, Decca made the world's first digital recording of an opera,
Fidelio, conducted by Solti with his
Chicago forces. In the 1970s British Decca's popular catalogue had fewer substantial additions than previously. The Rolling Stones left to set up their own label in 1971 and the Moody Blues were the only international rock act that continued to record for Decca. Among the company's major commercial successes of the decade was
Dana's two-million selling single, "
All Kinds of Everything", issued on British Decca's subsidiary label
Rex Records. New recordings by artists familiar from the previous decade, including
the Bachelors,
Val Doonican, and
Engelbert Humperdinck, continued to sell well. In the
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Peter Martland writes of Lewis: "Like many who create, build, and retain close personal control over large enterprises, Lewis was unable to appoint a successor or relinquish control of the business. As a consequence, in 1980, days before his death, the business, then in the grip of a serious financial crisis, was sold". American Decca also shut down its classical music department in 1971. In 1973 MCA Records consolidated its three American labels, Decca, Kapp and Uni and were absorbed into the MCA label. They hired veteran US Decca producer
Milt Gabler to supervise the reissue of albums originally issued on the three labels on the MCA label.
1980 onwards After being absorbed by PolyGram British Decca continued as a separate label. It concentrated chiefly on the classical and
crossover repertoires. During the 1980s there was some activity in popular music, with hits from
Bananarama,
Bronski Beat,
the Communards and
Fine Young Cannibals, Among Decca's later classical signings are the cellist
Sheku Kanneh-Mason and the pianist
Benjamin Grosvenor. Both British Decca and American Decca have come under the proprietorship of a single owner. PolyGram, which bought British Decca in 1980, and MCA, which bought American Decca twenty years earlier, merged and became
Universal Music Group in 1999. The consolidation combining both American and British Decca under one parent company led to the shutdown of the Decca country music label in the USA and the
London Records classical music arm renamed Decca Records in North America in February 1999. The Western classical-music catalogue of
Philips Records, also owned by Universal, was merged with British Decca's. In 2011 Universal donated 200,000 of its American Decca master recordings from the 1920s to the 1940s to the United States
Library of Congress. In 2017 Universal Music revived the
Decca Gold American classical music label under the management of the
Verve Label Group. ==See also==