Vocalion Records was a record label active for many years in the United States and in the United Kingdom.

Vocalion was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Piano Company of New York City, which introduced a retail line of phonographs at the same time. The fledgling label first issued single-sided. vertical cut disc records, soon switching to double sided, then switching to the more common lateral cut system in 1920.

Vocalion pressed their discs in a good quality reddish-brown shellac, which set the product apart from the usual black shellac used by other record companies. Advertisements stated that "Vocalion Red Records are best" or "Red Records last longer". However, Vocalion's shellac was really no more durable than good quality black shellac. Vocalion red surfaces are less hardy than contemporary Victor Records. Audio fidelity of Vocalion records are well above average for the era.

In 1925 the label was acquired by Brunswick Records. During the 1920s Vocalion also released "race records" (that is, records recorded by, and marketed to, African Americans; their famous 1000 Series).^[1]

In April 1930, Warner Bros. bought up Brunswick Records. In December 1931, Warner Bros. licensed Brunswick and Vocalion to the American Record Corporation. In 1936 and 1937 Vocalion produced the only recordings of the influential blues artist Robert Johnson.

During the 1925-1930 period, outside of the 1000 'race' series, Brunswick apparently used the Vocalion brand as a specialty label for purposes other than general sale. This is assumed due to the relative rarity of the Vocalion popular series, and the fact that some of the regular Brunswick releases were also put out for sale as Vocalions. This seems to also be an possibily explanation as to why the early 1930's Vocalion are relatively rarer than other ARC records.

By 1935, ARC apparently chose Vocalion to be their flagship cheap priced label, and through 1940, Vocalions proved very popular. ARC was purchased by CBS and Vocalion became a subsidiary of Columbia Records in 1938.

The Vocalion label was discontinued in 1940; those current Vocalion's were reissued as OKeh releases. The name Vocalion was resurrected in the late 1950s by Decca Records (U.S.A.) as a budget label for back-catalog reissues. Decca Records (U.K.) revived the label for a time in the 1960s.

In 1997 the Vocalion brand was brought back for a new series of compact discs produced by Michael Dutton of Dutton Laboratories of Watford, England. This particular label specialises in sonic refurbishments of recordings originally made between the 1920s and 1970s, often leasing original master recordings originally made by Decca and EMI.

Contents 1 Noted recordings 2 See also 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Noted recordings

• How Long, How Long Blues by Leroy Carr
• Sensational Mood by Lloyd Hunter's Serenaders with Victoria Spivey
• Doin' the Jive b/w Dipper Mouth Blues by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra, 1937

[edit] See also

• List of record labels

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• History of Brunswick and Vocalion
• Vocalion compact discs
• "Maybe it's obscure, but if it's good, we'll issue it."