His Master's Voice was a British subsidiary label, founded in 1909. It was originally a sub-label of the

Gramophone Company The Gramophone Company Limited (The Gramophone Co. Ltd.), based in the United Kingdom and founded by Emil Berliner, was one of the early recording companies, the parent organisation for the '' His Master's Voice (HMV)'' label, and the Europe ...

releasing classical music. From 1952 to 1967 it also released

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describ ...

and signed American talent for British distribution. From 1967 to 1973, it reverted to being a classical music sub-label again. In 2003 EMI divested the "His Master's Voice" intellectual property to a separate retail business.

History

HMV was founded as a classical label. From December 1899, the predecessor to EMI, the

, had purchased the ''

His Master's Voice His Master's Voice (HMV) was the name of a major British record label created in 1901 by The Gramophone Co. Ltd. The phrase was coined in the late 1890s from the title of a painting by English artist Francis Barraud, which depicted a Jack Russ ...

'' painting from

Francis Barraud Francis James Barraud (16 June 1856 – 29 August 1924) was an English painter. He is best known for his work ''His Master's Voice'', one of the most famous commercial logos in the world, having inspired a music industry trademark used by corpor ...

, and, from 1909, began using the phrase "His Master's Voice" and likeness of

Nipper Nipper (1884 – September 1895) was a dog from Bristol, England, who served as the model for an 1898 painting by Francis Barraud titled '' His Master's Voice''. This image became one of the world's best known trademarks, the famous dog-and- ...

on its releases. In 1921, the Gramophone Company established His Master's Voice as a music retail chain. In 1931, the Gramophone Company merged with

Columbia Graphophone Company Columbia Graphophone Co. Ltd. was one of the earliest gramophone companies in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1917 as an offshoot of the American Columbia Phonograph Company, it became an independent British-owned company in 1922 in a managem ...

to form

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 2012, ...

, with Gramophone Company continuing as a label, and His Master's Voice continuing as a sub-label, under EMI. In 1952 the label entered the

genre, and used a POP number prefix. It also signed American talent such as

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

for British distribution. This continued until 1967, when its domestic pop artists moved to either

Columbia Graphophone Columbia Graphophone Co. Ltd. was one of the earliest gramophone companies in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1917 as an offshoot of the American Columbia Phonograph Company, it became an independent British-owned company in 1922 in a managem ...

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 19 ...

, and American performers were moved to

Stateside Records Stateside Records, styled as $tateside Records, is a British record label, owned by Warner Music Group and operates through its Parlophone and Warner Records imprints. Upon creation, it initially released licensed American recordings and is no ...

, reserving HMV for classical recordings. In July 1973, the Gramophone Company became

EMI Records EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company of the same name in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succ ...

, with His Master's Voice continuing as a sub-label. In 1990, His Master's Voice was replaced for

EMI Classics EMI Classics was a record label founded by Thorn EMI in 1990 to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogues for internationally distributed European classical music, classical music releases. After Thorn EMI demerged ...

. "His Master's Voice" would still be used on occasion releases after this period, but as a throwback as opposed to being a dedicated record label. In 1998 EMI spun off its retail business, becoming its own entity, and in 2003 divested the "His Master's Voice" intellectual property to the retail business.

His Master's Voice POP artist list (1952 to 1967)

The Ames Brothers ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

* Louis Armstrong *

Eddy Arnold Richard Edward Arnold (May 15, 1918 – May 8, 2008) was an American country music singer who performed for six decades. He was a Nashville sound (country/popular music) innovator of the late 1950s, and scored 147 songs on the '' Billboard'' c ...

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* The Blue-Belles *

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Alma Cogan Alma Angela Cohen Cogan (19 May 1932 – 26 October 1966) was an English singer of traditional pop in the 1950s and early 1960s. Dubbed the "Girl with the Giggle in Her Voice", she was the highest paid British female entertainer of her era. C ...

* Jerry Colonna *

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Eddie Fisher Edwin Jack Fisher (August 10, 1928 – September 22, 2010) was an American singer and actor. He was one of the most popular artists during the 1950s, selling millions of records and hosting his own TV show, ''The Eddie Fisher Show''. Actress Eli ...

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, i ...

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* The Highwaymen *

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* Johnny Kidd and the Pirates *

Eartha Kitt Eartha Kitt (born Eartha Mae Keith; January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008) was an American singer and actress known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 recordings of " C'est si bon" and the Christmas novelty song " Santa ...

Julius LaRosa Julius La Rosa (January 2, 1930 – May 12, 2016) was an American traditional popular music singer, who worked in both radio and television beginning in the 1950s. Early years La Rosa was born of Italian-immigrant parents in the Brooklyn borough ...

Steve Lawrence Steve Lawrence (born Sidney Liebowitz; July 8, 1935) is an American singer, comedian and actor, best known as a member of a duo with his wife Eydie Gormé, billed as " Steve and Eydie", and for his performance as Maury Sline, the manager and fri ...

John Leyton John Dudley Leyton (born 17 February 1936) is an English actor and singer. As a singer he is best known for his hit song " Johnny Remember Me" (written by Geoff Goddard and produced by Joe Meek), which reached number one in the UK Singles Cha ...

Manfred Mann Manfred Mann were an English rock band, formed in London and active between 1962 and 1969. The group were named after their keyboardist Manfred Mann, who later led the successful 1970s group Manfred Mann's Earth Band. The band had two diffe ...

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Mickey & Sylvia Mickey & Sylvia was an American R&B duo composed of Mickey Baker and Sylvia Vanderpool, who later became Sylvia Robinson. They are best known for their number-one R&B single " Love Is Strange" in 1957. Baker and Vanterpool began recording tog ...

Jaye P. Morgan Jaye P. Morgan (born Mary Margaret Morgan) is a retired American popular music singer, actress, and game show panelist. Early life Morgan was born in Mancos in Montezuma County in far southwestern Colorado. Her family moved to California by ...

The Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a vari ...

Gene Pitney Gene Francis Alan Pitney (February 17, 1940 – April 5, 2006) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. Pitney charted 16 top-40 hits in the United States, four in the top ten. In the United Kingdom, he had 22 top-40 hit singles, inclu ...

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* Perez Prado *

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Tommy Roe Thomas David "Tommy" Roe (born May 9, 1942) is a retired American rock and pop singer-songwriter. Best-remembered for his hits " Sheila" (1962) and "Dizzy" (1969), Roe was "widely perceived as one of the archetypal bubblegum artists of the lat ...

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* Jimmy Smith *

Kay Starr Katherine Laverne Starks (July 21, 1922 – November 3, 2016), known professionally as Kay Starr, was an American singer who enjoyed considerable success in the late 1940s and 1950s. She was of Iroquois and Irish heritage. Starr performed multip ...

The Swinging Blue Jeans The Swinging Blue Jeans are a four-piece 1960s British Merseybeat band, best known for their hit singles with the HMV label: " Hippy Hippy Shake", " Good Golly Miss Molly", and " You're No Good", issued in 1964. Subsequent singles released t ...

* Philip Upchurch Combo * Danny Williams *

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References

{{Reflist

External links

HMV singles discography including POP seriesHMV POP
45worlds.com 1909 establishments in the United Kingdom 1990 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Classical music record labels EMI Pop record labels