Oriole Records (UK) - History

History

The Levy family founded a record shop that also sold bicycles and sewing machines at 19 High Street, Whitechapel, and later moved to 139 High Street. Oriole recorded popular music in England, and also issued masters from the United States Vocalion Records in May and June 1927. The original label was discontinued in 1935.

Jacques Levy produced records starting in 1931 at the West End studios at Rosslyn House, 94-98 Regent Street, London, where they stayed until 1937 when they moved to 73 New Bond Street, with chief engineers Ted Sibbick and Bill Johnson, built into what was once an art gallery. In 1949, they segregated the work and the label, with Oriole Records Ltd moving into 101 New Bond Street, London, and with Levy moving out to a factory at Aston Clinton, near Aylesbury. From 1938 or 1939, David Morris Levy lived nearby at Flat 98, Clarence Gate Gardens, near Baker Street until his 1971 death, and also maintained a residence in Birchington, Kent.

The owner, David Morris Levy, and his brother Jacques (no relation to his Roulette Records namesake) revived the Oriole label in 1950. For a few years (ending in 1955) it was the exclusive UK licensee for the American Mercury Records label, with releases by artists such as Frankie Laine, Vic Damone and Patti Page. These releases appeared first on the Oriole label itself, and later on the Mercury label.

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