Argo Records (UK) - Take Over By Decca, 1957

Take Over By Decca, 1957

Cash flow problems in 1957 meant that the company only survived by being taken over by British Decca, although Usill remained in charge and the company was able to maintain autonomy from the parent company.

The company at this time recorded dramatized versions of Alice in Wonderland (1958) and Through the Looking-Glass, both directed by Douglas Cleverdon and both starring Jane Asher in the title role with actors Tony Church, Norman Shelley and Carleton Hobbs, with Margaretta Scott as the narrator; and Wind in the Willows (1960) with Richard Goolden as Mole, Frank Duncan as Rat, Tony Church as Badger and Norman Shelley as Toad, with Patrick Wymark as the narrator. Another significant recording from this era is the premiere recording of Benjamin Britten's miracle play for children, Noye's Fludde (1961).

A series of actuality recordings of steam locomotives (then in the early stages of being phased out in the UK) was masterminded by the film sound recordist/mixer Peter Handford, selling up to 30-40,000 copies per year under the name Transacord.

Later, the repertoire soon diversified in to modern British jazz, through the poetry and jazz movement of the early 1960s. This meant that recordings by pianist Michael Garrick, were particularly well represented. The radio ballads of Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger originally produced by BBC Radio (1957–70), were leased and issued by Argo from 1965. A small cluster of folk artists joined the label around this time including Tom Paley (with his New Deal String Band), The Druids, The Clutha, The Songwainers and The Garret Singers.

In the 1970s, Decca extended their children's audiobook series The Railway Stories on the Argo label, with six further books (3 LPs) narrated by William Rushton. In 1974, they produced an abridged, dramatic version of The Hobbit, read by Nicol Williamson.

The label passed to PolyGram, when the conglomerate acquired British Decca in 1980. Harley Usill left the company and co-founded ASV. Argo as an independent entity was finally wound up in 1988.