Melodiya Record label history; Riga manufactured company sleeves

Melodiya (Russian: Μелодия, meaning melody) is a Russian (formerly Soviet) record label. It was the state-owned major record company/label of the Soviet Union.

  

It was established in 1964 as the "All-Union Gramophone Record Firm of the USSR Ministry of Culture Melodiya". It utilized gigantic resources of numerous recording studios, manufacturing facilities throughout the USSR as well as powerful centres of distribution and promotion system. The best selling format at the time was 33⅓ and 78 RPM vinyl records. As of 1973 Melodiya released some 1,200 gramophone records with the total circulation of 190-200 million per year and 1 million compact cassettes per year and was exporting its production into more than 70 countries.

The Rolling Stones - Undercover, Rolling Stones CUN 1654361

Undercover is the 17th British and 19th American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1983. After their preceding studio album, Tattoo You, which was mostly patched together from a selection of outtakes, Undercover was their first release of all new recordings in the 1980s. With the advent of the MTV generation, the band attempted to re-invent themselves for a new era.

 

Front cover                                                                      Back cover

P J Harvey - White Chalk, Island 1740335 (UK)

White Chalk is the seventh studio album by English alternative rock musician PJ Harvey, released on 24 September 2007 on Island Records.

Work on the album started in 2006, with producer Flood and John Parish, who also worked on her To Bring You My Love and Is This Desire? albums. Other collaborators on White Chalk are Eric Drew Feldman and Jim White from Dirty Three.

The first single to be released from White Chalk was "When Under Ether" on 17 September 2007 on digital download and 7" vinyl. A second single, "The Piano," was released on 26 November 2007. A third, "The Devil," was released on 7", download, and CD formats in March 2008.

  

Front cover                                                                          Back cover

Nat "King" Cole - Unforgettable/Because Of Rain, Capitol CL.13637

Unforgettable is a popular song written by Irving Gordon. The song's original working title was Uncomparable. The music publishing company asked Irving to change it to Unforgettable. The song was published in 1951.

The most popular version of the song was recorded by Nat King Cole in 1951, with an arrangement written by Nelson Riddle. A non-orchestrated version of the song recorded in 1952 is featured as a bonus track on the CD reissue of 1955's completely instrumental (save the bonus material) Penthouse Serenade. Cole recorded the tune anew in 1961, in a stereo version of the Riddle arrangement, for the album The Nat King Cole Story.

Nat Cole's original recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000.

Bourne Ltd. release

The Rolling Stones - Goat's Head Soup, Rolling Stones COC 59101

Goats Head Soup is the 11th British and 13th American studio album by The Rolling Stones, released in 1973. It featured the song "Angie", which went to #1 as a single in the US and top 5 in the UK.
In November 1972 the band relocated to Kingston, Jamaica's Dynamic Sound Studios. The first track recorded at Dynamic was "Winter", which Mick Taylor said started with "just Mick (Jagger) strumming on a guitar in the studio, and everything falling together from there."

The album's lead single, "Angie", was an unpopular choice as lead single with Atlantic Records which, according to Chess, "wanted another 'Brown Sugar' rather than a ballad." Despite its laid-back sound, many of Goats Head Soup's songs have a darker quality to them, such as the opener "Dancing With Mr. D" (D as in Death). An alternate version can be heard on bootlegs that features a ripping Taylor guitar solo that was not featured on the album version.

 

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Joy Division - Still, Factory FACT40

Still is a compilation album by Joy Division, consisting of previously released and unreleased studio material and a live recording of Joy Division's last concert, performed at Birmingham University. It was released on 8 October 1981, through record label Factory.
The album includes the only time the group ever performed the song "Ceremony" live, which later became a New Order single. Another song featured is a cover of The Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray", recorded at The Moonlight Club in London on 2 April 1980.

  
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R.E.M. - Out Of Time, Warner Bros. 7599-26496-1

Out of Time is the seventh album by the American alternative rock band R.E.M., released on Warner Bros. Records in 1991. With Out of Time R.E.M.'s status grew from that of a cult band to a massive international act. The record topped the album sales charts in both the U.S. and the United Kingdom, spending 109 weeks on American album charts and enjoying two separate spells at the summit, and 183 weeks on the British charts, and spending a single week at the top. The album has sold over four and a half million copies in the US and over 18 million copies worldwide. The album won three Grammy Awards in 1992: one as Best Alternative Music Album, and two for the first single, "Losing My Religion".

 
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Wizzard - Introducing Eddy and the Falcons, Warner Bros. K 56029

Introducing Eddy and the Falcons is the second album by Wizzard. It peaked at No. 19 in the UK album chart – a much better placing than its predecessor, Wizzard Brew.

As with the previous Wizzard album, all songs were composed by Roy Wood. The album had a concept similar to The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, in that the intro 'featured' the appearance on stage of fictional band Eddy & The Falcons. All tracks were written and recorded as tributes to 1950s and early 1960s rock’n’roll greats, "Eddy’s Rock" being a guitar and saxophone instrumental played in the style of Duane Eddy, while "Everyday I Wonder" was similar in sound and approach to Del Shannon’s "Runaway", and "Come Back Karen" did the same for Neil Sedaka’s "Oh! Carol". A particularly clear tribute was to Elvis in "I Dun Lotsa Cryin’ Over You".

 

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Creedence Clearwater Revival - Green River, Liberty LBS 83273

Green River is the third studio album by American rock and roll band Creedence Clearwater Revival, released in August 1969 after their second release Bayou Country which was released in January of the same year (see 1969 in music). In 2003, the album was ranked number 95 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It features two of the band's best-known songs, "Bad Moon Rising" and the title track. The album was remastered and reissued on 180 Gram Vinyl by Analogue Productions in 2006.

 
    Front cover                                                                       Back cover

Keith - 98.6/Ain't Gonna Lie, Mercury 20103 MCL

Keith (born James Barry Keefer, May 17, 1949, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American vocalist. He legally changed his name to Bazza Keefer in 1988, in memory of his mother. Keefer earned his first recording contract with Columbia Records. When Jerry Ross moved across to Mercury Records he took Keefer with him, and the singer soon appeared in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with his solo single, "Ain't Gonna Lie".

 

Cover - front and back with visible flaps

Joni Mitchell - Blue, Reprise K 44128 (UK issue)

Blue (1971) is the fourth album of Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. Exploring the various facets of relationships from infatuation on "A Case of You" to insecurity on "This Flight Tonight", the songs feature simple accompaniments on piano, guitar, and Appalachian dulcimer. Blue was a critical and commercial success, reaching #15 on the Billboard 200 and #3 in the UK Albums Chart. The single "Carey" reached #93 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Despite the success of her first three albums and songs like "Woodstock", the 1970s saw Mitchell make a decision to break from performing. After a tough breakup with her longtime boyfriend Graham Nash she set off on a vacation around Europe, during which she wrote many of the songs that appear on Blue.

  

The Baker Gurvitz Army - The Baker Gurvitz Army, Vertigo 9103 201

Former The Gun and Three Man Army members, Paul and Adrian Gurvitz joined forces with ex-Cream drummer Ginger Baker in 1974. Things had not been going too well for Ginger Baker since the demise of his own band Ginger Baker's Air Force. The Gurvitz Brothers, too, were looking for a new way ahead after the early success of their band The Gun.

Their self-titled debut album featured a blend of hard rock laced with Ginger Baker's drumming. The lengthy "Mad Jack" was that album's outstanding track, and the album hit the US Billboard 200 chart, and peaked at #22 in the UK Albums Chart. The band recorded two more studio albums, Elysian Encounter and Hearts On Fire. However, the death of their manager led to the band breaking up in 1976.

 

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Siouxsie And The Banshees - Join hands, Polydor POLD 5024

Join Hands is the second studio album by English post-punk band Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was released on 7 September 1979, through record label Polydor. The opening track "Poppy Day" is based on John McCrae's poem In Flanders Fields. The poem was written in 1915 after the lost of a friend during a battle in World War I. The poppy reproduced on the sleeve is a symbol of Remembrance Day.

The final track is a studio recording of "The Lord's Prayer", the song that they are famous for playing in their debut live performance at the 100 Club Punk Festival in September 1976. Join Hands was released on 7 September 1979. It reached No. 13 in the UK Albums Chart.

Guitarist John McKay and drummer Kenny Morris left the band shortly after the album's release.

  

Front cover                                                                             Rear cover

Ned Miller - From A Jack To A King/Parade Of Broken Hearts, London 45-HL 9658

From a Jack to a King is a country music song. Originally a crossover hit for artist Ned Miller, who also wrote "Dark Moon," "A Falling Star," and many other country songs. The original version was recorded by Ned Miller. First released in 1957, Ned's version was unsuccessful, until he persuaded his label to re-release it five years later. Upon re-release, the song became a crossover hit, charting in the Top 10 on the Billboard U.S. country (#2), pop (#6), and adult contemporary (#3) charts. In addition, Miller's version reached #1 on the Irish Singles Chart, while peaking at #2 on the UK Singles Chart. Furthermore, it was the sixth most-played single of 1963 in the United Kingdom. Ned's chart success was limited after the song, however, and by the 1970s he stopped recording entirely.

The song was also recorded in 1962 by Jim Reeves on the occasion of his tour to South Africa in August and charted there that year.

 
Original company sleeve

Eddie Cochran - Weekend/Cherished Memories, London 45-HLG 9362

"Weekend" is a song by Eddie Cochran. The song was written by Bill and Doree Post and recorded in April 1959. The song was released posthumously as a single in the UK on London HLG 9362 in June 1961, with "Cherished Memories" as the B side, and rose to number 15 on the charts. In the US it was released on Liberty Records 55389 (with the song "Lonely" as a B side) in December 1961 and did not chart. This was the last single with original material by Eddie Cochran released in the US.
It was covered in 1968 by The Move and appears on their eponymous album.

   
Original company sleeve                                            Demo release with yellow label

Mario Lanza - The Student Prince and The Great Caruso, RCA RB 16113

In 1951, Mario Lanza portrayed Enrico Caruso in The Great Caruso, which proved an astonishing success, though it did not adhere strictly to the facts of Caruso's life. At the same time, Lanza's increasing popularity exposed him to intense criticism by some music critics, including those who had praised his work years earlier. His performance earned him compliments from the subject's son, Enrico Caruso Jr., a tenor in his own right. Shortly before his own death in 1987, Enrico Jr. wrote in Enrico Caruso: My Father and My Family(posthumously published by Amadeus in 1990) that, "I can think of no other tenor, before or since Mario Lanza, who could have risen with comparable success to the challenge of playing Caruso in a screen biography... Lanza was born with one of the dozen or so great tenor voices of the century, with a natural voice placement, an unmistakable and very pleasing timbre, and a nearly infallible musical instinct." He went on to praise Lanza's tempo and phrasing, "flawless" diction, and "impassioned" delivery, adding that, "All are qualities that few singers are born with and others can never attain." In conclusion, he wrote that, "Lanza excelled in both the classical and the light popular repertory, an accomplishment that was beyond even my father's exceptional talents."

In 1952, Lanza was dismissed by MGM after he had pre-recorded the songs for The Student Prince. The reason most frequently cited in the tabloid press at the time was that his recurring weight problem had made it impossible for him to fit into the costumes of the Prince. ^[18] However, as his biographers Cesari and Mannering have established, Lanza was not overweight at the beginning of the production, and it was, in fact, a disagreement with director Curtis Bernhardt over Lanza's singing of one of the songs in the film that led to Lanza walking off the set. MGM refused to replace Bernhardt, and the film was subsequently made with actor Edmund Purdom miming to Lanza's voice. Ironically, the eventual director of the film was Richard Thorpe, the same man whom Lanza had pleaded with MGM to replace Bernhardt, and with whom the tenor had enjoyed an excellent working relationship in The Great Caruso.^[19]

Depressed by his dismissal, and with his self-confidence severely undermined, Lanza became a virtual recluse for more than a year, frequently seeking refuge in alcoholic binges. During this period, Lanza also came very close to bankruptcy as a result of poor investment decisions by his former manager, and his lavish spending habits left him owing about $250,000 in back taxes to the IRS.

  

Alternative covers RCA Victor RB 16113 and RCA RB 16113

Tom Jenkins and The Palm Court Orchestra - The Laughing Violin EP, HMV 7EG 8035

Tom Jenkins was born in Leeds in 1910 and at twenty-five joined the Hastings Municipal Orchestra at their conductor, Julius Harrison’s request. For the next few years he played the odd concerto engagement with the orchestra and followed the usual migratory travels for British orchestral musicians of the time; seasonal spa work and light music. In 1936 he joined J.H. Squire’s very popular Celeste Octet, a launching ground for many string talents, and his employer arranged for him to take lessons from the now London resident Carl Flesch (Jenkins had earlier studied with Edward Maude, leader of the Leeds Symphony Orchestra and with Charles Woodhouse, the long time leader of Henry Wood’s Proms). Jenkins was appointed to lead the orchestra of the Grand Hotel Eastbourne in 1938, which typically comprised a solo violin, two violins, viola, cello, bass, piano and organ/celeste. Prestigious positions followed with the BBC Salon Orchestra and the Grand Hotel, after Albert Sandler’s miserably early death, but the biggest move was a projected one to lead Beecham’s RPO, thwarted by Jenkins’ illness – a lung was removed and, weakened, he took a position as an orchestral player. He died in 1957, like Sandler before him still in his forties.

 

Bellaccord Electro

Bellaccord Electro, generally known as Bellaccord, is a record label founded in Latvia. After the invasion of Latvia by the Soviet Union in 1940, the company produced records under the labels Rīgas skaņuplašu fabrika (1940-41 and 1945-57), Baltija (1957), Līgo (1958-61) and Melodija (1961-64). Company was founded in the spring of 1931 in Riga on Kalntsiema street 40. Its founder was Helmar Rudzītis (Helmārs Rudzītis) - owner of the largest book publishers in Latvia "Gramatu draugs." 

In 1920 the name of Rudzitis echoed over the country - he was the owner of the largest book publishers in Latvia, but later suddenly decided to start a new business. In 1931, to him went a famous Latvian opera singer, who had just returned from a tour in Germany.

"He told me that there is a great excitement about records. "And why don't we start producing records in Latvia? - He suggested to his friend. - In Germany, there are people willing to help."

Premises for the future enterprise were bought soon after - in Kalnciema street 40. It was much more difficult to get modern equipment. In the end, it was bought in Germany sound equipment company Neumann, now engaged in the production of high-quality professional microphones. 

"I came up with the name - "Bellacord - Electro ", - says Rudzītis. - The first word is meant to be a great sounding records, the second - that they are released for the electronic equipment."

However, the first records were far from perfect. Squeak, squeak. Rudzītis  changed one sound engineer after another until he got what he wanted. In 1934 in an exhibition at Stockholm Latvian records were also represented. "And could you play anything?" - Asked the Prince Gustav Albert, who was among the visitors. "Gorgeous" - he said after listening and shook Rudzitis' hand. "I did not wash her for a week", - said the head of the factory.

Quality of Riga records was noticed two years later at an exhibition in Brussels. There the entrepreneur from Latvia met the famous gypsy artist Morfessi, an immigrant from Russia.

On the "Bellacord" label mostly released dance music which then enjoyed the highest demand. As for the songs, in the beginning the company focused on the Latvian audience - national recording artists. Later Rudzītis met Russian Petr Leshchenko and offered to sign for "Bellacord."

The success was enormous. Records with the singer soon resounded around the world: in Bucharest, Berlin, Paris, New York, Shanghai. Experts noted particularly "phonogenic voice," and those envious of Leshenko called him "singer for records" (meaning his skill showed more in a studio than on the stage).

Popularity came not only to him, but also to the authors of his songs: Oscar Strok, Mark Maryanovsky.

In November 1940, the factory was nationalized, but the name «Bellacord Electro» held out after nationalization and was replaced by a featureless RZG (Riga factory records) label only in 1950. Records released in 1940/41 are easily identified by the letters "NU" in the upper part of the label, that stand for "nationalized company", as well as by usage of prerevolutionary (old fashioned) Russian spelling of the inscriptions. Postwar labels contain a notice stating that the record belongs to the relevant ministry. In 1950 the factory was called «Baltija», then «Līgo» - which is a traditional Latvian celebration on the summer solstice - Midsummer Day, similar to Russian Ivan Kupala. Amongst Russian collectors, these labels are called "The Seagull" as the image of the trademark is reminiscent of the bird. In August 1961, the company was renamed «Melodija» Records and released under this label until June 1964. After that all records published in Latvia went under the "Melody" label.

  
Examples of labels as from 1940/41 to 1950

Dave Edmunds - I Knew The Bride/Back To Schooldays, Swan Song SSK 19411

"I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock 'n' Roll)" is a song written by Nick Lowe and first popularized by Dave Edmunds. It was released on Edmunds's 1977 album Get It and a year later in a live version by Nick Lowe's Last Chicken in the Shop on Live Stiffs Live, a compilation released by Stiff Records.

 

Single sold in company sleeve                         Plain sleeve issue

Swan Song Records

Swan Song Records was a record label launched by Led Zeppelin on May 10, 1974. It was managed by Led Zeppelin's manager Peter Grant and was a vehicle for the band to promote its own products as well as sign artists who found it difficult to win contracts with other major labels. The decision to launch the label came after Led Zeppelin's five year contract with Atlantic Records expired at the end of 1973. Atlantic Records ultimately distributed the label's product.