Decca

Profile: Former stockbroker Edward Lewis formed Decca Records Ltd in the United Kingdom in 1929. By 1939, Decca was the only record company in UK aside from EMI. Within years, it was the second largest record label in the world, calling itself "The Supreme Record Company". A US branch was launched in 1934. This branch was sold off during World War II.

Decca UK started the London Records label to release their material in North America, since they could not use the Decca name there.

The 1970s were disastrous for Decca UK. Although Decca set up the first of the British "progressive" labels, Deram, in 1966, by the time the punk era set in in 1977, Decca had become known primarily as a classical label. Label founder Edward Lewis died in January 1980, and PolyGram acquired the remains of Decca within days of his death.

In 1997, Seagram bought out MCA/Universal, giving them ownership of Decca US. They then acquired Decca UK's parent company PolyGram in 1998, thus consolidating Decca trademark ownership under the new Universal Music Group.

Today, Decca is a leading label for both classical music and Broadway scores. The Decca Music Group also includes the Philips label, and those labels are grouped together with the Deutsche Grammophon and ECM labels into the Universal Classics group.

Labelcode: LC 0171

Contact info for: The Decca Record Company Limited Decca House 9 Albert Embankment London, SE1 UK

URLs: http://www.decca.co.uk/ http://www.deccaclassics.com/