From that point on, it was no stopping Mercury's first subsidiary label, EmArcy the company. In early 1948, Mercury (i.e., the phonetic spelling of the firm's purchased the entire Keynote R &B catalog initials, M.R.C.), was formed in the mid - Eddy to Buddy and in October of that year, Mercury 1950's to produce jazz product. Mercury bought out Majestic Records. That was was the first major label company to key it a very move, since firmly estab- separate and devote an entire division lished company as the fifth leading the to the production and interpretation of record company in America, behind Colum- jazz music. bia, RCA, Capitol and Decca. In fact, those four companies all bid for Majestic, but Bopper to Rod The mid- 1950's proved to be a turning none beat the price Mercury afforded. The deal included old Eddie Howard masters point for the Industry in general with the (worth millions) and led to a Mercury advent of rock and roll. The early rock contract with Howard. came mostly with small labels by black acts, with the majors doing cover versions Hit to Hit From the very start Mercury was aware of these songs and getting the hits. of the impact of radio, and immediately Memory had the million selling "Sh- Boom" went into disc jockey mailing soon after by the Crew Cuts (a cover of the Chords incorporating. version), which several people pin point wenty -five years is a long time if you as the first rock and roll song. I think about it. Just 25 years ago, the In 1948, Mercury got into jazz with United States was recovering from what immediate success through Norman Gran. But Memory's big rock act was the was thought to be the final war. Harry "Jazz at the Philharmonic" multi -volume Platters. Although much of the group's Truman was president and not given set. Volume nine and ten in the series S. music was ballad material, it was with much chance for re-election the following both made Billboard Top 10 LP charts, an emotion that characterized the black year. Israel became a nation. France was the first Mercury albums to do so. vocal groups' sound in the early- 1950's. starting her filleted involvement in Viet- The smoothness and emotion of these nam. In early 1949 Mercury became the second major to enter the LP market, songs (notably the Platters first gold rec- r.p.m. ord, "Only You" plus "Smoke Gets in And 25 years ago, Mercury Record believing that the 12 -inch, 33 1/3 disc would eventually overtake the three Your Eyes" gave the group an appeal to Corp. was formed. Unlike most record or four 78 r.p.m. disc then being com- both the rock and adult audience, practi- companies that appeared or were active bined into one package to form an album. cally unheard of at that time. at that time, its still around, as strong By mid 1949, the company had already as ever. moved 60,000 LP's. The rock hits for Mercury in late 1950's consist of many of the classics of that Actually, Mercury Records was being An historic day came in late September era. Songs like "Sea of Love" by Phil distributed as early as 1945 under the of 1949 when Mercury had the No. 1 and Philips, "Chantilly Lace" by the Big banner of Mercury Radio and Television No. 2 best selling singles (the topper Bopper, "tittle Darlin'" and "The Stroll" Corp., but on March 1, 1947, four sepa- was "You're Breaking My Heart" by Vic by the Diamonds. "The Stroll" was very rate corporations were enclosed under one Damone and No. 2 was "That Lucky Old significant because it's the first record roof -known as Mercury Record Corp. Sun" by Frankie Laine). The following week, just to keep things interesting, the that started a dance craze. two exchanged places and eventually be- came million sellers. After that the com- In 1959, the company formed a Special pany consistently had five to seven rec- Products Division to provide a department ords on the Top 30 survey each week. to sell and promote Mercury's first sub- sidiary pop label, Smash Records, headed up by Charlie Fach, now vice president/ director of A &R for Mercury. Soon after Rod Here hi '48 the formation of Smash Records came the Creative Service Division, formed to In- Sometimes it takes a while for a corporate all the functions designed to service the then burgeoning sales depart- record company to break an artist. ment. Take Rod Stewart. It took Mercury 23 years from the first issue of a Stewart The beginning of the 1960's saw the Memory single to get him a gold rec- formation of the Limelight label which had ord. John Coltrane and Roland Kirk among others replacing EmArcy for jazz product. Actually there's a catch. The first 1960 also saw the startling success of was by Rodney Stewart single a "Running Bear" by Johnny Preston, which Lambert Stewart way back in 1948, one was on the Billboard charts for 27 weeks. year after the formation of Mercury It was also the year of Mercury's first Record Corp. He cut four songs, al- gold album, "The Platters." though only two were ever released: "Gussie G" and " Perido." The tunes were released in December 1948. In 1971, Roderick David Stewart scored a gold single for "Maggie May." At the time of his predecessor's first single, Rod the 2nd, was age three years, eleven months. Eddy Howard

The executive lineup at that time was From 1950 through 1959, Mercury Berle Adams as chairman of the board, Record Corp. garnered 31 million -selling Irving B. Green as president (which he singles, ranging from the now-classic was until 1969), and Art Talmadge as Frankie Leine's "Mule Train" to the vice president. Also serving as cheif ac- historic rocker "Chantilly Lace" by the Richardson). countant at that time was a person re. Big Bopper (J.P. cently discharged from the Army -Irwin Patti Page in 1950 H. Steinberg, current president of Mer- Mercury signed recently returned this time to the cury. (she John Coltrane label's country roster) and it was a prof- itable a5socition for both parties. Ms. The company has been an innovator, Page became the leading female vocalists A period of transition set in during quick to act on various projects, part of in the 1950's and had six gold records 1961, as North American Philips pur- which stems back to the early days which in a five year period from 1950 through saw Memory jump into the record business 1954. chased the company in November. With full force. The company owned its own the purchase brought a licensing agree- pressing facility, and had Its distribution The 1950's also saw the dawn of ment with Philips Records in Europe totally lined up ahead of time so it didn't Mercury's classical division (now 20 years (which continues today under the new old), debuting with a recording of "Pic- have to wait to have product pressed by Phonogram set-up). With the licensing tures at an Exhibition" recorded by the outsiders when the company soon got agreement came the formation of Philips Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The LP was hot. Artist promotions, artists tours, un- Records on Feb. 1, 1962, which went to recorded in "Living Presence" sound and breakable records, well -advanced record- be a major force, not only in the Mercury signaled a new direction in recording tech- ing techniques all came from Mercury niques. organization, but in the industry as, (see separate story). Lou Simon, currently senior vice presi- Memory's first overseas licensee, Pye dent /director of marketing, headed the The company didn't have to wait long Ltd. in London, was also contracted in label. Mercury also gained European prod- to have a hit. Mercury's first million seller the early 1950's, allowing Mercury product uct from Fontana Records through Philips. was in 1947, "That's My Desire" by to be distributed in Europe. In the 1960's, Frankie Laine (who went on to have four of course, Philips of Europe handled the Soon after the sale, Mercury went to The Diamonds other gold records for the company). overseas business for Mercury. a product manager setup for its four

M-4 Anniversary Speciol Sponsored by Mercury Records MAY 27, 1972, BILLBOARD

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