Columbia Label

There are many labels featuring the Trademark, Columbia.

Columbia UK

The US company, the Columbia Phonograph Company, General, of New York established a branch in Britain in 1900.

Columbia UK had been producing single sided records from a plant at Earlsfield in Surrey since June 1906, and double-sided records eventually appeared on the market in December 1907 (D.68 upwards), although some earlier double-sided issues were made on time with ordinary single-sided Columbia labels and numbers, and later issued as D.1 to D.67.

In December 1909 Columbia UK began issuing records bearing the Rena name.

In October 1910 the Rena label was abandoned, and all records were issued under the Columbia-Rena label, continuing to use the Rena series of numbers. In March 1913 Columbia changed its name to The Columbia Graphophone Company, New York-London. In February 1914 Columbia began issuing budget priced records on the Regal label, and many Columbia titles were re-released on Regal.

In October 1915, the Rena part of the label name was dropped. In wartime 1916, the British Government passed laws banning non-essential imports, stopping flow of all Columbia recordings from the USA, which led to the formation of a British based Columbia company in February 1917 – The Columbia Graphophone Co Ltd . In early 1923 the British company became independent of the American Company. In 1932 EMI was formed by a merger between Columbia and HMV.

Columbia Australia

Columbia began record production in 🔗 🔗 Australia at the Columbia factory in Homebush, Sydney, in late June 1926.

In January, 1930, Columbia announced a reduction in prices for most records, as well as the transferring of some light-blue labelled discs to dark-blue labels. Purple labelled discs were demoted to light-blue, and the purple label was discontinued.

Columbia Graphophone Co. merged with The Gramophone Company (HMV) in 1931, and moved to Columbia’s factory in Homebush.

HELPFUL WEBSITES to assist with Columbia metadata (Opens new windows)
– Discography of American Historical Recordings
– Wikidiscs (Wikidiscs – the 78rpm Discography Database. Index currently lists 110,163 78rpms)
– 45worlds (78rpm pages)

Our database currently features 104 recordings on the ‘Columbia’ label by our users:

Album Cover
Catalog No/s
Compositions
Explore
default_catalog_record_label DX 1260 Ballet Suite – Miracle in the Gorbals (Part 1)
Ballet Suite – Miracle in the Gorbals (Part 2)		 More
DO 69 Te Ariki
Ngaro Noa		 More
default_catalog_record_label 9698 The Balcony Girl – Act 1
The Balcony Girl – Act 2		 More
PRX.2405 Sonata in C Minor – Pt.1
Sonata in C Minor – Pt.2		 More
FE-13 (a) God Save the Queen, (b) Bugle Call ‘Reveille (Infantry), (c) Bugle Call (Last Post)
(a) Advanced Australia Fair, (b) God Defend New Zealand		 More
default_catalog_record_label 37074 On The Boardwalk (In Atlantic City)
You Make Me Feel So Young		 More
default_catalog_record_label DB 989 Silver Hair And Heart Of Gold
‘Round The Bend Of the Road		 More
default_catalog_record_label D.B. 3371 Bill Bailey Won’t You Please Come Home
Farewell To Storyville		 More
default_catalog_record_label D.B. 2419 Ride, Red, Ride
The Gaucho Serenade		 More
default_catalog_record_label 4207 Am I Wasting My Time On You?
I’d Love To Be A Baby Again		 More