is a
Record Label currently headquartered in the UK, and is a subsidiary of
Universal Music Group . In the
US , its name and logo are now only used on back catalogue, country releases, and re-issues.
Mercury Records was founded in
Chicago, Illinois in
1945 by
Irving Green ,
Berle Adams and
Arthur Talmadge . They were a major force in
Jazz and
Blues ,
Classical Music ,
Rock And Roll , and
Country Music recordings.
Early in the labels history, Mercury opened two pressing plants, one in
Chicago and the other in
St. Louis, Missouri . With the use of automatic presses and providing 24-hour turnaround, they went into direct competition with major recording labels such as
Columbia ,
Decca , and
RCA Victor .
By hiring two promoters,
Tiny Hill and
Jimmy Hilliard , they penetrated the pop market with names such as
Frankie Laine ,
Vic Damone ,
Tony Fontane and
Patti Page .
In
1947 Jack Rael, a musician and publicist/manager, persuaded Mercury to let Patti Page (whom he managed) record a song that had been planned to be done by Vic Damone, ''"Confess."'' The budget was too small for them to hire a second singer to provide the "answer" parts to Page, so at Rael's suggestion she did both voices. This became the first documented example of "overdubbing," and Patti Page became one of the artists best known for the use of this technique.
The company released an enormous number of recordings under the Mercury label as well as its subsidiaries (
Blue Rock Records ,
Cumberland Records ,
EmArcy Records ,
Fontana Records ,
Limelight Records ,
Philips Records ,
Smash Records and
Wing Records ). In addition, they leased and purchased material by independent labels and redistributed them.
Under their own label, Mercury released a variety of recording styles from classical music to psychedelic rock. However, its subsidiaries focused on their own specialized categories of music.
Mercury's jazz division had two distinct and important fathers. John Hammond brought his expertise and connections when Mercury bought Keystone Records in the late 1940s. And Mercury was the issuing company and distributor for Norman Granz's pre-Norgran/Verve recordings. Although both Hammond and Granz had departed Mercury by the mid-50's, they established the company in the jazz world. Mercury, under its Emarcy label, released LPs by many important post-swing and bebop artists including Clifford Brown and Max Roach, Clark Terry, Dinah Washington, Nat and Cannonball Adderley, Ernestine Anderson, Sarah Vaughn, Maynard Ferguson, Jimmy Cleveland, Herb Geller and others. By the early 1960s, Mercury was releasing jazz under the flagship label and was an early leader in the new stereo sound releases. Highlights of the early and mid-60's included albums by Quincy Jones, Buddy Rich, Cannonball Adderley, Charles (then called Charlie) Mingus, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn, Max Roach and others.
In the early 1950s, Norman Granz started his own record company, Norgran, which later became Verve. In an ironic twist, both Mercury and Verve are now owned by Universal Music Group and Mercury's jazz library falls under the Verve division. Since the early 1990s, Verve has reissued many Mercury jazz titles on CD, often taking care to use original master tapes and including session material not included on the original LPs. In addition, Mosaic Records in Stamford CT has issued several box sets spotlighting the Mercury and Verve recordings of various artists including Max Roach, Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie and Buddy Rich.
In 1951, under the direction of recording engineer C. Robert Fine and recording director
David Hall , Mercury Records initiated a recording technique using a single microphone. The first record in this new Mercury Olympian Series was "
Pictures At An Exhibition " performed by
Rafael Kubelík and the
Chicago Symphony . The
NY Times music critic described the sound as "being in the living presence of the orchestra" and Mercury began releasing their classical releases under the 'Living Presence' series' name, which was produced by Mercury vice president Wilma Cozart, who later married Bob Fine. Cozart took over recording director duties in 1953 and also produced the CD reissues of much of the Mercury Living Presence catalog in the 1990s. By the late 50's, the Mercury Living Presence crew included session musical supervisors Harold Lawrence and Clair van Ausdall and associate engineer Robert Eberenz. When Cozart retired in 1964, Lawrence took over the Mercury classical division and continued producing Mercury Living Presence records into 1967.
In 1955, Mercury began using 3 omni-directional microphones to make stereo recordings on 3-track tape. The technique was an expansion on the mono process—center was still paramount. Once the center, single microphone was set, the sides were set to provide the depth and width heard in the stereo recordings. The center mike still fed the mono LP releases, which accompanied stereo LPs into the 1960s. In 1961, Mercury enhanced the three-microphone stereo technique by using 35mm magnetic film instead of half-inch tape for recording. The greater thickness and width of 35mm magnetic film prevented tape layer
Print-through and pre-echo and gained in addition extended frequency range and transient response. The Mercury 'Living Presence' stereo records were mastered directly from the 3-track tapes or films, with a 3-2 mix occurring in the mastering room. The same technique -- and restored vintage equipment of the same type -- was used during the CD reissues. Specifically, 3-track tapes were recorded on Ampex 300-3 1/2" machines at 15 IPS. 35mm magnetic films were made on 3-track Westrex film recorders. The 3-2 mixdown was done on a modified Westrex mixer. For the original LPs, the mixer directly fed the custom cutting chain. At Fine Recording in NY, the Westrex cutter head on a Scully lathe was fed by modified McIntosh 200W tube amplifiers with very little feedback in the system. Older mono records were made with a Miller cutter head. For the CD reissues, the output of the Westrex mixer directly fed a DCS analog-to-digital converter and the CDs were mastered on Sony 1630 tapes. No digital enhancement or noise reduction was used.
In 1961 the Dutch company
Philips Records , having lost its distribution deal with
Columbia Records outside
North America , signed an exchange agreement with Mercury, and Philips subsequently bought Mercury and its subsidiary labels to expand its
US base. In
1962 Philips merged its record operations with
Deutsche Grammophon to become
PolyGram in 1972.
Under PolyGram, Mercury absorbed
Casablanca Records (also home to the
20th Century Records back catalogue), home of heavy metalers
KISS and disco stars
Donna Summer and
Village People , in
1982 and primarily became a rock/pop label with
KISS ,
Scorpions ,
Rush ,
Tears For Fears ,
Bon Jovi ,
Hanson and
Def Leppard .
In late
1998 , PolyGram was bought by
Seagrams , which then absorbed the company into its
Universal Music Group . Under the reorganization, Mercury Records was folded into the newly formed
Island Def Jam Music Group . Mercury's pop roster was predominantly taken over by
Island Records , while its urban found a new home at
Def Jam Records . Mercury's former country unit became
Mercury Nashville Records and is still active as an imprint of
Universal Music Group Nashville . Mercury also continues to operate as a fully functional label in the
UK .
Most recently Mercury Records has been relaunched as a label under
Island Def Jam Music Group . Appointing record executive
David Massey , as the President and CEO of the new venture.
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