RECORDS
Philips started issuing records in 1950, and formed a subsidiary, Fontana, in 1957, and buying Mercury Records in 1963. Philips Electrical linked up with Siemens (Deutsche Grammophon / Polydor) in 1962, to form the Gramophon Philips Group; 1972 saw that relationship brought closer, when GPG evolved into Polygram. At that time the Philips-related labels were brought together under the 'Phonogram' umbrella. Phonogram and Polydor retained separate management staff until 1981. Philips Records flourished in the '50s and early '60s, both in the field of Classical music and - thanks to such artists as Doris Day, Marty Wilde, Frankie Laine, and Frankie Vaughan - in the field of Pop. The Four Seasons, the Walker Brothers and Dusty Springfield kept the successes coming in throughout the '60s, but in the decade with which this site is concerned the Philips label as such lacked any consistent hit-makers; happily, the company's Progressive offshoot, Vertigo, weighed in with Status Quo. Catalogue numbers seems to have started at PB-100, in the 78 rpm era; at some point in 1963 the prefix changed to BF, though the numerical sequence continued. In 1970 Philips abandoned its old numbering system and started issuing singles with seven-digit catalogue numbers, the first number of the seven being '6'; the other Phonogram labels also did this. Most Philips singles were numbered in the 6006-000s, but lots of other prefixes were used. These appear to have denoted the origin of the records concerned: for example 6003s were German, 6009s French, and 6012s Dutch. The label design remained essentially unchanged throughout the '50s, '60s and '70s; the black labels were used for EPs in the late '50s and early '60s, while the injection-moulded ones first saw the light of day in the early '70s, when all of the Polydor and Phonogram labels went that way. A few 'BF' prefixed singles were reissued in injection-moulded form in the mid '70s. There was a green-labelled Classical series in the late '50s and early '60s. Philips singles from the early '70s had a purple sleeve those from the mid and late '70s shared a corporate Phonogram sleeve with the company's other labels The kind of dinking which results in three prongs appears to have been peculiar to the Philips and Polydor companies, as were the rather graceful triangular 'spiders' which were supplied with factory-dinked singles. some of The discography below are incomplete. Some of the gaps are due to numbers being used for overseas releases. Thanks to Robert Lyons for the info.
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS PB 100 SERIES 1953-1960 CAN BE FOUND HERE
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS PB-BF 1000 SERIES 1960-1970 CAN BE FOUND HERE
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS BBE-BE 12000 SERIES 1954-1968 CAN BE FOUND HERE
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS PHONOGRAM 6006 SERIES CAN BE FOUND HERE
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS JAZ SERIES 1959-1960 CAN BE FOUND HERE
