RECORDS
American, out of Chicago. Mercury was started in 1945 by Irving Green, Berle Adams and Arthur Talmadge. In Britain it scored a string of successes from 1956-60 with Vocal group The Platters. Pye distributed the label's records from 1956. EMI took over that task in late 1958. The Olympian series which was dedicated to Classical music dates from the EMI period. Mercury was bought by Philips in 1963, and thus became part of Phonodisc in the early '70s, along with its owner. The '70s and '80s brought more Chart hits, with the likes of Rod Stewart, the Bachman Turner Overdrive, 10 c.c., the Steve Miller Band, and Rush registering in the Rock field, while artists such as James & Bobby Purify, the Ohio Players and Don Covay scored in the Soul / Disco area. Mercury continues to release records today, as part of the Universal Music group. Singles in the early '70s had paper labels from 1973 injection-moulded labels were used, in a variety of colours. The paper label from 1978 seems to be a Pye contract pressing. Late 1950s sleeves were red-and-cream. The tartan variety dates from the early '60s; mid '60s ones were pink and white, which evolved into red-and-white. The red-and-white sleeves were printed sideways-on - the opening on the one shown is at the right-hand side. Early '70s company sleeves were soon replaced by standard Phonogram Group ones. Catalogue numbers seem to have started out in the MB-3000s, becoming MT-100s during the Pye years. They changed to AMT-1000s at the time of the move to EMI and then changed again, to MF-800s, when Philips took over. From 1970, when Phonodisc scrapped lettered prefixes and replaced them with numbered ones, Mercury singles were given a 6052-000 series; this lasted until 1974, after which time several different series were used alongside one another, notably 6167-000, 6008-000 and 6007-000. Presumably the different prefixes indicated the place of origin of the record - certainly 6167s appear to be American, while 6007s and 6008s are mainly British. Some releases were considered important enough to be given their own catalogue numbers, with appropriate prefixes - for example, DUSTY-1 was a Dusty Springfield single. The discography below, which has many gaps, Some of the gaps are due to the fact that those numbers were used for records issued abroad. Thanks to Robert Lyons for the info.
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF MERCURY MT SERIES 1956-1958 CAN BE FOUND HERE
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF MERCURY AMT SERIES 1958-1963 CAN BE FOUND HERE
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF MERCURY MF SERIES 1964-1967 CAN BE FOUND HERE
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF MERCURY MF 1000 SERIES 1967-1970 CAN BE FOUND HERE
