RECORDS
American. The Music Corporation of America was founded in 1924, as a booking agency, by Jules Stern. It began issuing records in 1962, when it bought the US branch of Decca, which included the Coral and Brunswick labels; it brought all three together in 1973, under the MCA name. More acquisitions followed: the ABC group in 1979; Chess in 1985; and Motown in 1988(though they sold it on in 1993). in 1995 MCA itself was bought, by the Seagram company. Segram dropped the MCA name, and rebranded its whole concern as the Universal Music Group. In Britain, the MCA label came on the scene in 1968. After an initial eighteen months of independence, Decca / Selecta started handling its manufacturing and distribution. This arrangement lasted until the start of 1974, when EMI took over. In the last year of the decade the company moved to CBS and sprouted a short-lived offshoot, Infinity. it had had an earlier subsidiary, UNI. during its time at Decca. Several different numbering systems existed: MU-1000 and MUS-1000 in the independent and Decca years, with MK-5000 and MKS-5000 added from.1969 - the 'MK' denoted material of British origin, as opposed to American recordings, while 'S' in both cases indicated that the record was stereophonic. The logo for these MK and MKS singles initially had a 'U.K.' added to it. Under EMI an MCA-100 series was adopted. As can be seen, a variety of different label designs were used in the '70s. The swirly label of the independent years lasted into the Decca era and was used for both the MU-1000 and the MK-5000 series. It was replaced in the second half of 1970 by a 'battleaxe' design; in two-tone blue for the MU/MUS-1000s with occasional plain pale blue exceptions, and in red-and-yellow for the MK/MKS-5000s again, with plain exceptions. A short-lived Country & Western series had a two-tone green label. In the summer of 1971 the 'battleaxe' was succeeded by a striking geometrical design, which served for both series. The MK/MKS-5000 series was abandoned late in 1972, the MU/MUS-1000 series continued from about the same time with a more sober black label. This survived until the move to EMI, when a rainbow-on-black design was brought into use. It remained during the early part of the CBS era. CBS-era demos have a different wording to the EMI ones 'NOT FOR SALE FOR PROMOTIONAL PURPOSES ONLY' as against 'DEMO RECORD NOT FOR SALE'. MCA's product tended to vary over the years: a tendency to Pop in the '60s was followed by a distinctly Disco phase in the late '70s, though Country featured strongly in the company's catalogues. It enjoyed the occasional Top 50 hit in the decade in question - one for Barbara Dickson in 1977, three for Stargard in 1978 - but it seems to have lacked a consistent Singles Chart act during that time.Thanks to Robert Lyons For the info.
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF MCA MCA 100 SERIES 1971-1985 CAN BE FOUND HERE
