PHILIPS
RECORDS

Philips Records was the record division of the Dutch electrical firm of the same name.  Philips started issuing records in 1950, licensing product from American Columbia; it developed steadily, forming 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, though Demis Roussos and Peters & Lee enjoyed periods of Chart success; happily, the company's Progressive offshoot, Vertigo, weighed in with Status Quo.  Philips was a little slow to change over from 78 rpm to 45 rpm records.  Their first series of 45s were intended for juke box use only, the issues being standard 78s; they were numbered in a JK-1000 series and their labels bore the appropriate marking.  As far as the main popular series is concerned, catalogue numbers seems to have started at PB-100, in the 78 rpm era.  They appeared on the right-hand side of the label; there was an equally large six-figure number, with a 'BF' suffix, on the left-hand side.  The PB-100s had risen into the PB-1200s by the Spring of 1962, at which point they were dropped, the six-figure numbers being used instead.  The main series was 326500-BF, but there were others such as 304000-BF and 324900-BF, which presumably contained material from different sources. This scheme of things lasted for roughly a year; around May 1963 the old numbering was re-adopted, starting in the 1200s where it left off, but the 'BF' was retained, this time as a prefix.  This time around the numbers were on the left-hand side - the six-figure numbers remained, but were in much smaller print.  In 1970 Philips abandoned its prefix / number 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 blocks were used.   These appear to have denoted the origin of the records concerned: for example 6003s were German, 6009s French, and 6012s Dutch.  Philips's main series of singles always had blue labels.  Initially the company name was in comparatively small print, and a process called 'Minigroove' was given prominence; from January / February 1962 the 'Minigroove' disappeared and the name grew slightly.  The name grew again in June 1964, and a grid of lines appeared on the label; this design remained essentially unchanged into the early '70s.  The kind of dinking which results in three prongs (as shown in many of the above) appears to have been peculiar to the Polydor and Philips companies, as were the rather graceful triangular 'spiders' which were supplied with factory-dinked singles - it was common in the early '70s for singles in the Polydor and Philips family labels to be dinked before they left the factory.  The first injection-moulded labels appeared in 1971, and had the same trio of dinking perforations that the old paper label had had; at this stage singles could be found in either paper-labelled or injection moulded form.  At first the 'prohibitions' around the label's edge were inside the outer ring but they soon migrated outside it.  In 1973 injection moulded singles became the norm.  Most came with solid centres but some had large spindle holes and three-pronged 'spiders'; injection moulded singles with 'BF' prefixes are reissues from the mid '70s.  Usually injection-moulded singles were coloured blue, but occasionally silver10) or beige paint was used; Football records led to a couple of other colours being used: a red label graced a tribute single to Manchester United F. C. while a West Ham song was coloured what I suppose was intended to be metallic 'claret'.  Paper labels appeared every now and again as a result of contract pressings done by other firms; the example shown was manufactured by Pye.  The late '50s and the very early '60s saw a 'Musical Gems' series of Classical singles, which had sea-green labels and their own SBF-100 numbers.  Jazz music briefly had its own red-labelled 'Junior Jazz Series' of singles, numbered in the JAZ-100s.  The main series of EPs in the '50s) and early '60s had black labels and numbers in the BBE-12000s; there were two series of Classical EPs, one of which had green labels NBE-11000 numbers, the other purple labels and numbers in the ABE-10000s.  The popular EPs underwent the same kind of number-change in 1962-63 as the singles did, being numbered in the 433600-BFs for that period; they then reverted to the old 12000 numbers but had a 'BE' prefix instead of the old 'BBE' one.  The advent of stereo saw two more sets of numbers: SBBE-9000 for Popular EPs, and SABE-2000 for Classical ones.  Records intended for demonstration purposes had white labels initially, which could be plain or have the details handwritten or printed on them) but 'Sample Record' stickers were also used from early on, being applied to stock copies.  The white label demos disappeared in late 1960 or early 1961.  From around the middle of 1965 into the following year the stickers seem to have been replaced with a rough yellow handstamp reading 'Sample not for sale'. 1969 saw the reintroduction of dedicated promo labels: they were white with a large hollow red 'A'.  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.  A short-lived 'Take 3' series of three-track EPs appeared in 1971 and had its own particular sleeve. Thanks to Robert Lyons For The Info.

  
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6000-000 SERIES 1970-1982 CAN BE FOUND HERE
       
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6006-000 SERIES 1970-1979 CAN BE FOUND HERE
 
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6003-000 SERIES 1970-1980 CAN BE FOUND HERE
 
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6003-000 SERIES 1970-1980 CAN BE FOUND HERE

A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6012-000 SERIES 1970-1980 CAN BE FOUND HERE

A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6015-000 SERIES 1970-1979 CAN BE FOUND HERE

A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6019-000 SERIES 1970-1978 CAN BE FOUND HERE

A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6021-000 SERIES 1970-1982 CAN BE FOUND HERE
 
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6025-000 SERIES 1970-1982 CAN BE FOUND HERE
 
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6028-000 SERIES 1971-1982 CAN BE FOUND HERE

A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6031-000 SERIES 1971-1982 CAN BE FOUND HERE
 
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6037-000 SERIES 1971-1981 CAN BE FOUND HERE

A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6038-000 SERIES 1979-1982 CAN BE FOUND HERE
  
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6042-000 SERIES 1975-1980 CAN BE FOUND HERE

A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6049-000 SERIES 1970-1980 CAN BE FOUND HERE
  
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6051-000 SERIES 1970-1973 CAN BE FOUND HERE
  
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6053-000 SERIES 1970-1982 CAN BE FOUND HERE
73 Ryoko Moriyama  Bright Shines The Light Of Love / Dear John PHILIPS 6058 026
    
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6073-000 SERIES 1970-1976 CAN BE FOUND HERE
    
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6078-000 SERIES 1972-1979 CAN BE FOUND HERE
71 Rameses Balloon PHILIPS  6113 001
71 Greenfield Sweet America PHILIPS  6113 002
71 Rameses Jesus Come Back PHILIPS  6113 003
71 Johnny Hallyday  Oh! Ma Jolie Sarah (Gentle Sarah PHILIPS  6118 001
71 Michel Sardou Je T'Aime, Je T'Aime PHILIPS  6118 002
71 Sim J'Aime Pas Les Rhododendrons / Je Suis Heureux PHILIPS  6118 003
71 Les Parisiennes Yamamoto Kakapote / File Le Temps PHILIPS  6118 004
71 Marc Zarka Quand Un Amour Viendra Frapper à Ma Porte / Reviendra-t-Elle PHILIPS  6118 005
71 Demis Roussos We Shall Dance PHILIPS  6118 006
71 Helena Madanec La Gospoda  PHILIPS  6118 007
71 Phil Group Hum... / Les Fleurs Du Bien, Les Fleurs Du Mal  PHILIPS  6118 008
71 Rika Zaraï Moi Le Dimanche • Deja La Fin De L'ete PHILIPS  6118 009
71 Catherine Le Forestier Le Pays De Ton Corps  PHILIPS  6118 010
71 Anne Richard De L'Air Du Soleil De L'eau  PHILIPS  6118 011
71 Frida Boccara Venise Va Mourir / Pour Vivre Ensemble  PHILIPS  6118 012
71 Not Traced   PHILIPS  6118 013
71 Serge Gainsbourg  Ballade De Melody Nelson / Valse De Melody PHILIPS  6118 014
71 Jean Marie Leoni Le Jour Se Lève ? PHILIPS  6118 015
71 Vincenza Non, T'En Fais Pas / Le temps D'Un Sourire ? PHILIPS  6118 016
71 Serge Lama Superman  PHILIPS  6118 017
71 Samsong Deux Pierres De Silex PHILIPS  6118 018
71 Marianne Feld L' Hymne A L' Homme Homme PHILIPS  6118 019
71 Jean Lefebvre Aimons nous les uns les autres/Moi j'drague pas PHILIPS  6118 020
71 Le Grand Orchestre De Paul Mauriat Anonimo Veneziano PHILIPS  6118 021
71 Romain  Sophie / Mea Culpa PHILIPS  6118 022
71 Sylvette Cabrisseau Je Vis Comme Je Vis / Paco Paquito PHILIPS  6118 023
71 Eros  Rain Train / I Can See It  PHILIPS  6118 024
  
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6146-000 SERIES 1971-1978 CAN BE FOUND HERE

76 Walker Brothers  The Sun Ain'T Gonna Shine Anymore PHILIPS 6160 050
76 The Shangri-Las  Past, Present And Future / Give Him A Great Big Kiss PHILIPS 6160 051
76 The Shangri-Las  Leader Of The Pack / Past Present And Future PHILIPS 6160 051
 
A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6168-000 SERIES 1971-1978 CAN BE FOUND HERE
78 Nana Mouskouri Lieder, Die Die Liebe Schreibt  PHILIPS  6176 001
78 Nana Mouskouri  There's A Time / Roses Love Sunshine PHILIPS  6176 002
78 Nana Mouskouri Un Beau Matin A La Fraiche  PHILIPS  6176 003
78 Not Traced   PHILIPS  6176 004
78 Nana Mouskouri For One Cent  PHILIPS  6176 005
79 Nana Mouskouri For One Cent  (Nickels And Dimes) / Über Nacht  PHILIPS  6176 006
79 Nana Mouskouri C'est Mon Histoire PHILIPS  6176 007
79 Nana Mouskouri Because Summer Was Winter  PHILIPS  6176 008
79 Nana Mouskouri Vivre Au Soleil  PHILIPS  6176 009
79 Nana Mouskouri Die Rose (German Original Version)  PHILIPS  6176 010
75 Not Traced PHILIPS  6196 101
75 Not Traced PHILIPS  6196 102
75 Vittorio Negri Juditha Triumphans .Vivaldi  PHILIPS  6196 103
78 Rodrigo Fanfare Et Fandango PHILIPS  6196 104
78 Not Traced PHILIPS  6196 105
78 Not Traced PHILIPS  6196 106
78 Not Traced PHILIPS  6196 107
78 Not Traced PHILIPS  6196 108
78 Not Traced PHILIPS  6196 109
79 Jessye Norman Great Day PHILIPS  6196 110

A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6198-000 SERIES 1973-1982 CAN BE FOUND HERE
76 Carlos Santana  Going Nowhere PHILIPS  6203 301

A FULL DISCOGRAPHY OF PHILIPS 6832-000 SERIES 1970-1980 CAN BE FOUND HERE
 
72 Dusty Springfield Star Dusty PHILIPS 6850 751
72 Luis Alberto del Parana y Los Paraguayos Los Paraguayos Extraordinaire  PHILIPS 6850 752
77 Mike Harding Born Bad PHILLIPS CLOG 1
79 Mike Harding Disco Vampire PHILLIPS CLOG 2
76 Roussos Demis Forever An Ever PHILLIPS DEMIS 001
77 Roussos Demis Kyrila PHILLIPS DEMIS 002
77 Green Hughie Stand Up And Be Counted PHILLIPS GB 001
78 Sydney Devine Scotland Forever PHILLIPS SCOT 1
78 Sydney Devine Pride Of Bonnie Scotland PHILLIPS SCOT 2
79 Sydney Devine One Day At A Time PHILLIPS SCOT 3
75 National Shinguard Company  I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles; Glory Glory Hallelujah PHILLIPS WEST 1

 

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