London-UK

London Records - UK - HL series

CAY series - Calypso

L series - predates the HL series
SL 4000 series - export stereo 45s

HL 7000 series - exports

HL 8000 series - began as 78s, 45s added early on
HL 9000 series - 45s and the last of the 78s
HL 10000 series - 45s only

London Records, a subsidiary of Decca Records (UK), released mainly US hits from many labels in the UK. Very few of these records achieved any real success at the time and have became very valuable do to the fact they sold so poorly and subsequently few still exist today.

London Records prefix codes:

Originally "HL" stood for "Home London" but by August 1955 a third variable letter was added, known as the "Export Availability Code". Back in the 50's and 60's collectors of these records could read an ad for the newest batch of releases and (if you were that way inclined) work out which US label had leased it to London. The code was mainly for London's internal use and identified the type of contract they had with the US company for further export purposes.

"A" was all countries except the USA, Canada and South America

"P" was all countries except the USA, Canada and Japan

"E" was Eastern hemisphere, British West Indies and Mexico

However, some of the code letters ended up being attached to a certain US label's product

"S" was Sun and (Sam) Phillips International, "A" was Cadence, "I" was Warwick, "D" was Dot, etc. labels that had long term contracts with London.

"HL" and "HLU" were used for one-off deals with tiny companies or in the case of Liberty, before a long term contract was made making Liberty a "G".