Philips Records

 Philips Records is a record label that was founded by Dutch electronics company Philips. It was started by "Philips Phonographische Industrie" (PPI) in 1950. Recordings were made with popular artists of various nationalities and also with classical artists from Germany, France and Holland. Philips also distributed recordings made by the US Columbia Records on the European continent. After the separation of English Columbia and American Columbia by the end of 1954, Philips also started distributing original Columbia recordings on the Philips label in Great Britain.

 In the late 1950s Philips created a subsidiary label, Fontana Records, and helped American Columbia Records form CBS Records in 1961, after Columbia formed its own international operations, adopting the name of its then parent CBS. In 1962 Philips Records and Deutsche Grammophon were linked into the Gramophon-Philips Group joint venture (GPG), which later became PolyGram.

Philips also became a major player in the world of rock and pop music in the late 1950s till late 1970s. In the UK, Philips developed a strong popular music roster, signing acts like Marty Wilde, Roy Castle, Anne Shelton, The Four Pennies, Dusty Springfield, and The Walker Brothers. The American pop label was launched in 1962 starting with the R&B single "Gee Baby" by Ben & Bea and showed a comfortability with folk-country, releasing "Makes You Wanna Sigh" by Ross Legacy in 1969. It also played a major part in promoting the garage rock genre and the psyche rock genre in the mid to late 60s, their most successful signing being Blue Cheer.
In the 1970s, Philips decided to turn its attention more to the growing MOR market with artists like Lena Zavaroni, Peters and Lee, and Demis Roussos, as well as issuing novelty records by media personalities like Ed Stewart, Bruce Forsyth, and Chris Hill. In 1972, Philips, Fontana, Mercury Records, and the newly-formed Vertigo Records were amalgamated into a new company called Phonogram Records. In Europe, however, Philips was used on a major basis and it became the outlet for Sire Records in America and distributed a number of punk and new wave bands like Talking Heads, The Ramones, and Radio Birdman, who were signed from Australia. It also released some disco records by Donna Summer and The Village People, as their home label Casablanca Records was not cleared for use in all countries around the world.