![]() ![]() East, Toronto, where they were sandwiched between the 1st and 3rd floors of Coke offices. 1956Ĭapitol moves into 2nd floor offices of the Coka Cola building at 635 Queen St. ![]() Capitol began contracting to RCA plant in Smith Falls, Ontario. July 1,1954Ĭapitol USA terminates it’s relationship with Lockwood Miller and forms «Capitol Record Distributors of Canada Limited» with head office in Toronto, branch office in Montreal and three independent distributors in the west. 1950Īs soon as the early 1950s, Capitol of Canada started pressing different formats, adding 33 RPM LPs and 45 RPM discs to their catalog. Jack Kingston Yodeling Cowboy Capitol C-654. The label had changed from black to purple by the time Canada issued their very first first record 78-101.įor more information on Capitol's early discography, please visit our Early Capitol Records page. Lockwood Miller (a businessman from London, Ontario - originally from L.A.) buys all shares of Regal Records and in June of that year, Capitol of Canada issues its very first record on the now classic purple label (78 rpm). Things went well for Regal and they soon began pressing records for USA labels like REGENT and soon after, in June 1949, they signed the well deserved 5 year contract to press Capitol Records in Canada. The first Regal pressing being # 101 "You Call Everybody Darling / Linger Awhile" by Al Trace actually sold quite enough to gain the attention of other record companies. One quick year later, in August 1948, with only 12 employees, Regal Records started to press 10 inch 78 rpm records. Until Regal was up and running, Capitol Canada remained inactive, but Capitol USA still wanted to put their hand on the Canadian market share, so for the next year and a half or so, they had their records pressed by Musicana, the company where Ken Kerr's associate (Scotty McLachlan) was working until it closed down, leading the way to Regal Records. (not to be confused with the 1914 British label of the same name). They succesfully raised enough money through different investors and found a commercial property in London, Ontario near the railroad tracks, making it easy to ship records once they were pressed. So Ken Kerr and two other associates had the idea to start their own record company, and that way they MIGHT just inherit the contract to press records for Capitol, here in Canada. The project was too good to simply accept its demise that easily. This did not last long however, as the operation was shut down soon after because of Government restrictions on foreign investments. In 1947, Capitol incorporated the Capitol Canada company and hired Ken Kerr, a former Sparton Records sales manager from London, Ontario to run Canadian operations for Capitol, therefore being then, the only Canadian employee of the company. June 1947Ĭapitol USA realized the great potential of the Canadian market, that customers would have the opportunity to buy domestic products instead of paying expensive fees to import their favorite records. The label then featured the classic dome logo we know today. Numbers 186 and 187 for example, both have the "structure label"). The regular use of the "structure label" was dropped after the first 50 or so records (but was used from time to time for around another 50. On this first ever Capitol label, the silver logo on the black label showed the building structure under the word CAPITOL. On July 1st, the company issued 9 different 78 RPMs (from # 101 to 109 - including one of Mercer's records - # 103). The Capitol Records Company was founded in the USA by songwriter Johnny Mercer. Capitol Records of Canada - the corporate history timeline Provided by Steve Clifford and updated by Serge Pelletier with help of the excellent book by Nicholas Jennings: FIFTY YEARS OF MUSIC - THE STORY OF EMI MUSIC CANADA) 1942
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