Decca Records

Decca Records
Parent company	Universal Music Group (UMG)
Founded	1929; 96 years ago (1929)
Founder	Edward Lewis
Distributor(s)	Decca Music Group (UK) Verve Label Group (US) Universal Music Group (International)
Genre	Various
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Location	Kensington, London, United Kingdom
Official website	Decca Records Decca Classics Decca Gold Decca Records US

Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis after his acquisition of a gramophone manufacturer, The Decca Gramophone Company. It set up an American subsidiary under the Decca name, which became an independent company just before the Second World War. The American spin-off became a subsidiary of MCA Inc. in 1962.^[1] Known for its technical innovations, the British parent company grew to become the second most successful recording company in Britain and celebrated fifty years of existence in 1979, shortly before being sold to PolyGram. Both Decca and its former subsidiary were subsequently acquired by Universal Music.

Decca and its American spin-off both built up strong catalogues of popular music. In their first two decades their artists included Gertrude Lawrence, George Formby, Jack Hylton and Vera Lynn in Britain and Bing Crosby, Al Jolson the Andrews Sisters and the Mills Brothers in the US. Later performers in their popular catalogues included in the US Bill Haley & His Comets and Buddy Holly plus in the UK Elvis Presley (licenced from RCA Records), Tommy Steele, Lonnie Donegan, Chuck Berry (licenced from Chess Records), Johnny Cash (licenced from Sun Records), Eddie Cochran (licenced from Liberty Records), and the Rolling Stones.

In the classical sphere, Decca became a major player after the Second World War, building up a large catalogue of symphonic, operatic, chamber and other music. Between 1958 and 1965 the company made what has been widely described as the gramophone's greatest achievement – the first complete recording to be released of Wagner's operatic tetralogy, Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Nibelung's Ring). Decca's advanced technological expertise offered recorded sound of unprecedented realism in the mid-20th century, and it was an early adapter of digital technology.