CBS was formed in 1962 as a means of American label Columbia Records releasing their music outside of the United States. Columbia was unable to sell records under their own name due to a trademark issue with EMI who owned the ‘Columbia Graphophone Company.’ Interestingly before 1922 they had been the same company and now both of them have been owned by Sony since the late 80s.
In the early days (starting in 1889) of Columbia Records they sold phonographs and phonograph cylinders. There were constant developments and changes in technology during this period which meant they were selling something new every 5-10 years.
In 1912 the label made the decision to focus only on manufacturing and releasing disc records.
Eventually in 1938 the American company CBS purchased Columbia, hence the use of CBS from 1962-1988 as the label name outside of the states. One of the most important artists for the growth of Columbia through this period was Frank Sinatra who recorded over 200 songs with them.
He was equally instrumental in them pushing the new 331/3 format which was invented by Peter Goldmark - one of their key engineers at the time. Though technically not an LP because it was 10” not 12, the first 331/3 ‘LP’ was a reissue of ‘The Voice of Frank Sinatra.’
Some of the biggest names to release music with Columbia (and therefore CBS in the UK) are Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, Bruce Springsteen and The Psychedelic Furs.
