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Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the The Island Def Jam Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal Music... Australia. In the United States, Universal Music Group Nashville administers the Mercury Records Nashville label. Mercury Record Corporation was founded in the American city of Chicago in 1945 by Irving Green, Berle Adams and Arthur Talmadge. They were a major force in jazz and blues, classical music, rock and roll, and country music recordings. Early in the label's history, Mercury opened two pressing plants, one in Chicago and the other in St. Louis, Missouri. With the use of automatic presses and providing 24-hour turnaround, they went into direct competition with major recording labels such as Columbia, Decca, and RCA Victor. By hiring two promoters, Tiny Hill and Jimmy Hilliard, they penetrated the pop market with names such as Frankie Laine, Vic Damone, Tony Fontane and Patti Page. Rather than rely on radio airplay, Mercury initially relied to jukeboxes to promote their music.
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Fontana Records is a record label which was started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records; when Philips restructured its music operations it dropped Fontana in favor of Vertigo Records. In the seventies PolyGram acquired the dormant label. The name has also been revived as... independent label distibutor Fontana Distribution. Fontana's U.S. counterpart label was started in 1964 and distributed by Philips US subsidiary Mercury Records. Among the hitmakers were: Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders, The Mindbenders, The Troggs, The New Vaudeville Band and Steam, all of whom had #1 hits on the label. Other successful Fontana artists included The Silkie, Nana Mouskouri and the duo of Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg. Mercury discontinued this label in 1970. Fontana's British division was the UK licensee for Motown Records , Vanguard Records , Mainstream Records and ESP-Disk. As with Philips, labels were blue for singles, black for EPs and LPs. In the UK and Europe, the Fontana label was largely dormant after 1974, although in 1980-81 it was used for releases by Sector 27 and Dennis Bovell.
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