The British pound sign "£" is ,in fact, the archaic form of the letter “L” letter  and that letter on the Parlophone label logo stands for “Lindstom”

In 1896 Parlophon(e)  was founded in Germany by The Carl Lindstrom Company.

During WW1  the Transoceanic Trading Company was set up in the Netherlands to look after its overseas assets.

In the 1920’s Parlophone had a master leasing arrangement with the US based OKeh Records which meant that they introduced Bix Beiderbecke and lots of the new sounds of Jazz to Europe.  The function of a record company is to sell records, but it seems  that Parlophone kept on issuing things that got good reviews from the newly-arrived magazines like the MELODY MAKER and GRAMOPHONE even though the actual sales figures seem to have been quite small.

This shows a dedication to the promotion of what was then called 'Modern Dance Music' that was as commendable as it was unique for the time.

In 1927, Columbia Gramophone of the United Kingdom acquired a controlling interest in the Carl Lindstrom Company and thereby in Parlophone.

In 1931, Columbia Gramophone merged with The Gramophone Company to form EMI .

In 1953 Parlophone signed a ten year licencing  agreement with King Records and so began issuing both Country music and early R&B  They had a few minor chart successes with Bonnie Lou, Boyd Bennett and Ruby Wright, but most of these discs sold in small quantities at the time and now are highly sought-after.  

Success also came  with home-grown artists such as Ron Goodwin, Frank Chacksfield, Eve Boswell and by the late 50’s they had progressed, through Skiffle, with The Vipers, into the Rock & Roll era with Jim Dale and Laurie London and began to licence other US labels on short term contracts.

They approached the new Cameo label in Philadelphia and leased Charlie Gracie’s first recordings. Contact was made with other companies for leasing, Herald/Ember, Canadian-American, Memo and many others.

Adam Faith and Matt Munro sold well but now it was the time for Beatlemania

When Parlophone manager Oscar Preuss retired in 1955 and 29-year-old musician and composer George Martin took over nobody could guess that history would soon be made.

Martin had released mainly spoken-word and novelty/comedy material, such as the recordings of  The Goons, Flanders & Swann  and “Beyond the Fringe” but that changed in 1962, when Martin signed a rising new Liverpool pop band, The Beatles who soon turned Parlophone into one of the world's most famous and sought-after labels

The Beatles changed Parlophone’s profile completely. Their success  brought further signings like The Hollies, The Fourmost, Billy J Kramer, Cilla Black, Simon Dupree and The Big Sound, Cliff Bennett and The Rebel Rousers . The cream of Britains new Pop groups.