Editing Polydor Records (section)

===Beginnings===
Polydor Records was founded on 2 April 1913 by German Polyphon-Musikwerke AG in [[Leipzig]] and registered on 25 July 1914 (Nr. 316613). The label was founded as Firma Brachhausen & Riesener in 1887 by Gustav Adolf Brachhausen and Ernst Paul Riessner, for manufacturing their new mechanical disc-playing [[music box]] [[Polyphon]], invented in 1870.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://grammophon-platten.de/page.php?107|title=Schellackplatten Label - Polyphon - Grammophon und Schellackplatten Portal 78rpm|work=grammophon-platten.de|access-date=17 February 2017}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=March 2025}} During [[World War I]] on 24 April 1917, Polyphon-Musikwerke AG acquired the German [[Deutsche Grammophon]]-Aktiengesellschaft record plant and company from the German government. The German state had taken over British-held Grammophon as enemy property during World War I.<ref name="BerlinerStudios">{{cite web|url=http://www.emil-berliner-studios.com/en/chronik0.html|title=EMIL BERLINER STUDIOS - About us - Chronicle|first=Emil Berliner|last=Studios|work=emil-berliner-studios.com|access-date=17 February 2017}}</ref>{{better source needed|date=March 2025}}
Polydor was originally an [[independent record label|independent branch]] of the [[Polyphon]]-[[Grammophon]]-Konzern group. It was used as an export label from 1924. After the British and German branches of the [[Gramophone Company]] were separated during [[World War I]], Deutsche Grammophon claimed the rights to the [[Nipper]]-dog and gramophone trademark for Germany, where [[His Master's Voice (British record label)|His Master's Voice]] recordings were to be released under the [[Electrola]] [[trademark]] replacing the company lost during the war. [[File:Polydorearly78.JPG|thumb|left|160px|1920s vintage Polydor export label with its double-horn gramophone logo Playing [[Ave verum corpus (Mozart)|Ave verum corpus]] - [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Wolfgang Amadeus mozart]]]] In turn, Deutsche Grammophon records exported from Germany were released on the [[Polyphon Musik]] and [[Polydor]] [[record labels|labels]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-FOSAgAAQBAJ&q=Polyphon+Record&pg=PA585|title=Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound|first=Frank|last=Hoffmann|date=12 November 2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781135949501}}</ref> New foreign branches were founded, for example in Austria, Denmark, Sweden and France.

In 1941, Deutsche Grammophon (including Polydor) was purchased by [[Siemens & Halske]]. Polydor became a [[popular music]] label in 1946, while the new Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft label became a [[European classical music|classical music]] label in 1949.<ref name="BerlinerStudios"/> The previously used label, Grammophon, was disbanded. DGG gave, by an agreement dated 5 July 1949, an exclusive license from 1 July 1951 to use the Nipper-dog with gramophone to the original owner's company [[Electrola]], the German branch of [[EMI]]. (In Germany, it was impossible to sell the trademark without selling the company.)<ref>[http://www.dg-111.com/en_GB/history Dg-111.com] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305145646/http://www.dg-111.com/en_GB/history |date=5 March 2012 }}</ref> Polydor remained Deutsche Grammophon's export label, including classical music, in France and the Spanish-speaking world for the remainder of the long-playing era, as a result of language and cultural concerns. DGG established a subsidiary in London called Polydor Records Ltd. in 1954.

In the early 1960s, [[orchestra]] leader [[Bert Kaempfert]] signed unknowns [[Tony Sheridan]] and [[The Beatles]], credited as ''The Beat Brothers'', to Polydor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.friktech.com/btls/tony/tony.htm|title=The Beatles with Tony Sheridan|website=Friktech.com|access-date=19 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150707220058/http://www.friktech.com/btls/tony/tony.htm|archive-date=7 July 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>[http://www.beatlesource.com/savage/1962/62.01.XX%20top%20ten%20-%20ringo/62.01.00topten-ringo.html Infosite], Beatlesource.com; accessed 19 April 2015.</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|last=Coleman|first=Miriam |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/beatles-collaborator-tony-sheridan-dead-at-72-20130217|title=Beatles collaborator Tony Sheridan dead at 72|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|date=17 February 2013|access-date=23 February 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nme.com/news/the-beatles/68758|title=One-time Beatles frontman Tony Sheridan dies|website=Nme.com|date=18 February 2013|access-date=23 February 2013}}</ref><ref>[[Mark Lewisohn|Lewisohn, Mark]]: ''All These Years'' Volume 1:''The Beatles Tune In'', Little Brown, London 2013,{{ISBN|978-0-316-72960-4}}</ref> Popular International entertainers such as [[James Last]], Bert Kaempfert, [[Kurt Edelhagen]], [[Caterina Valente]] and the [[Kessler Twins]] appeared on the Polydor label, as well as many French, Spanish and Latin-American figures.

Siemens entered into a joint venture with [[Philips]] in 1962 creating the Grammophon-Philips Group, of which Polydor became a subsidiary label. Throughout the late 1960s, Polydor released albums of [[John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers]], [[Cream (band)|Cream]], [[The Who]], [[Jimi Hendrix]], [[Bee Gees]] and [[Eric Clapton]].

Polydor opened a US branch in 1969 (in years prior, they licensed their catalogue to [[Atlantic Records]]),<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zygEAAAAMBAJ&q=polydor+++1969+++%22united+states%22&pg=PA64|title=College Music Contest Opens Talent Hunt| magazine=Billboard |page=64 |date=15 March 1969|publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc.}}</ref> but did not become a real presence in the US record industry until its purchase of the recording contract and back catalogue of [[rhythm and blues|R&B]] performer [[James Brown]] in 1971, and the absorption of the [[MGM Records]] label by its parent company PolyGram in 1972.

In 1970, Polydor acquired the Hong Kong–based [[Diamond Records (Hong Kong)|Diamond Records]], which had been owned and founded by the local [[Portugal|Portuguese]] merchant Ren da Silva in the late 1950s.