Silvertone Records (Selfridges)

Silvertone Records was a short-lived British department store record label, which was one of the house labels of Selfridges in the 1930s.^[1]

After 1935^[2] Silvertone Records issued 8-inch discs made by British Homophone Co. Ltd. for sale in Selfridges department stores using masters from their Plaza label.^{[citation needed]} While the discs were only 8 inches in diameter, as the grooves were close, it had a long playing time equivalent to standard records.^[3] The quality of Plaza recordings was considered good.^[2] British Homophone discontinued production of its own records in April 1935,^[4] and was sold jointly to EMI and Decca Records in May 1935,^[5] but continued to press discs for other companies.^[6] Silvertone releases were selected from the Plaza catalogue by Britain's first disc jockey Christopher Stone.^[7][8] To keep production costs lower, public domain works were recorded,^[2] and artists contracted to other labels were given pseudonyms on Silvertone releases.

The records had a catalogue number series starting at S-1, but the series was fairly short-lived. Only three releases have been discovered.^[9]

• S-1 "Farewell to Arms", from the 1932 film A Farewell to Arms (Music and lyrics by Allie Wrubel and Abner Silver) (Matrix L-989) by Ben Fields and his Dance Band (nom de disque for Syd Lipton's Band)^[10] b/w "A Thousand and One Nights" (Matrix L-997) by Charles Baxter's String Band^[9] This is a reissue of Plaza P-101.^[11] (nom de disque for Mantovani).^{[citation needed]}
• S-2 "Da-Dar, Da-Dar (waltz)" (written by Robert Hargreaves, Stanley J. Damerell, and Tolchard Evans)^[12][13] (Matrix L-985) by Silver Dance Band (nom de disque for Syd Lipton's Grosvenor House Band) b/w "On My Mind" (Matrix L-1009) by Eddie Walters' Dance Band (nom de disque for Nat Star's Dance Orchestra).^[9][14] This is a reissue of Plaza P-102.^[11]
• S-3 "Till the Clock Strikes Three" (Matrix L-1019) by Eddie Walter's Dance Band (nom de disque for Oscar Rabin's Romany Band) b/w "Stormy Weather" (Matrix L-1031) by Silver Dance Band (nom de disque for Nat Star's Dance Orchestra).^[9] This is a reissue of Plaza P-104.^[11]

• List of record labels
• Silvertone Records (disambiguation)