Presumably there was pressure from the US end for EMI to set up a separate United Artists label in the UK and as a compromise EMI agreed to a hybrid HMV/United Artists branded label. This was similar to an agreement with Verve, which had issued many mostly jazz LPs on a co-branded label. The new hybrid HMV/UA label featured records by, among others, the Phil Upchurch Combo, the Highwaymen (who gave them a UK number one with 'Michael'), Al Caiola, Kenny Dino, Jay and the Americans ('She Cried') and Steve Lawrence. The biggest name, however, was Gene Pitney. He recorded for Musicor, which had a distribution deal with UA in the States, and his records appeared on London, HMV, the separate United Artists label and, later, Stateside, when Musicor's US distribution deal changed (I assume). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYPqEczbFHE
The curious thing, however, is why '24 Hours From Tulsa' appeared both on the UA imprint and the blue HMV hybrid label. It was issued many months after UA became 'independent' and carried the United Artists UP label number, rather than HMV's POP series number. Was this because sales were so good that they ran out of labels? Seems hard to believe, but if anyone knows the answer please put a comment.
Here are a few more examples of the hybrid HMV/United Artists label.
Some LPs appeared on the dual format, including the first albums by Gene Pitney and the Highwaymen.
Here's the LP label design, which again is similar to the HMV/Verve LP label.
The hybrid HMV/Verve had only a few 45 releases. Here's one of the best. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IoGehtkQ2M
John Spencely, who is an expert on such matters, tells me that the blue label version was produced by Oriole as EMI presses were unable to cope (it was the height of the UK beat boom of course). That still doesn't explain why an outdated blue label was used.
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