London Records vs. Capitol Records Spar for the Most Arrogant Label

For those of you who follow my writing, you’re justly expecting another Beatles article given my obsession with them. But that won’t be the case because this article will focus on the Rolling Stones and their 1966 album strangely enough titled Big Hits (High Tides and Green Grass) which reached No3 in both the UK and US. As a side note, the Stones had only one No1 selling album in the US in the ‘60’s titled Out of Our Heads which featured 12 songs, only 4 of which were original.

Decca Records was their record label in the UK and London Records, who was also owned by Decca, was their North American label. As had been the modus operandi for the Beatles, Capitol Records was their North American record label and the Parlophone label graced their records everywhere else. And, like Decca, both were owned by London based EMI. So, the Rolling Stones and Beatles had a very similar recording business model at this point in the 60’s.

This arrangement was considered normal and theoretically beneficial to all parties. The conventional wisdom was that no foreign based music organization could possibly understand how to successfully reach the huge American market because after all, their musical tastes were different. So, given the immensity of the US market opportunity, artists allowed their album content to be…