ERATO
A Classical Music label, French in origin, dedicated to
Early music and French music. Erato, which was founded in 1953,
concentrated almost exclusively on albums, but there was one single on the label over here. That single
featured versions of Pachelbel's 'Canon In D' and Bach's 'Air On
The G String', both of which were played by the Jean-Francois Paillard Chamber
Orchestra. Its catalogue number was CRD-1, which reflects the fact that
the firm of CRD (Continental Record Distributors) was responsible for releasing it, presumably under a licensing
deal - CRD, which was a prominent importer /
distributor of foreign labels, was handling Erato at that time. CRDs 2 and
3 can be found on the CRD page. 'Record & Tape Retailer' of the
7th of August 1971 says that the single was to be released that week, which gives
us a date for it; it also says that the release was prompted by
the public response to the Canon being used in an ITV play, 'The
Silver Collection', the previous year. Pressing was by Pye. Later in
the decade Erato records were distributed by RCA; it joined Warner group in
1992 and is still going.
Copyright 2010 Robert Lyons.