American. Nonesuch was started by Jac Holzman in 1963, as the Classical music arm of his Elektra Records. Over the decades it gained a reputation for its adventurous recording policy, particularly in the field of contemporary music, and it lives on today as part of the Time Warner group. In Britain, Nonesuch was almost exclusively an album label; it did however issue a trio of singles in the 1970s, the ones pictured above. Joshua Rifkin's versions of two Scott Joplin melodies, 'Maple Leaf Rag' and 'The Entertainer', (BIG-701) came out in 1974, at which point Nonesuch was being handled by Transatlantic. In the following year a single nominally split between William Bolcomb and Joan Morris appeared, though the pair of them featured on both 'After The Ball' and 'Meet Me In St. Louis, Louis' (BIG-702; 1975); the injection moulded labels indicate that Transatlantic had had the pressing done by Phonodisc (2). For much of the time Nonesuch's albums were imported from America rather than manufactured over here, but the singles were UK made.
The company seemed to lead a semi-independent existence in this country: according to Billboard (4th March 1972) it had started the decade at Polydor with Elektra, but then instead of going to Kinney with its parent company it had been without a distributor for a year until Elektra linked it up with Transatlantic in November 1971. 'Record Retailer' of the 20th of November 1971 stated that the deal with Transatlantic was a three-year licensing one and that it covered manufacture, promotion and distribution; the article quoted Holzman as saying that Transatlantic was "Uniquely equipped to handle Nonesuch in the British market." 'RR' of the 5th of February reported that the label had been 'relaunched' over the weekend, and that the first batch of LPs had been pressed by EMI from American positives; while 'Music Week' of the 14th of October claimed that the reason that Nonesuch hadn't accompanied Elektra to WEA was that WEA had had to absorb Atlantic in addition to Elektra and that having to cope with Nonesuch at the same time would have been 'too much'. When Elektra moved from WEA to EMI in the Autumn of 1973, following a split within the WEA group, Nonesuch was merged with it and Asylum to form Elektra-Asylum-Nonesuch records. Nonesuch wasn't included in the move to EMI, however, and it stayed with Transatlantic. On the 16th of February 1974 'MW' revealed that the company's records were to be imported in future and were no longer to be pressed here. Billboard of the 9th of August 1975 says that the licensing agreement with Transatlantic had been extended until November 1977; when that agreement ended 'MW' (5th of November 1977) was able to report that Nonesuch had at last come under the WEA umbrella, with WEA acquiring the marketing and distribution rights for the label. The acquisition was accompanied by another relaunch. 'Black Denim Trousers And Motorcycle Boots' b/w 'Humphrey Bogart' by Joan Morris and William Bolcomb (K-12800; 3/79) dates from the WEA period, with CBS handling manufacture of that particular single. By the time it came out the label had changed colour and the numbering had changed to the K-12800s (3). There were to be no more Nonesuch singles until the new millennium.
