Oxford University Press can claim to be the oldest company on this site, by some distance: as a publishing house it dates back to the sixteenth century. Needless to say, the record division doesn't go back quite that far - OUP-101, an EP of works by Bartolozzi entitled 'New Sounds For Woodwind' came out in 1967. The label usually dealt in albums but there were occasionally other 7" records such as the Ulf Goran EP shown above, 'Play Guitar' (OUP-115;1974) and a four-record set 'Instruments Of The Orchestra' introduced by Yehudi Menuhin (OUP-137 to 140; 1977). One EP with an OUP number, the original 1929 recording of 'Facade' by Edith Sitwell and William Walton, came out on the Decca label (2), presumably because Decca owned the material on it. By 1980 numbering was in the OUP-200s. It seems that OUP records were often released in tandem with books; the Ulf Goran single was part of a guitar tuition set. LPs and EPs shared the same numerical series, and the musical fare on them tends towards the esoteric if the few examples I've seen are anything to go by. The Oxford University Press is still in business today, though now it packages CDs with its books.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.