Liberty

Multinational label, originally founded 1955 in Hollywood, California. Also known as Liberty Records.
Label code: LC 0249 / LC 00249
Use Liberty (3) for all unofficial/bootleg/counterfeit releases pretending to be this label.
See Liberty Records, Inc., for the company.

History
1955: The independent American label was launched February 22, 1955, as subsidiary of Julie London had the label's first big hit in 1955, and she became known as the "Liberty Girl."
1958: Liberty released its first stereo discs on June 25.
1959: Liberty begins to distribute local labels through Blue Thumb Records.
1960: Liberty was taken public by Bennett to raise capital.
1963: Avent Electronics bought the company for $12 million, and Waronker retired. After two years of financial losses, Avnet sold the company back to Bennett for $8 million.
1967: Liberty Records GmbH in .
1968: Liberty was bought by Liberty/United Artists Records Ltd. (which may help to date versions).
1970: Bennett resigned, replaced by Michael Stewart.
1971: Liberty was folded into United Artists.
1979: UA was taken over by EMI and the Liberty brand was revived in 1980. It traded as Liberty/United Records, Inc., for a short time.
1980: Start of the budget line with catalog number format LN 10XXX (see the bsnpubs link for dating).
1981: Liberty label relaunched in the UK through Liberty Records (UK) Ltd.

The Liberty brand currently exists as an EMI Group imprint around the world, used by various EMI operating companies for a variety of acts.

International
Belgium: Originally released through S.A. Gramophone N.V. since circa 1962.
Netherlands: Originally released through B.V. Bovema) since circa 1962.
: Liberty Records GmbH (circa 1967)
UK: Liberty Records (UK) Ltd. (circa 1980s)

Identification (U.S. releases)

Label dating for 45 rpm releases
55001 through 55270 (1955–1960): green labels with silver print.
55271 through 56218 (1960–1970): multi-color label.

Producers
Between 1959 and 1962, Liberty was known to credit producers with their initials on the labels. The initials can appear as a suffix to the label matrix or in or out of parentheses on other parts of the label. Upper- and lowercase initials are known to exist.

Known initials:
FS – Felix Slatkin
JA – Joe Allison
PM – unidentified
SG – Snuff Garrett
SW – Si Waronker