Oriole Records was a British record label, founded in 1925 by the London-based Levy Company, which owned a gramophone record subsidiary called Levaphone Records. History The Levy family founded a record shop (it also sold bicycles and sewing machines) at 19 High Street, Whitechapel, and later moved to 139 High Street. Oriole recorded popular music in England, and also issued masters from the United States Vocalion Records in May and June 1927. The original label was discontinued in 1935. Jacques Levy produced records beginning in 1931 at the West End studios at Rosslyn House, 94-98 Regent Street, London, where they stayed until 1937 when they moved to 73 New Bond Street, with chief engineers Ted Sibbick and Bill Johnson, built into what was once an art gallery. In 1949, they segregated the work and the label, with Oriole Records Ltd moving into 104 New Bond Street, London, and with Levy moving out to a factory at Aston Clinton, near Aylesbury with Norman Angier and Leslie Gouldstone from MD-1, later to be joined by others. From 1938 or 1939, David Morris Levy lived nearby at Flat 98, Clarence Gate Gardens, near Baker Street, until his 1971 death, and also maintained a residence in Birchington, Kent. The owner, David Morris Levy, and his brother Jacques (no relation to his Roulette Records namesake) revived the Oriole label in 1950. For a few years (ending in 1955) it was the exclusive UK licensee for the American Mercury label, with releases by artists such as Frankie Laine, Vic Damone and Patti Page. These releases appeared first on the Oriole label itself, and later on Mercury. First hits Oriole achieved a few home-made hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including the Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group's version of "Freight Train" (featuring Nancy Whiskey on vocals), "Like I Do" by Maureen Evans (based on the same music as Allan Sherman's "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh" – Amilcare Ponchielli's Dance of the Hours – and the label's biggest hit), and Russ Hamilton's "We Will Make Love", which reached number 2 in the UK Singles Chart, and the B-side of which ("Rainbow") reached number 4 in the US Billboard Hot 100 on Kapp Records. Another success for Oriole came from Clinton Ford's 1962 version of the George Formby song, "Fanlight Fanny", which had accompaniment by the 'George Chisholm All Stars'. It also, with permission, had added new words written