Island Records discography

The history and the discography of the Island Records label can conveniently be divided into three phases:
Blackwell released 28 singles and three LPs in this period.
The very first records have been issued on 7" sides in Jamaica on a label called R&B
CB stands for Chris Blackwell; 22 for the age of Blackwell at the time; it is the first number of the LP catalogue.
After the company's start in London in 1962 Island Records diversified already in 1963 into various labels: Black Swan, Island, Sue and Jump Up.
The first Island "white and red" label was used mainly for Jamaican productions released in the United Kingdom. Catalogue numbers started at WI-001. Many of these records had been released previously in Jamaica and other territories on small local labels. For a variety of reasons details of the artists and songs printed on the labels do not always match what is actually to be found in the grooves of the record! The main Island label was soon joined by another three labels: Sue for black American music with catalogue numbers starting at WI-300, Black Swan for more Jamaican music starting with WI-400, and Jump Up, for Calypso and Trinidadian music, starting with 500, but using another prefix (JU). The Aladdin label was started in about 1965 and used numbers starting with 600, using the WI prefix.
Island singles were released with prefix WI and numbers starting with 001. The Island label itself was white with red lettering and logotypes – for the first 100 releases it had a round "Flaming sun" logo on a white label, then and for reprints of the early issues a red strip across the centre of the label like a "bow tie". The labels have the Rutland Gate Mews address on all first pressings up until about number 14; this was followed by the London England address which goes up to at least # 47, then came Cambridge Road.
(N.B. This discography has been expanded and corrected using the published discography in "Record Collector" magazine 201, published May 1996. Details can also be checked online, at the "45cat" database, which contains many label scans. As far as possible, the listings below reflect what is actually written on the record label. Known variations or labelling errors are given in brackets after the entry.)
The Sue label, initiated in 1963, was a subsidiary to release black US-American music. The releases followed the catalogue numbers of Island's singles starting at number 300. The first 17 releases of the British Sue label were in fact related to Henry 'Juggy' Murray's New York based Sue label. Some earlier issues from the black-owned independent American label established in 1957 were released on the London American label. The original Island agreement with the American company ended in disagreement and all (U.S.) Sue records were deleted from their catalogue in July 1965, and American Sue issues returned to the London American label. Island records retained the use of the name Sue until the final release in 1968.
The Black Swan label was one of Island's first subsidiaries with releases from 1963 to 1965. With a black and white label the catalogue covered the WI series numbers from 401 to 471. From 1970 to 1971 Trojan/B&C Records used the label for records within a BW series. Island reactivated the label in 1976/1977 within the WIP series and with a small series of 12" singles in a BS series.
Jump Up started in 1963 and released singles mainly in calypso style until ca. 1967. Around 1970 Trojan/B&C continued to release with the label, continuing with both prefix and catalogue numbers. (Tapir's)
Island's "first serious stab at setting up a pukka pop label". Releases were numbered in a WI-6xx series, but the matrix number of Jackie Edwards' "He'll Have To Go" was WI 2000, suggesting that it might have been intended to use that catalogue number series instead.
A short-lived subsidiary whose releases came out in the spring of 1965. The handful of releases were numbered in the WI-1000 series.
The catalogue numbers 3000 ff. had been chosen after the first series ended at number 299 and 300 ff. had been used for the Sue label (see above).
This series commenced in January 1967 and initially ran alongside the existing WI 3000 series (see above). It coincided with the introduction of a new pink label design (chosen, according to label founder and owner Chris Blackwell, "because it created a clear break from our Jamaican years") and the "P" in WIP is variously said to stand for "Pink" or "Progressive", reflecting the fact that this new series was geared towards the new generation of rock/pop acts that Island had begun to accumulate from early 1967 onwards, as well as artists from its traditional roster who were being oriented towards the rock/pop audience, such as Jackie Edwards and Jimmy Cliff. Another change was that releases in the WIP series were normally stereo productions. Major UK top twenty singles' chart success for the label came very early in the WIP series, with WIP-6002 – Traffic's "Paper Sun" (#5, 6/1967), a classic slice of British psychedelia released just in time for the "summer of love", but quite a high proportion of the early WIP-series output was by artists who failed to develop as anticipated (e.g. Hard Meat, The Smoke) or represented one-off licensing deals with artists who never again appeared in the Island listings (e.g. WIP-6001, WIP-6013, etc.). The series continued throughout the 1970s and into the early 1980s (see below).
The first of a series of pink label designs was used for singles WIP-6000 to WIP-6051, inclusive. Sometimes referred to as the "eye" label design, it featured an orange and black elliptical device on the left-hand side of the label which could be said to resemble a grotesque eyeball when viewed sideways. "A" and "B" sides were clearly delineated on this early series of pink label singles, thus: WIP-6050-A (Traffic's "Medicated Goo") and WIP-6050-B (the same band's "Shanghai Noodle Factory").
Beginning with WIP-6052, a new series of matrix numbers was introduced for 7" singles. Henceforward, singles' sides were not usually identified as "A" or "B", but each bore a unique matrix number in a series starting at wipx 1002. The matrix number appeared on the label, usually upside-down directly beneath the main catalogue number. The matrix numbers seem to have been allocated to each release in numerical sequence, irrespective of the actual or proposed release date of the record; thus the two sides of WIP-6056 (Jethro Tull's "Living In The Past" b/w "Driving Song") have matrix numbers wipx 1010 and wipx 1011, respectively. Initially, the new matrix numbers were used in conjunction with the existing "eye" label design, but beginning with releases in June 1969 a new pink label design was introduced, known as the "block" design. The new design continued to feature the "eye" device in plain black enclosed within the push-out centre of the record, but the company name was now written in capital letters within a rectangular black block in the lower part of the label. The first release to feature the new label design appears to have been WIP-6060 and the last to feature the orange-and-black "eye" design WIP-6061, a reissue of "Incense" by the Anglos, which had actually been released the previous month. One or two earlier releases which were evidently still selling were re-pressed with the new design (e.g. WIP-6056, which exists with both the orange-and-black "eye" and the "block" label designs).
Towards the end of 1969, artists signed to Terry Ellis and Chris Wright's Chrysalis management company began to be favoured with a special Chrysalis label design – green with a red Chrysalis butterfly logo. Initially this applied to Jethro Tull and former Tull guitarist Mick Abrahams' band Blodwyn Pig. These early Chrysalis singles were allotted catalogue and matrix numbers in the main Island WIP and wipx series, respectively, and bore the legend "manufactured and distributed by island records basing st london" on the upper circumference of the label. Chrysalis continued to issue singles bearing Island catalogue numbers until Autumn 1971, after which the label broke away completely and began its own series of catalogue numbers in a CHS 2000 series.
(Series continued under heading Singles in the 1970s, below.)
Four track EPs in the 1960s
For LPs the label chose the prefix ILP (meaning: Island Long Player) with a number of three figures beginning with 900, later supplemented by ILPS (meaning: Island Long Player Stereo) to distinguish between Mono and Stereo records. Some records were issued in both forms. For those records in stereo, the catalogue number was changed by adding a fourth figure (e.g.: ILP 970 was the mono equivalent of ILPS 9070).
the above was the only Island LP released with a black and silver 'flaming sun' label. All following Island LPs had the white and red 'flaming sun' label. The Sue label LPs were incorporated into the island numerical system, and had the yellow and red 'bow tie' labels.
At this point, Island introduced the first of three pink label designs. These next releases had the first pink label, with an orange and black 'eyeball' logo on the left, unless otherwise indicated:
At this point, monaural releases are discontinued. Releases below this text are in stereophonic only.
At this point, Island introduced the second pink label. It is known as the 'black block' label, as it featured a thick, block-like letter i at the bottom, dotted by a black eyeball in the centre of the label. This was very quickly replaced by the third pink label, featuring a small white letter i logo. Due to variations in catalogue number assignation and the actual release dates of the records, there is a small cross-over period between the three pink label designs. The original label designs for the following LPs are detailed in parentheses.
All following LPs were originally issued on the third pink label, with 'white i' logo.
During the same period Island Records released some sampler albums with the prefixes IWP/IWPS:
The first release in 1970, WIP-6075, had the "block" label design, but the very next one, "John The Baptist" by John & Beverley Martyn, featured a third pink label design, characterised by a large white letter "i" on the left-hand side. This design was used for the remaining pink label issues, interrupted with increasing frequency by green Chrysalis label releases, as denoted in the listing below. Bronze label singles by artists such as Tony Hazzard and Uriah Heep began to appear in the Island listing from May 1971, for a couple of years until that label's own BRO- series was begun. An American record label, Blue Thumb, also released a small number of UK singles with WIP-series numbers in 1972/3. The one-off catalogue number WI-4002 was given to the flexi-single "Let There Be Drums" which came with the album Rock On by The Bunch in 1972.
In the second half of the decade the character of the label began to change and this is reflected in its singles releases from about 1976 onwards. There was a conscious move back towards the label's roots in Jamaican music in the form of commercial reggae aimed at the rock/pop audience. Names such as Bob Marley & the Wailers, Toots & the Maytals and Third World crop up in the listings with increasing frequency. They and others enjoyed considerable commercial success in the U.K. market. There is evidence too of an increasing number of one-off licensing deals featuring (mainly American) soul and R & B singers (e.g. Barbara Pennington and Betty Davis). Island also joined a growing trend amongst U.K.-based record companies at that time towards exploitation of its own back catalogue, and a substantial programme of reissues was undertaken, especially of ska and reggae titles, most of which seem to have been aimed at a small, specialist audience and did not enjoy widespread commercial success.
Also in 1976, another American record label, Shelter Records, began to issue U.K. singles through Island, which received WIP-series catalogue numbers. Artists included the Dwight Twilley Band, J.J. Cale and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, the last-named of whom enjoyed some success on the coat-tails of punk. Finally, the Black Swan label was reactivated for certain reggae-styled releases, some of which appeared with WIP-series numbers.
Some numbers were assigned to releases from outside of the United Kingdom; these are noted below.
(N.B. For reasons of continuity, this section of the discography also includes singles numbered in the WIP 6xxx series which were released between 1980 and 1983.)
WIP-6089 was the last single to be released with a pink label. The next single, WIP-6090 was on the Chrysalis label, but from the one after that, WIP 6091, the "pink rim" palm tree label was introduced.
WIP 6245 is believed to have been the last single released with "pink rim" labels as subsequent releases appeared with the "orange & blue" palm tree label (referred to in this listing as "orange palm").
The IDS prefix stands for Island Disco Sampler. The series was used for pre-releases in the seconds half of the 1970s, white labels. IDJ was a limited edition series for related releases on the colourful Island label.
These singles were released in the 12" format during 1977 and 1978.
Island released in 1976/1977 a small number of 12" "limited edition" singles in a BS series
Following on from the 1960s releases, LPs were originally released with pink labels featuring the 'white i' logo, except for the two Chrysalis albums (ILPS 9122/3), which had that company's green labels with butterfly logo. Possibly as a result of a pressing plant change, Jethro Tull's Chrysalis album Benefit was also pressed on the pink rim/palm tree Island label sometime between November 1970 (when that label design went into use) and July 1973 (when Tull's first four albums, including Benefit, were reissued in the Chrysalis CHR 1000 LP series).
Until late 1970 Island LPs were pressed by Polydor. Pressing was then switched to EMI Records before, in late 1975, moving to an unknown, budget manufacturer. EMI pressings can be identified by type-printed Matrix/catalogue numbers pressed into the spare vinyl around the label, whilst later pressings have hand written matrix numbers around label and tend to be pressed on lighter weight vinyl.
The pink label was replaced by the 'pink rim/palm tree' label at this point, but there was a small cross-over period. At the same time, Island changed its main pressing plants from those of Polydor to EMI.
From this point, all Island releases featured the pink rim/palm tree label. ILPS series albums on the Blue Thumb, Bronze and Chrysalis labels used those labels' designs.
A series of budget-priced albums. Those on the Island label used a black variation of the "white i" label with a pink "i" logo and silver print. HELP albums on the Blue Thumb and Bronze labels used their respective designs.
The ICD series comprised the following double albums:
Two "sampler" LPs were issued using numbers in this series:
This was another series used for the following double albums:
For singles released during the years 1980 to 1983, which were numbered in this series, see Singles of the 1970s section, above.
This new series of numbers was introduced in 1983 to replace the long-running WIP series for 7" singles (and other formats). As the CD format gained ascendancy during the later 1980s, so more and more singles were released with the prefix CID, indicating a CD release, initially alongside the "standard" 7" release.
During this period Island regained some more important artists on its roster and continued to release 20 to 50 albums a year. The catalogue numbers don't follow the release dates as the numbers were given to projects scheduled for release. Usually the "Day & Night" label was in use for albums. Some new labels entered the Island distribution and were given Island catalogue numbers received for UK release while retaining their original labels (e.g. ZE, Celluloid).
This series was used for soundtrack albums that were released on the label and also on a sublabel called Island Visual Arts.
Around 1980 Island started to distribute a New York-based label, run by Michael Zilkha and Michael Esteban. In the UK the catalogue numbers were composed by the ILPS prefix and numbers starting at 7000. In the US the label was distributed via Islands Antilles label and division.
Tom Waits
U2
(CD versions add "CID" to the beginning)
In 1985, Island release 15 compilation albums dedicated to reggae, presenting twelve of its best (selling) reggae artists and three styles, "DJ", "lovers" and "rockers", on one disc each. The albums were compiled by Trevor Wyatt, the covers were illustrated by various artists on the basis of paintings and contain extensive liner notes.
This part of the Island Records discography can be found here: Island Reggae Greats
After the CD format was introduced on the record market Island reacted coolly by releasing only a small number of bestsellers during 1984/1985 introducing the CID (Compact Island Disc) prefix with catalogue numbers starting at 101. Soon after the company started to release new CDs and to re-release older material with the CID prefix and the "ILPS" catalogue numbers.
In 1989, Island Records was sold to PolyGram. Immediately PolyGram started to re-release parts of the Island catalogue, mainly classics from the 1970s and good selling records from the 1980s within a CD series called Island Masters. The series ran with the prefix IMCD and catalogue numbers starting with 1. The first year of the label has seen more than 70 releases. Finally the catalogue comprised more than 300 titles, from the year 2000 on in re-mastered quality.
The discography can be seen under Island Masters.
As CD became the preferred format for the majority of sales, singles released in that format were prefixed CID. Otherwise, the series continued the numbering of the IS series begun in the 1980s. Singles released on a variety of vinyl formats (7", 10", 12", etc.) continued to be prefixed IS (or 10IS, 12IS, etc.). Frequently, CD and larger format releases included additional (or sometimes different) songs to those found on the traditional 7" format.
In 1992, Island had reached catalogue number 9999 for its ILP/ILPS series and continued at number 8000. As the principal medium had changed since several years, CID became the general prefix. The independent catalogue numbers seem to have stopped being assigned to Island albums in June 2006.
Island released for a short while Jamaican music on new sub-labels Island Jamaica and Island Jamaica Jazz, the latter one obviously responding to the success of bands like Jazz Jamaica and the music by trombone soloists like Rico Rodriguez.
The series that started in the late 1980s continued in the first half of the 1990s releasing more material from Island's back catalogue.
The discography can be found under Island Masters.
This series started with 26 releases in 1990. Island used the new label to re-issue a part of its reggae catalogue. Confusing was that some of the titles were also released within the Island Masters series or deleted shortly after the release to be re-released otherwise (the Bob Marley & The Wailers catalogue). More titles had been reissued in 1995, while the parent label changed at least for the European releases from Island to Mango. The UK prefixes were RRCD for CD releases and RRCT for cassettes. Numbers started with 1. Two compilations (numbered 101 and 102 respectively) were released to accompany the series.
While there was no clear label policy the Island Masters were reactivated under the title Island Remasters with remastered works of the back catalogue and more reissues to reach the catalogue number 320 in 2005.
The discography can be found under Island Masters.