Editing Decca Records (section)

===1970s===
In 1970, American Decca's Canadian subsidiary the Compo Company was reorganized into MCA Records (Canada).<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/mca-records-canada-emc | title=MCA Records Canada }}</ref>

British Decca's fortunes declined during the 1970s. Lewis and his principal associate Maurice Rosengarten were growing old and less interested in new talent.<ref>Culshaw (1981), p. 206</ref> Culshaw cited as an example Rosengarten's opposition in the previous decade to the signing of Pavarotti because it might upset the ageing tenor [[Mario del Monaco]], who had been recording for British Decca since 1952.<ref>Culshaw (1981), p. 346</ref> The producer [[Hugh Mendl]] had attempted at the end of the 1960s to convince Lewis that the company needed some modernisation of its structure and practices, but Lewis thought Mendl's ideas revolutionary and nothing was done.<ref name=b285/>

Despite what Culshaw dubbed the hardening of British Decca's arteries,<ref>Culshaw (1981), p. 205</ref> on the classical side the company launched two new labels in 1974. James Mallinson's "Headline" series was devoted to contemporary music and during the rest of the 1970s issued recordings of works by, among others, [[Luciano Berio|Berio]], [[Harrison Birtwistle|Birtwistle]], [[John Cage|Cage]], [[Hans Werner Henze|Henze]], [[Ligeti]], [[Peter Maxwell Davies|Maxwell Davies]], [[Takemitsu]] and [[Xenakis]]. The "[[Florilegium (music group)|Florilegium]]" label was dedicated to early music, in competition with [[Archiv]] and [[Teldec#Das Alte Werk|Das Alte Werk]].<ref name=s5/> The company continued to lead the field in recording technology. In the US and Europe companies had been experimenting with [[digital audio|digital recording]] for some years. In the US the small company [[Telarc]] made the first commercial digital recordings in 1978. In the same year Decca developed its own digital recorders for recording, mixing, editing, and mastering albums. The company's first digital recording was made in Vienna in December 1978: the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by [[Christoph von Dohnányi]] in [[Mendelssohn]]'s [[Symphony No. 4 (Mendelssohn)|''Italian'' Symphony]].<ref>Stuart, p. 1127</ref> During 1979 the new system was used in Tel Aviv from March, the US from April, London from June, and Geneva from December. It superseded analogue in the US by late 1979 and elsewhere by mid-1981. In May 1979 Decca made the world's first digital recording of an opera, ''[[Fidelio]]'', conducted by Solti with his [[Chicago Symphony Orchestra|Chicago forces]].<ref>Stuart, p. 1324</ref>

In the 1970s British Decca's popular catalogue had fewer substantial additions than previously. The Rolling Stones left to set up their own label in 1971 and the Moody Blues were the only international rock act that continued to record for Decca.<ref>Larkin (1997), pp. 292 and 365</ref> Among the company's major commercial successes of the decade was [[Dana Rosemary Scallon|Dana's]] two-million selling single, "[[All Kinds of Everything]]", issued on British Decca's subsidiary label [[Rex Records (1965)|Rex Records]].<ref>Larkin (1997), p. 118</ref> New recordings by artists familiar from the previous decade, including [[the Bachelors]],<ref>Larkin (2002), p. 29</ref> [[Val Doonican]],<ref>Larkin (2002), p. 175</ref> and [[Engelbert Humperdinck (singer)|Engelbert Humperdinck]], continued to sell well.<ref name=mcg/>

In his memoirs Culshaw wrote of "an era of decline", and lamented the missed opportunities of Lewis's later years, when his entrepreneurial flair and his instincts for the market had been overtaken by a cautious conservatism.<ref>Culshaw (1981), pp. 204 and 345 ff.</ref> In the ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', Peter Martland writes of Lewis: "Like many who create, build, and retain close personal control over large enterprises, Lewis was unable to appoint a successor or relinquish control of the business. As a consequence, in 1980, days before his death, the business, then in the grip of a serious financial crisis, was sold".<ref name=odnb/> Decca was bought by the German-Dutch conglomerate [[PolyGram]]. The Decca pressing plant in New Malden, the studios in West Hampstead and Decca's headquarters in central London were all closed down.<ref name=mcg/>

In 1971, MCA established MCA Records in the United States, combining American Decca, Kapp and Uni Records with the three labels maintaining their identities.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3AgEAAAAMBAJ&dq=billboard+%2B+%22MCA+Records%22+%2B+uni+%2B+decca+%2B+kapp&pg=PA3 | title=Billboard | date=10 April 1971 }}</ref> American Decca also shut down its classical music department in 1971.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/arts/music/05horowitz.html | work=The New York Times | first=Allan | last=Kozinn | title=Israel Horowitz, Record Producer, and Billboard Columnist, Dies at 92 | date=5 January 2009}}</ref>

In 1973, MCA Records consolidated its three American labels, Decca, Kapp and Uni and were absorbed into the MCA label.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NgkEAAAAMBAJ&dq=billboard+%2B+%22MCA+Records%22+%2B+uni+%2B+decca+%2B+kapp&pg=PA1 | title=Billboard | date=10 February 1973 }}</ref> They hired veteran US Decca producer [[Milt Gabler]] to supervise the reissue of albums originally issued on the three labels on the MCA label.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nUUEAAAAMBAJ&dq=billboard+%2B+%22MCA+Records%22+%2B+%22%22Milt+GAbler%22&pg=PA3 | title=Billboard | date=3 March 1973 }}</ref>