History
Greensleeves is a UK record label. The label started as a Reggae/Soul mail order business and shop. The shop was opened in 1975 in West Ealing. The downstairs sold general pop/rock with a dedicated Reggae/Soul department upstairs.
The shop relocated to Shepherds Bush in 1977 and then closed (circa 1980) as it became increasingly sidelined by the development of Greensleeves the label.
The first release on the label was a 7" - Doctor Alimantado - Born For A Purpose/Reason For Living (Reggae Regulars Where Is Jah was GRE001 but apparently Born For A Purpose GRE002 was released first).
The label became something of a legend for it's series of 12inch discomixes during the Dancehall era. The first Discomix on the label was The Wailing Souls - War (with Ranking Trevor)/Jah Give Us Life.
In December 1978 they lauched the Cool Rockers label for Lovers Rock releases.
In the 1980's the label established a solid relationship with Henry 'Junjo' Lawes and released many 12 inch Discomixes of his product. The first being Englishman by Barrington Levy.
They also established close links with Prince (later King) Jammy that started with the licensing of Junior Delgado's - Love Tickles Like Magic in 1979 in Johnny Osbourne's - Fally Ranking the following year. The Jammy's connection reach it's peak when Greensleeves took the option on Wayne Smith's - Under Me Sleng Teng, the discomix release on Greensleeves dominated the UK Reggae charts for virtually all of 1985.
The biggest chart hit on the label was Oh Carolina that reached number one on the UK pop charts in March 1993. They have also achieved pop chart success with Tippa Irie - Hello Darling (1986) and Beenie Man - Who Am I (1998) and Mr Vegas - Heads High (1999)
The label continued to operate throughout the 80's and up to the mid 2000's when the original owners sold the company to Zest, who were described as an independent music publishing group and record label, for £3.25 million. In 2007 the company started a major reissue campaign to coincide with the 35th anniversary of the label. In early 2008 VP records bought the company from Zest for £3.1 million pounds.
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Comments (1)
redman said
at 7:04 pm on Jan 23, 2010
i've removed some broken image links.
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