Columbia Records

==== Catalog numbers ====
The Columbia album series began in 1951 with album GL-500 (CL-500) and reached an awkward milestone in 1970, when the stereo numbering sequence reached CS-9999, assigned to the [[Patti Page]] album ''Honey Come Back''. This presented a catalog numbering system challenge as Columbia had used a four-digit catalog number for 13 years, and CS-10000 seemed cumbersome. Columbia decided to start issuing albums at CS-1000 instead, preserving the four-digit catalog number. However, this resulted in the reuse of numbers previously used in 1957–58, although the prefix was now different. In July 1970, the cataloging department implemented a new system, combining all their labels into a unified catalog numbering system starting with 30000, with the prefix letter indicating the label: C for Columbia, E for [[Epic Records|Epic]], H for Harmony (budget reissue line), M for [[Columbia Masterworks]], S for movie soundtrack and original Broadway cast albums, Y for [[Odyssey Records|Columbia Odyssey]], and Z for every other label that CBS distributed (collectively referred to as CBS Associated). The prefix letter G was also used for two album sets—or the number of records in the set after the label letter, such as KC2.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.globaldogproductions.net/c/cbs-lps-us.html |title=CBS LPs – US unified numbering system |website=Global Dog Productions |access-date=July 2, 2018}}</ref> The first CBS album released under the new system was [[Elvin Bishop|The Elvin Bishop Group]]'s self-titled album on Fillmore Records, assigned with F 30001 (the earliest Fillmore albums had the 'F' prefix, rather than a 'Z'), while the first actual Columbia release under the system was [[Herschel Bernardi]]'s ''Show Stopper'', assigned with C 30004.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.globaldogproductions.net/c/cbs-us-30000-30499.html |title=LP Discography for CBS Records US combined numbering system 30000-30499 |website=Global Dog Productions |access-date=May 5, 2019}}</ref> The highest catalog number released in the old system was CS-1069, assigned to ''[[Sesame Street discography|The Sesame Street Book and Record]]''. Chronologically, Columbia issued at least one album in this series in August, but by that time, the CBS Consolidated 30000 series, which started issuing albums in July with the new label design, was well underway, having issued nearly 100 albums. The system was later expanded with even more prefix letters (including R and V for [[Portrait Records|Portrait]], A and W for Special Products, L for [[Sony Wonder]], S for [[Sony Classical Records|Sony Classical]], N for [[Monument Records|Monument]], O for Chaos Recordings, and B for [[550 Music]]), which continued until 2005.

In September 1970, under the guidance of [[Clive Davis]], Columbia Records entered the West Coast rock market, opening a state-of-the art recording studio (which was located at 827 Folsom St. in San Francisco and later morphed into the [[Automatt]]) and establishing an A&R head and office in San Francisco at [[Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco|Fisherman's Wharf]], headed by [[George Daly (Music Industry)|George Daly]], a producer and artist for [[Monument Records]] (who inked a distribution deal with Columbia at the time) and a former bandmate of [[Nils Lofgren]] and [[Roy Buchanan]]. The recording studio operated under CBS until 1978.<ref>{{cite book |title=If These Halls Could Talk: A Historical Tour Through San Francisco Recording Studios |url=https://archive.org/details/ifthesehallscoul00heat |url-access=registration |last=Johnson |first=Heather |publisher=Thomson Course Technology |year=2006 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ifthesehallscoul00heat/page/n104 90]–94 |isbn=1-59863-141-1}}</ref>