KARUSELL RECORDS

The Swedish label Karusell was founded by Carl-Gustaf Nirén and Simon Brehm in Sweden in 1952 and was a strong independent label also operating in Denmark, Norway and Germany and was hugely successful until the end of the 60's. Simon Brehm died in 1967 and shortly after the label was sold to Polygram but the company spirit and success died with his death.

Together with Metronome and Sonet, Karusell was a key player on the independent label scene in Scandinavia from the 50's onwards.

All 3 labels had in common that they were a mixture a local repertoire mixed with international licensing mainly of UK and US labels.

Karusell released material from Vee Jay, ABC/Paramount, Cameo/ Parkway, Swan, Verve, Elektra, Am-Par, Fabor, Ritz etc. and a very strong local repertoire from the likes of The Spotnicks who also achived international success, and Lill Babs who is still active to this day.

The bulk of 45 releases came with very nice locally designed picture sleeves that had a generic feel to them and for a period also carried a jukebox strip on the back of the sleeve. They also used company logo generic 45 bags with 2 different designs, and a lot of releases on both 45 and EP was on coloured vinyl mostly blue.

All EP's came with glossy picture sleeves most of them designed locally.

Here's a selection of interesting web sites:
http://www.beautiful-records.com/discographies/KARUSELL/choose.htm
http://medlem.spray.se/filmoch78or/karusell.htm/
http://www.lill-babs.com/inspelningar/