Label Guide: Tetragrammaton

Tetragrammaton Records was founded in 1968 by the CSC Corporation, a Californian production company with partners Roy Silver, Bruce Post Campbell, Marvin Deane, and comedian Bill Cosby. The term "Tetragrammaton" refers to the unspeakable Hebrew name of God.

Tetragrammaton is best known for releasing the first four Deep Purple albums before the band became a breakout success in the early 1970s. Another famous release was John Lennon/Yoko Ono's Two Virgins album, that was rejected by Lennon's US distributor, Capitol Records, for the nude cover photos.

The vast majority of Tetragrammaton Records' output was released in 1968 and 1969, and by 1971 the company was broke and had to declare bankruptcy. In Canada, some of Tetragrammaton's releases were manufactured and distributed by the Canadian division of Polydor Records which also issued several Canada-only Deep Purple compilations after Tetragrammaton's demise.