Label

ARISTON - FIRST

Ariston Records was created in 1964 by Alfredo Rossi, brother of composer Carlo Alberto, owner of another important record label, Car Juke Box.
Based in Milan, like the biggest Italian record companies of the 70's except RCA, Ariston was a very important label though not particularly interested in rock and progressive sounds. 
They've released anyway some relevant Italian rock and prog albums (since 1966 with I Corvi, one of the most important Italian beat groups) and deserve a mention here for this reason.

A subsidiary label, First, was created in 1969 to launch some young beat and rock bands, and it was on this label that some of the early Stormy Six singles and albums were released.

Among the minor Italian labels distributed by Ariston were Victory and early Radio records. The label also acted as distributor for many foreign record companies until the early 80's, and closed in 1989. 

Both First and Victory shared a similar numbering system as the main label, whereas Ariston albums had an AR/LP + 5 digits catalogue number, First used FR/LP and Victory VY/LP numbers.

ARISTON

FIRST

In the time frame covered, the Ariston label had three different designs, starting with the classic black label with silver rectangular logo and writing. 
This was originally (until 1969) composed by a dark grey background with a light grey pattern and was later slightly reworked changing the background to an all black design that kept the same silver logo.
Around the end of 1971 (among the first known releases is Volo magico n°1 by Claudio Rocchi), and following the company's interest in the new rock bands, another label was introduced, beige with an elf and red logo, called "Ariston progressive - Produzione Gnomo". This was used on all the rock and progressive releases up until mid 70's, when the label went under the Ricordi distribution and a new black label was adopted, reminding the original one but with a black letter Ariston logo on a shaded grey background.

Singles had the same variations as the LP's.

In mid-70's, like many other Italian labels, Ariston launched their budget-price LP series, called Oxford, and many of their most important albums were reissued on it with cheap single covers often having a revised design.

It's also worth mentioning that some young artists were directed on Ariston's subsidiary First. This was the case with Stormy Six, whose first album was released on both Ariston and First.
Label was black with a thin silver logo on the first issues, while the logo was changed to a fat yellow/white type in the 70's releases.

original 60's LP label	late 60's/early 70's LP label
"Gnomo" progressive series LP label	mid 70's LP label
First LP label (late 60's)	First LP label (70's)
First single label (70's)
Ariston-distributed Victory LP label