Fable made a significant initial impact in Australia in 1970-71, scoring a string of hits by new Australian artists, and throughout its history the company discovered and promoted local talent.
Its catalogue also included theatre organ music, Christian gospel music by singing group The Proclaimers, comedy recordings by veteran entertainer Frankie Davidson, and occasional novelty items like Drummond's 'chipmunk' version of "Daddy Cool" and a piano version of "In The Summertime" by film critic and honky-tonk piano virtuoso Ivan Hutchinson.
Tudor also established Fable Music Publishing; songs from its catalogue have been recorded by many notable Australian acts including John Farnham, Slim Dusty, Rolf Harris, Judith Durham, Anne Kirkpatrick, Olivia Newton-John, Brian Cadd, Debbie Byrne, Max Merritt, Margaret Urlich, Natalie Imbruglia, Marcia Hines, Col Joye, Diana Trask, Normie Rowe, The Bushwackers and Colleen Hewett.
John Williamson also earned a Gold Record for his debut single "Old Man Emu", the song he had used to win New Faces and which helped him gain his Fable contract.
Fable's second batch of singles, released in May 1970, included The Strangers' "Melanie Makes Me Smile", John Williamson's "Old Man Emu" and Jigsaw's "To Love Means To Be Free", each of which became a hit.
Desperate for material, radio stations turned to smaller local companies like Fable and Sparmac, who had declined to take part in the ban, and these independents made the most of this window of opportunity.
Tudor was being sent regular packages of new UK releases from London by his friend, former EMI house producer David Mackay, and he optioned songs he thought would be suitable for his Fable acts.
Early in the year it scored another Top 20 hit with a version of Cat Stevens' "Wild World", credited to the studio group Fourth House.
This song (which competed with the Jimmy Cliff version) had been intended as a solo release for Mike Brady (ex MPD Ltd), but an oversight during the recording of the backing track resulted in the song being pitched too high for Brady's vocal range, so Tudor called in former Wild Cherries lead singer Danny Robinson to overdub the lead vocal.
Cadd had been inspired by the example of Leon Russell's Shelter Records label, and the way that Russell—a former member of crack L.A. session team 'The Wrecking Crew' -- had organised a group of regular players around him for projects like Joe Cocker's phenomenally successful "Mad Dogs & Englishmen" tour.
In a similar vein, Cadd envisaged a regular Bootleg house band to back himself and all the other artists on the label, whom he would also produce, for recording and touring.
He also oversaw the Bootleg Family Band's own recordings, singing lead vocals and playing keyboards on their version of Loggins & Messina's "Your Mama Don't Dance", which was another major Australian hit that year, reaching #4 and charting for 17 weeks.
Cadd's second album Parabrahm reached #5 nationally, and spawned a string of successful singles: "Every Mother's Son" (March), "Silver City Birthday Celebration Day" (July) and "Keep on Rockin'" (October).
By this time Cadd had signed an American distribution deal and both Parabrahm and Moonshine came out on Chelsea Records in the US and he toured the US with the Bootleg Family Band during 1975.
Fable continued to score hits through 1972-73, including Matt Flinders' "Butterfly" (#4) Robin Jolley's debut single "Marshall's Portable Music Machine" (a #4 hit written and produced by Brian Cadd), The Mixtures "Captain Zero" (#5), the theme song from Bruce Beresford's The Adventures of Barry Mackenzie, performed by veteran 'trad' jazz singer Smacka Fitzgibbon, which reached #21, Jigsaw's "Mademoiselle Ninette" (#20) and Johnny Chester's Mother's Day tribute, "The World's Greatest Mum" (#9).
This was the last major Fable hit for some time, but the label bounced back in early 1975 with Bill & Boyd's "Santa Never Made It Into Darwin", inspired by the disaster of Cyclone Tracy which went to #1.
Other local independent labels were also eating into Fable's market share, most notably Michael Gudinski's fast-growing Mushroom Records, which had shot to prominence in early 1975 with the record-setting success of Melbourne band Skyhooks.
In September 1978 Tudor and Leon Hill (of Armstrong Audio Video) approached the Minister for Posts and Telecommunications, Tony Staley and requested "an increase of local content on commercial stations... [eventually reaching] 40 percent.
"[1] Fable records struggled on into the early 1980s, scoring a last hit in 1980 with Mike Brady's VFL anthem "Up There Cazaly", which became the HSV-7 (Melbourne) football theme song and the biggest-selling Australian single released up to that time.