The Fab label was a subsidiary of and was started in 1966. The very first issues were pop tunes by the likes of P.J. Proby but by 1967 the label had been given over almost entirely to Jamaican music. This coincided with the phasing out of melodiscs Blue Beat label and consequently the Prince Buster productions that had dominated the Blue Beat label were switched to Fab.

The label, perhaps more than any other UK label, was unpredictable in the extreme with catalogue numbers being repeated, labels being changed, many issues on blanks, some labels being printed with just basic information like the song title and at some point in the early seventies a second run of issues starting.