[78-L] Tops Record, is this an LP 78?

[David Lewis]

Jim Whipkey wrote: It's>> a TOPS record, a 78, with 3 songs on each side. The selections are>> Christmas songs. Hope someone can give me some info on it. The label>> says 78rpm RX1012, vocal & Orch, 6 hits on each record. Only>> identification>> of artists is TOPS orchestra and choristers. The selections are: Jingle>> Bells, Santa Claus is Flying through the Sky, The first Noel, O Little>> Town>> of Bethlehem, Away In A Manger and Good King Wenceslaus. It's a 10 inch,>> grooves separate the 3 selections on each side. It would seem to be a>> full>> orchestra and several singers, male and female. Each song is about 2 and>> 1/2 minutes long, don't recall ever getting this much music off one side>> of a 10 inch 78. I recall some conversation some time ago about such>> records, but don't remember much about it.>> Jim Whipkey
Dr. Biel wrote:>>>>> Mid-1950s in the microgroove era, so the grooving is narrower but still>> playable with a 78 stylus or an LP stylus. These were supermarket>> racked records, but also were sold by mail from radio informercials.>> The performers sometimes tried to sound like the original hit records>> (one company had a group labeled "The Sound Effects") but occasionally>> an unknown future star shows up on these. Generally valued only as>> packing filler to protect REAL records.>>>> Mike Biel
 
Some among us refer to these as "generics," generic versions of popular hit songs performed by - in most cases - no name artists. They were sold in sets of three for 99 cents; 45 rpm equivalents sold three for 39 cents, and in some instances contain less songs. Your Christmas records would be of mildly exceptional interest in that these would be considerable as "original" performances and not a knock-off on another artist. I have a similar set on the Cincinnati-made Gateway Label by a group called The Roy-Cliffs; it's low budget, but in a way full of character - it sounds like the radio people in Cincinnati.
 
TOPS was a product of a Culver City, Ca.-based mass producer of records that also handled the LP era Crown Records label. They scattered tracks from their original album, Rock and Roll with Scatman Crothers, throughout some of their generic, 18-song sets of hits to pad them out. The company folded many years ago; when I went to its listed address the building was still a record company, but a Latin music concern. Tops/Crown also recorded B. B. King's first LP. 
 
This type of product line originated with Enoch Light and his Waldorf Music Hall label, in turn inspired by the television show "Your Hit Parade" and using some of the same cast members from that show. If people didn't mind folks like Snooky Lanson and June Valli singing their hits on TV, then they might buy cheap records of these singers doing them as well. Like Dr. B pointed out, they were racked up in supermarkets and sold through radio promotions, and it was a very successful idea, that's why Dr. Bs comment that they are commonly used for packing material is apt. It lasted until the 78 era and beyond, peaking in the 70s.
 
Nevetherless, sometimes these records contain little gems, especially if the performances are original - I have on Big 4 Hits (another Cincinnati generic) some tracks from the Osborne Bros. first recording session; some of the earliest Bluegrass records made. And even when not, the imitations of pop/rock records can serve as a kind of an amusing alternate universe for early rock n roll; the Cincinnati Gateway of "Rock Around the Clock" sure is funny. 
 
  
Uncle Dave Lewis uncledavelewis at hotmail.com
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