[78-L] Vaughn Meader and Sam Goody

[Michael Biel]

David Lennick wrote:

> It WAS on Collectors Choice a few years ago, possibly combined with Volume II,

David Weiner wrote:

> Both albums are on one CD from Oldies.com. 

The LP reissue was dubbed off of MONO LPs, and probably also the CD.   I 
have both LPs in stereo.  The stereo on the first album is minimal 
although they show a fine multi-mic set-up in the photos.  The second 
album is great in stereo except for the several cuts that were left off 
the first album.  When the records were new I NEVER EVER saw a stereo 
copy of the first one nor of  My Son the Folk Singer.  And I saw 
thousands of copies of each. And I WAS looking for stereo copies.  But 
that didn't keep each of them from topping the separate Billboard Stereo 
LP chart, going back and forth for four or five weeks.  Indeed in all 
the decades of junking and garage sales I have only found one stereo 
copy of My Son, three stereos of Family Vol 1 and one of Vol 2.

I've been planning for decades to do a detailed article about these 
albums.  I've already done the research but not the writing.  It's quite 
a story.

dl (or is it Dl) wrote:
>> That album was such a fast seller that some stores (maybe\
>> only in Canada) were forced to sell the discs without the
>> covers until new ones could be printed up. 

It must have only been in Canada.  In my research I found that Archie 
Bleyer INSISTED on not allowing ANY copies be sold without a properly 
printed cover.  That would invite counterfeiters.  He had execs of the 
company FLY to California holding the color separation masters of the 
cover in their laps so the West Coast pressing plants could have the 
covers printed.  The fly in the ointment was that the Indianapolis RCA 
Victor plant couldn't get the pebbled surface paper, and the copies 
found with smooth paper are usually from that plant.  (Discs get 
switched over the years.)  All three Victor plants, both Columbias, both 
Capitols, and three independent plants were used, and very tight 
inventory control was exercised.  I do have examples of nine of the ten 
pressing plants Vol 1 was pressed in, and two plants for the stereo.  
And a British and Canadian pressing of Vol 1.


>>  On Behalf Of Eric Goldberg
>>
>> I was working at Sam Goody's the day that John Kennedy was shot. 
>> All copies of the Vaughan Meader album were pulled from the shelf.
>> A couple of days later someone wanted to buy a copy of the record and an 
>> eager salesman went into the back room and brought out a copy. When Goody
>> (yes Virginia, there was a Sam Goody) saw the record, he ripped it out of
>> the patron's hand and absolutely refused to sell him the record.
>>
>>     
In addition to Sam Goody pulling all copies, Schwann dropped the albums 
from the catalog without going thru the Black Diamond stage.  They just 
disappeared.

Getting back to Dave Weiner's comments about stereo copies, Goodys would 
not stock comedy albums in stereo.  I once got into an argument with two 
salesmen at the Paramus Goodys concerning the MGM Borge's Back album.  
It has the dual-piano routine he did with Leonard Hambro which I had 
just seen on TV, and I realized that it would not make any sense in mono 
if you couldn't see it.  They wouldn't even special order it in stereo 
for me.  I eventually got a stereo copy as a 59 cent cut-out at Sterns 
Paramus about a mile away.  (The guys in that store were strange.  Roy 
Evans used to work there and he has some nifty stories to tell.) 

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com