[78-L] Unexpected US Releases was Calling all Goonatics

[Michael Biel]

David Weiner wrote:
> I still don't get why stereo discs were so hard to come by in the mid-60s -
> not only comedy, but Beatles original issues, for instance - despite the
> extra dollar in cost, hadn't all the ad copy screaming about stereo
> superiority worked at all? Or had consumer interest in stereo waned by 1963?
>
> Was it easier to find a stereo issue say, in 1960 than in 1963? 
>
> Dave W.
>
>   

Of course part of this particular narrative concerned British sales, and 
most of the companies there had the same price for mono and stereo.  The 
Brits were slow in converting their equipment to stereo and had been 
warned not to play stereo discs with mono cartridges.  Here in the U.S., 
that extra dollar meant a whole lot.  After all, that was an increase of 
price that could be 30% depending on discount.  There often were 
wholesaler kickbacks on mono records that reduced their prices even 
more.  Billboard had separate mono and stereo charts until mid-1964, and 
pushing stereo copies of certain types might lower the chart position in 
the more important mono chart.  It might be a good subject to study -- 
and might have had an effect on the growth of electronic stereo we 
discussed a few months ago. 

I worked for a rack jobber in 1966 and 67 and personally changed the 
price stickers of every mono LP in Macy's 34th Street on the Sunday that 
the mono prices went up.  Until that day -- and even after -- mono 
always outsold stereo.  On rock albums it could be 5 to 1.  We sold 
practically no stereo country albums.  Soundtracks like Sound of Music 
might be closer, like 1.5 to 1.   Bill Cosby were our biggest comedy 
sellers, and I made a point of having stereo in stock, but few were sold 
until the price change.   I left for a better job soon after the price 
change, but could see in the stores that mono still sold till the record 
companies forced the issue and just deleted the monos -- where they 
still sold in the cut-out bins!   Yeah, real smart.  Mono was 99 cents 
and stereo was $3.29. 

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com

> David Lennick
>
> Didn't even know TW3 had been done in stereo. Another one we had on Canadian
>
> Capitol, in mono..and as a Parlophone import, but again in mono. Not enough 
> stereo sales to bother bringing them into Canada at that time.
>
> I didn't get Milligan Preserved in stereo till the reissue (on NOTE, I
> think).
>
> dl
>
> Michael Biel wrote:
>   
>> David Lennick wrote:
>>     
>>> And then there was the stereo copy of "Bridge On The River Wye" I scooped
>>>       
> up 
>   
>>> for about $3 in NYC in February '68 on my first visit. We'd had that in
>>>       
> Canada 
>   
>>> but as a Capitol mono LP with not even the original cover art. But Canada
>>>       
> had 
>   
>>> long been receptive to British comedy, even getting it via shortwave on
>>>       
> the CBC 
>   
>>> in the 40s.
>>>
>>> dl
>>>
>>>   
>>>       
>> I believe I have all of the Parlophone broadcast comedy LPs that George 
>> Martin did.  My pen-pals could not find stereo copies of TW3 and Michael 
>> Bentine in London and sent me special-ordered monos, but I finally got 
>> them in stereo as cut-outs at Record Hunter probably around when you got 
>> yours.  My presumption is that they stickered and sent ALL their stereo 
>> copies to the U.S.  I couldn't find a stereo of Milligan Preserved, but 
>> finally found one in AUSTRALIA! 
>>
>> The stereo TW3 is a VERY IMPORTANT DOCUMENT of George Martin's stereo 
>> production techniques during the EXACT time of the first two Beatles 
>> albums.  It shows that contentions of what he would never have done is a 
>> LIE.  For example, shortly after starting the LP in normal stereo with 
>> the band spread in stereo around the singer in the center,  he pans 
>> Millicent Martin singing from the center over to the extreme left with 
>> the band moved to the extreme right, when placing David Frost's 
>> narration in the center.  And then he keeps her panned over to the side 
>> that way. 
>>
>> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
>>     
>>> Michael Biel wrote:
>>>   
>>>       
>>>>>   
>>>>>       
>>>>>           
>>>> I know you are talking about Canada, but it was different in the U.S. 
>>>> from what indicate here.  The two Parlophone imports with the Odeon 
>>>> stickers did not arrive here until late 1962 or early 1963. These were 
>>>> strictly mono.  I think the first Public Radio package was also starting
>>>>         
>
>   
>>>> by then, so there was some knowledge in the U.S. by then.  The ONLY 
>>>> store I ever saw these in was The Record Hunter on 5th Ave at 42nd St.  
>>>> I bought them in Dec 63 when by British pen pals said I might like them,
>>>>         
>
>   
>>>> and on the same day at a store across the street I got the two Sellers 
>>>> Angels as cut outs for a buck along with Delirium In Hi-Fi by Elsa 
>>>> Popping and Her Pixieland Band -- perhaps the greatest album ever 
>>>> issued.    The Goon series on Pye and then BBC did not come out until 
>>>> 1965, and we saw them mainly as U.S. pressings.  The two Angel Sellers 
>>>> and Sellers-Loren LPs were 1961.
>>>>
>>>> Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>> _____