[78-L] Ward Allen: old-time fiddler

[David Lennick]

4-56 is the release date. Sparton, Quality and Canadian Columbia showed these 
dates from about the mid 50s.

The "do not broadcast or we'll have your gonads for brunch" warning was 
standard on record labels beginning some time in the 20s..since radio stations 
paid licensing fees anyway, it couldn't have meant anything. The timings were 
for radio stations, but it was probably much simpler to print standardized 
labels, especially in Canada where we rarely got promo labels because of the 
smaller market. The publishing info was also for radio station use..if you 
clean out old station libraries, you'll often find ASCAP (or -CAP) and BMI 
stickers covering the top part of the label. We used to have to send logs a few 
times a year and ASCAP (or CAPAC) and BMI (later PRO-CAN) would base their 
royalties on these submissions..so if your friend wrote a song and Anne Murray 
stuck it on her second album, that was the week you played it. These surveys 
were never done around Christmas time. Two guesses why.

dl

Stephen Davies wrote:
> The labels for this disc can be viewed at: 
> http://bigband-smallband.blogspot.com/#7803721874176503894
> 
> Here's another bit of Canadiana, as supplied by Bud.
>   I'm confused by what appears to be too many numbers on these Sparton 
> disc labels, and I'm looking for help with interpreting them.
>    261R must be the catalogue number.
>    4-69-E & 4-70-E must be the matrix numbers.
>    But what is 4-56? Could it possibly refer to an album?
>    Also, I'm amused by the injunction against playing this disc on the 
> radio, paired with the inclusion of the BMI reference for royalties, 
> should it be played on the radio.
>   And isn't the time length provided on the label as a service to DJs? Did 
> anyone else really need to know how long a song runs for? 
> - Stephen D
> Calgary
>