[78-L] Set Sequence (was: Decca Specialty Series (DAU-x))

[Michael Biel]

From: David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
> I shall amend my statement about D and DA..some manual sequence
> albums such as the Ethel Merman Souvenir Album were still listed
> as "Decca Album 681" rather than A681, although Oklahoma! is in
> drop auto sequence and the labels read A359, early spines say
> Decca Album 359, and a later one says DA 359.

The catalogs can tell you what they intended to do, but the albums
themselves don't always follow what the catalogs list.  Decca was very
confusing in this.

> Now then, what the hell were manufacturers thinking when they pressed
> 45 albums (including some soundtracks) in manual sequence? Duh!  dl

I've been curious about the companies' habits concerning sequence of
opera LP boxes.  By this time they had forgotten that it would be
possible to distinguish sequence in a catalog number prefix or suffix,
and often it is a mystery whether a set will be manual or automatic
until you open up the (sealed) box!  Early LP sets were usually in
automatic sequence, but it became considered a Hi-Fi No-No to use a
changer, so that was the reason for the migration from auto sequence to
manual sequence in the 60s.  But how did the buyers know what they would
get if they did actually use a changer?  When did which labels change
their policy?  What did the do with re-pressings of sets that were
originally automatic when they had switched their policy to issuing
manual sequence sets?  I've never seen any LP company give you a choice
like Columbia and Victor gave you in much of the 78 era.  As a kid I
rarely could afford an opera LP box, but I am picking up a lot of them
now real cheap in NYC and college disposals.  But I don't have enough to
find a pattern.

All I know is that I would have been madderthanhell if I were a
changer-owner opera-lover in the 60s and occasionally got a surprise
manual sequence opera.  Considering that the record clubs kept dying
formats alive longer than stores because they knew their customers still
drove old cars with 8-track players, etc., I wonder if club opera
pressings might have been automatic while store sets had been changed
over to manual, because club buyers might still be clinging to or buying
changers?  

As Lenny Kunstadt would say:  "RESEARCH!!!"

Mike (never owned an LP changer) Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com  

P.S.  That's not true.  I did own a Glaser-Spears (Sp?) changer for a
few months but never used it.  My brother-in-law bought a new Garrard 80
changer and traded me this older one for 5 LPs.  I then traded it to my
Uncle Bob for the Dynakit tube pre-amp he had built and which I still
cherish and use.  



Michael Biel wrote:
> DL wrote:
>> The U in the prefix almost always indicates "unbreakable".
> 
> From: agp <agp2176 at verizon.net>
>> So -- I guess that means that DAU stands for D-ecca A-lbum U-nbreakable?
> 
> The A originally stood for "Automatic" sequence. By the mid-40s many
> pop Decca albums did not have side numbers. Although dramatic albums
> needed to be played in strict sequence and were numbered and were
> usually in auto sequence, pop albums of separate songs didn't need a
> strict sequence, so the D and DA prefixes were sometimes ambiguous on
> regular pop albums.