[78-L] re-issues

[Michael Biel]

Wasn't there "16 Blue Roads to St. Louis"?  (Unless it was 14 roads) it
put the number of tracks right in the album title.  RCA also did an
album with multiple versions of Stardust, also 16, I believe.  And these
were "Down Beat Jazz Milestone" albums, I believe.

During those years the British routinely had 14 tracks on LPs when we
had 12 because of a royalty issue.  Our levels were a penny per song for
the composers and another for the publisher, while the British had a
per-album total rather than per-song (and I think it was the equal of 56
cents U.S.), so they could have 12 or 14 or 16 tracks for the same
royalty total.  This continued thru the early Beatles years, which is
why the albums were always different before Sgt. Peppers.  Then there
was a rate change that included a rolling amount that took extended time
lengths into account, so you couldn't get away with a 2 cents total for
a ten minute song!   

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com 

-------- Original Message --------

From: David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>


Julian Vein wrote:
> David Lennick wrote:
>> Thomas Stern wrote:
>>> What were the first 8 track per side LPs ?
>> Not claiming that these are the first, but RCA LPM 1364 (Duke Ellington: In a 
>> Mellotone) and LPM 1503 (Fats Waller: One Never Knows, Do One) have 8 tracks 
>> per side. Issued in 1956 and 1957 respectively. I don't know why I associated 
>> Grauer and Keepnews with these..they were producing RCA reissues, but on "X" 
>> and for the 10-volume alphabetical Encyclopedia of Jazz.
> 
>> dl
> ----------------
> There was also the Muggsy Spanier Ragtimers on RCA LPM1295. Willis 
> Conover used to play this incessantly at the time. French RCA were 
> issuing 8 tracks per side on their "Horizons du Jazz" series, but not 
> sure when they started.
> 
> Julian Vein

Also Tommy Dorsey "Tribute Vol. 1" (with no liner notes!) and Ellington
"At His 
Very Best" (8 tracks side 1, equivalent side 2 which has Black Brown and

Beige). Anything in the "Down Beat Jazz Milestone" series had 8 cuts per
side, 
although the first Ellington I named didn't have that imprint.

dl