[78-L] Decca's Music of Our Time series

[David Lennick]

David Weiner wrote:
> Stephen Davies wrote:
>>         I have the set on 78rpm from 1916 - 1944, and am now looking for 
>> duplicates.  It is odd to see how Decca sat on these recordings for 
>> several years until they were ready to start releasing them.  
> 
> Easy..there was a shellac shortage! It made more sense to get as much
> mileage 
> out of Bing and a few a capella hits by The Song Spinners, and then use the 
> alloted shellac for Oklahoma! and other guaranteed hits. A lot of recordings
> 
> from 1942-45 weren't issued till 1950 and some were never brought out.
> 
> dl
> 
> 
> Woody Herman left Decca in 1944, disgruntled that they only released four of
> the 24 sides he recorded in 1943-44 at the time.  Some came out on Coral 78s
> five years later and others say the light of day on LP. 
> 
> Dave W.

I don't think I'd have been gruntled either under those circumstances. Decca 
also made a big deal of grabbing Jascha Heifetz away from Victor, but many of 
those sides weren't issued till they came out on LP in 1950. Good thing, 
considering the rotten shellac used for the sides they did put out. A lot of 
spoken word also languished..some made it to LP but some has never appeared 
(and is now presumably gone). There were also recordings that came out only on 
World Transcriptions at the time, like Larry Adler's "As Time Goes By" (never 
on 78 or LP). And I believe the Songs Of Our Times sets were put out on World 
before being issued as album sets.

dl