[78-L] Colored vinyl records

[Michael Biel]

Ted Kneebone wrote:
>>> There are red vinyls in my collection, 78s, LPs, and 45s (RCA, 
>>> Concert Hall, Silvertone). I think I still have some 45s in
>>> yellow and blue. The color didn't seem to affect the sound!
>>> Before getting these colored records, I didn't think it was 
>>> possible to have anything but black!

Records in colors other than black go back to the FIRST records.  Beyond
the silvery tinfoil, the first wax records were yellow.  Then they were
brown.  Only after the turn of the century did they become black to
match Berliner's discs.  One of Victor and Columbia's first disc
competitors was American, and their discs were blue.  The first
celluloid cylinders (in the U.S.) were Lamberts and most were pink, but
some were white.  Of course Vocalion and Perfect records were red
shellac, and in the 30s, there were the Columbia Royal Blues.

Joe Salerno wrote:
>>> There were also some 78s that were multi colored - with the wildest
>>> swirls imaginable.  Kurt Nauck had some pictured in his action
>>> catalog some issues back

They are called "splash" records  I first saw those on George Blacker's
wall perhaps 35 years ago.  Aeolian Vocalion put one of them out in
red-white-&-blue to commemorate the "end" of of WW I, and something like
7 colors to commemorate something else.  And there was a short-lived
series of Pathes that mixed the red and black shellac.  

And as for plastic, one of the first plastic record, Flexo, put out
their discs in a whole range of colors, some transparant and some
opaque.  The 16-inch Flexo Brunswick ETs were transparent blue, and
since the plastic was cellulose acetate, the labels told you to only use
the special acetate needles.  Among other things, this led the idiots
who worked in radio to call lacquer discs "acetates"  Durium's coated
paper records were brown.    

>> Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe I had read years ago
>> that the basic "vinyl" is transparent and that something like
>> lampblack is added to give the traditional black color. Different
>> additive -different color.  Mike Murray

As for vinyl's native color, I understand it might be a yucky pale
yellow, and the black coloring was to mask it.  But the fact that there
are some perfectly clear colorless vinyl pressings might disprove that
unless there is something that is mixed in that masks that color.  The
Vinyl that World Broadcasting System used for their non-flex ETs was
very slightly translucent purple.  Victor used black for their Victrolac
and vinyl pressings until the mid-40s when they put out the transparant
Ruby Red Red Seal DeLuxe 78s and their color-coded 45s. 

>> Grand Funk's "We're An American Band" was gold.
>> Mark L. Bardenwerper, Sr.

From: "Robert M. Bratcher Jr." <bratcher at pdq.net>
> The first pressing on the LP & 45 both were yellow (gold) vinyl. 
> There was also a set of Beatles 45's made for jukebox use which
> each record a different single color other than black. A reissue
> of Harper Valley PTA was done in green vinyl. 

So once again, the newer generation's golly-gee-whiz of the gold Grand
Funk "We're An American Band" is sooooo, sooooo lame.  There are
HUNDREDS of rock-era 45s and LPs that came out in color vinyl.  It's no
big deal.  Whoop de do!   The Beatles 45s were issued in the 80s to try
to get SOME sales.  There had previously been some issues of the red and
blue LP sets in red and blue vinyl and labels respectively, and I think
the Love set came out in opaque white.  As for the Harper Valley PTA
album in green, MANY of Shelby Singleton's Plantation albums came out in
green, some were only issued in green.   All of these were done in too
great a quantity to make them worth much more than the regular
pressings.  It ONLY become substantial when they are one-of-a-kind, such
as the after-hours samples pirated by a pressing plant worker.  Some
early Motown 45s exist like this.  There was a recent discussion in
Goldmine as to whether these records -- several of them are Beatles LPs
that are currently being auctioned for BIG money -- are to be considered
by EMI as STOLEN PROPERTY since the person who had owned them was the
pressing plant worker who admitted making them after-hours and walking
out with them.  That is stealing like a worker walking out of a plant
with ANYTHING!  

 

It should be noted that DJs HATE transparent records.  In the mid-60s
Columbia sent a bi-monthly release packet of 45s with each of the 7 or 8
records pressed in a different color.  It did get them noticed, but I do
not recall if any of them became hits.  (A friend of mine made off with
the ones that came to our station!  They might still be in his
collection in the original mailing envelope.)  But when they did it
again with a mailing of DJ LPs they got reactions from DJs that told
them in no uncertain terms to never do it again.  To explain what the
problem is, it is difficult to see the bands on a transparent record to
cue it up.  

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com