[78-L] Colored vinyl records

[David Lennick]

And World Pacific or Pacific Jazz on yellow, I think.

dl

Royal Pemberton wrote:
> I remember seeing a green 10" Fantasy LP, Gerry Mulligan I think.  I have an
> early Dave Brubeck 10" that is on black vinyl.  The 12" mono Fantasys were
> red, and I think the first stereos were on blue vinyl.
> 
> On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 3:17 PM, David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>wrote:
> 
>> Royal Pemberton wrote:
>>> Wasn't Fantasy the first label to offer LPs in colours other than black
>> or
>>> red?  (Unless Audiophile was making red vinyl LPs before Fantasy began.)
>>>
>> Noop..a lot of the early LP labels pressed on red (Alco, Artist..something
>> about the West Coast liking colored vinyl, I guess). And I think they
>> predate
>> Fantasy or were at least contemporaneous. (Can't remember whether Fantasy's
>> ten-inchers were red..were they?)
>>
>> dl
>>
>>
>>
>>> On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 2:16 PM, David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Amen to the problems with transparent LPs and radio play. Incidentally,
>> I
>>>> have
>>>> the "My Fair Lady" soundtrack on pink vinyl. Mono, but still sealed
>> (yeah
>>>> smartass, so how do you know it's pink? The inner plastic sleeve is
>> still
>>>> sealed, that's how). Open to offers.
>>>>
>>>> And there were clear glass lacquers offered by two companies during
>> WWII.
>>>> One
>>>> was Clear-O. I forget the name of the other, but Peggy Lee is shown
>> looking
>>>> through one of the discs in an ad in The Etude.
>>>>
>>>> dl
>>>>
>>>> Michael Biel wrote:
>>>>> 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
>>>>>
>>>>>