[78-L] 78 album covers (was Album Covers & Sleeve info) (was: Alex Steinweiss article)

[David Lennick]

Michael Biel wrote:
>  
>>>> 5. Record companies of the day seemed to want to hide dates from
>>>> the consumers. I don't think I have a single record, album, or
>>>> sleeve with a date.
> 
> Those of us with large collections do.  Decca had a copyright date on
> their album cover designs for much of the 1940s, and even used different
> dates for the different speed issues of the same design.  For
> example,the original LP (which I have in front of me) of Carousel has a
> 1949 copyright date on the LP cover, but of course the 78 had come out
> years earlier with the same cover design and the earlier date.  

Have you looked to see if that pressing is by Decca or Columbia?

>>> And then once the LP era came along, both Columbia and Victor went
>>> back to generic covers for many of their late 78 classical albums!
> 
> I don't see that in the U.S.  Maybe they did in Canada, but not here. 

Definitely in the US..I have a number of very late classical sets on Columbia, 
such as David Diamond's "Romeo and Juliet", which have (as I recall) a generic 
red and white cover showing something like a music stand with sheet music and a 
hand holding a baton. Title info was on the "sheet music", style similar to the 
tombstone cover of similar vintage. Most of these weren't even issued on 78 in 
Canada.

Oddly enough, Canadian Columbia almost never used the Steinweiss covers! We got 
plain covers much of the time and when they did go for artwork or 
illustrations, they came up with their own. Frederick Stock's recording of the 
Rumanian Rhapsody is one of the few with the same cover.

dl


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