[78-L] Album Images Needed (2.1) Decca w. titles

[Michael Biel]

David Lennick wrote:
> I have A96 with wallpaper back and two copies of A97, one with wallpaper back 
> and the other with the illustration on both sides.
>   
The copies in R&H both had wall paper on the backs.  96 had horizontal 
red squiggly lines and 97 had matching blue squiggly lines despite the 
cover printing on 96 was blue and on 97 it was red!  It seems that the 
backs confirmed the point that these two Gershwin song volumes were a 
pair even though the cover illustrations were so different.  I even took 
a photo of the two backs overlapping. 

> A16 says "copyright 1944" so that's when the sexy lady (Carmen Miranda with 
> less fruit) was added.
>   

I do want to see this also.  Another clue of reissues is the rectangular 
logo.
> Was A21 on the list? Nicolas Matthey, Rumanian Gypsy Music (or something like 
> that), wallpaper cover and wide black binding with the title printed in silver. 
>   
This is what my photo from R&H shows. 

> None of these albums has an A-prefix. I'm just using that for convenience. 

DON'T.  They did not use it until either December 1941 or Jan 1942.  The 
November 1941 Decca supplement does not use A but the January 1942 
does.  Likewise, the April 1941 and prior supplements does not list any 
automatic DA albums but the June 1941 has a separate list with DA 
prefixes. The regular album list does not use any prefixes.  It looks 
like they started using the A only when they issued a manual and 
automatic set simultaneously, which was Coleman's A Christmas Carol A-DA 
290 in December 41.  The Nov 41 shows Carl Sandburg The People Yes only 
as 273 with no letter, but the Jan 1942 lists it in both the automatic 
list as DA 273 and all of the albums in the manual list now have an A 
prefix.
It is interesting to note that the discs in the four sets are numbered 
consecutively in the order of manual Sandburg in Oct or Nov 41, then 
manual Coleman, then automatic Coleman both Dec 41, then automatic 
Sandburg in Dec 41 or Jan 42.  So the automatic Sandburg came out later 
than the manual, but the Colemans were simultaneous.     The May and Dec 
41 supplements will tell the stories of the prefixes one way or the other. 

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com