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

[David Lennick]

Re A, DA, Album..(you knew this was coming)..I have 6 copies of OKLAHOMA! 
within easy reach. Some have the art on the front only (including a late 
pressing), some have it on the front and back. Most have DECCA DA 359 on the 
spine, some have DECCA ALBUM 359. Without exception, the bottom right corner of 
the cover says DECCA ALBUM NO. 359 (some add 23M PERSONALITY SERIES). Without 
exception, every label (Canadian and American) says Album A-359 or Album No. 
A-359. And of course they're all in automatic sequence. (I presume Vol. 2 was 
only in manual sequence, as are both my copies. Don't know about the Orchestral 
Suite with Wallenstein.)

Veering from Decca for a minute..why on earth would MGM issue a soundtrack 
album on 45s in Manual Sequence!? (Annie Get Your Gun.) And why would anyone 
press a 45 EP set in SLIDE AUTO? (The Barton Brothers "Mr Chairman--Point of 
Order" I mentioned the other day.)

dl

Michael Biel wrote:
> 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 
>