[78-L] 78 Album Sets outside the US & Canada

[Michael Biel]

  I covered a lot of the history of albums in my ARSC presentation that 
will eventually be on their website "The Illustrated Album Cover Before 
Steinweiss."  The Europeans were doing classical album sets long before 
we did in the U.S., before 1910 in fact.  In 1917 HMV started to have 
beautifully illustrated covers on their operetta sets, but by the 
mid-20s these and all their other sets were packaged in embossed 
leatherette-like fine library-edition albums.  It was only in 1924 when 
Columbia, then Victor and later Brunswick started doing classical sets.  
Prior to that time (and occasionally even afterwards) multi-disc works 
were sold as individual discs.

The concept of popular music in album sets was not immediately apparent 
because single records fit the format better.  Victor did have several 
short-lived thematic albums in 1926 for Mother's Day, Christmas, and the 
public intro to Orthophonic, and they also instituted the C- album 
series with composer sets like Victor Herbert, Stephen Foster, etc.  We 
are still looking for the catalog details of the Jimmie Rodgers album 
they put out around 1932.  Both American and British Brunswick had 
beautifully designed albums in 1932 for the revivals of Showboat and 
Blackbirds [of 1928], and the British also started issuing jazz 
compilations, sometimes in limited subscription editions.  They really 
had the idea of pop albums going before the U.S. did.  The Bix 
Beiderbecke memorial on Victor and the Bessie Smith memorial on Columbia 
started things happening in the U.S. as general record sales picked up 
in 36 and 37.  These were reissues, but then some labels started doing 
new recordings in album sets, Benny Goodman on Victor, Artie Shaw on 
Bluebird, Kostalantz on Brunswick, Boogie Woogie on Vocalion, along with 
numerous albums by Liberty Music Shop, Musicraft, and others in 37 and 
38 were topped by the Decca Album series which started at the end of 
1937 and hit 100 albums by the end of 1939.

British Brunswick and British Decca started their popular album series 
in mid-1939 both borrowing from and giving ideas to American Decca.  It 
was only AFTER all this that American Columbia picked up on the album 
set idea and started their red label popular series at C-11 in late 
March/early April 1940 with Steinweiss's first cover after almost 200 
illustrated covers on other labels had led the way.  The war did 
restrict the British record industry in general, but I think album sets 
did continue although a lot of classical works were once again being 
sold as individual discs.  From what I see of post-war British sets 
imported into the U.S., in just about all cases the discs were imported 
and the album books themselves were manufactured in the U.S.  This also 
was the case of a lot of the British LPs.  It was cheaper to make the 
albums in the U.S. than to ship all that paper and cardboard, so only 
the discs were shipped.

Since The Gramophone magazine is available on-line, that is the best 
source for info on how records were packaged in England in the 30s and 
war years.  And our own Geoffrey Wheeler has done a good job documenting 
the growth of the jazz albums in his books "Jazz by Mail", and  
"Collectors Guide to Jazz on Bootleg & Reissue 78 RPM Records 1932-1952" 
(although he does have a bug as to whether Columbia has a legitimate 
claim to any ARC and earlier masters,, and calls a lot of their reissues 
"bootlegs"!)

Mike Biel   mbiel at mbiel.com


On 7/31/2010 11:21 AM, Jeff Sultanof wrote:
> In fact, the first Ted Heath sides issued in the US consisted of The London
> Suite, a set of three 10" 78s of themes written by Fats Waller. The liner
> notes clearly state this. This was issued here in 1948.
>
> I can also attest that at least some of the albums themselves were printed
> here. I once had the Carousel original cast set, and discovered that there
> was another cover below the Carousel cover. Curiosity got the best of me, so
> I tore the Carousel cover off to discover the cover to an album of Ansermet
> and the Suisse Romande performing Stravinsky's Petrouchka.
>
> Jeff Sultanof
>
> On Sat, Jul 31, 2010 at 10:58 AM, David Lennick<dlennick at sympatico.ca>wrote:
>
>> I'm not sure about album sets of popular music in Europe, although there
>> were some jazz compilations issued in the 30s and the Brunswick Showboat
>> album was definitely issued as such (I have it), but classical album sets
>> were definitely marketed in Europe and the UK, probably before the idea
>> caught on in the States. During the 40s there was a serious restriction on
>> the material used to make albums, and sets were sold without them as late as
>> 1950 I believe. London and Deutsche Grammophon album sets were definitely
>> imported into North America in the late 40s, although the albums themselves
>> were probably manufactured in the States. London sets included Ted Heath,
>> George Shearing, Ambrose, Harry Roy, plus dozens of classical works.
>>
>> dl
>>
>>
>>
>>
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