[78-L] 78-L Digest, Vol 27, Issue 31 - Columbia EP numbering System was Wingy On Columbia

[Robert M. Bratcher Jr.]

Any idea why RCA, Columbia (& perhaps other companies in the 50's) put out 
classical on 45 rpm sets instead of just doing it on LP's? And yes I have a few 
45 rpm classical sets in my collection which I bought used years later after 
they were released.




________________________________
From: Nigel Burlinson <burlinson at orange.fr>
To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
Sent: Thu, December 16, 2010 8:21:22 AM
Subject: Re: [78-L] 78-L Digest, Vol 27, Issue 31 - Columbia EP numbering System 
was Wingy On Columbia

The A series of EP's below A.999 are generally derived from
the MM series and are mostly classical box sets.

From A.1000 to about A.1120 they continue as Box sets
but the catalog numbers bear no relation to an Lp or 78rpm  equivalent.

The B. series began as the EP equivalent of items in the old 'C' series of
78rpm albums (up to about B.548 or so) but the C series had petered out
by C.516/C.517/C.518 (Fess Parker)

Beginning with B.1500 they are all single EP's and if the selections
were:
Classical... they took an "A" prefix
Childrens.. they took an "J" prefix
Country.....they took an "H" prefix
all in the same number sequence.

The highest # in this block is B.2157

There is a separate block B.2500-2644 "Hall of Fame" series
and for the "Country & Western Hall of Fame" series the
numbers are B.2801-2837.

Numbers between about B.672-1 and B.1568-3 (last issue)
are derived from the equivalent CL "Pop" series;
sometimes the whole album was issued as three
separate EP's (B.1568-1-2-3 Mitch Miller), sometimes just
a single EP was issued (B.1370-1 Charles Mingus)

The numbers written thus:  B.15681, B.15682, B.13701)

Nigel Burlinson
burlinson at orange.fr