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

[David Lennick]

Victor had been working on something like the 45 since the early 40s and when 
Columbia launched the Lp they countered in early 1949 with the 45, claiming it 
was "almost as good" since it was quiet and the discs changed in two seconds. 
They didn't release long playing discs till 1950, although the early ones all 
have D9- matrix numbers, meaning they knew they were going to have to take a 
deep breath and swallow. Classical sets were still on 78s for a few years as well.

dl

On 12/16/2010 9:48 AM, Royal Pemberton wrote:
> The record companies didn't know which of the new speed formats would carry
> on or founder, so they wanted to cover all bases.
>
> On Thu, Dec 16, 2010 at 2:35 PM, Robert M. Bratcher Jr.<
> rbratcherjr at yahoo.com>  wrote:
>
>> 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
>>
>>