[78-L] 16 Tons of Urban Legend?

[Michael Biel]

I also have used the matrix number order in filing records that have no 
easily determined hit side but know, for example, that Milt Gabler 
squeezed Rock Around the Clock into the last 15 minutes of the session, 
partially because he wanted the other song to be the hit side because he 
had finageled some writer credit for it!!  "13 (?) Women and Only One Man".

But what about the sales?  Is it earthly possible that within two months 
of release 16 Tons "was the greatest selling single of all 
time"????????????  That's what they claim.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com


On 3/7/2011 10:23 AM, Cary Ginell wrote:

> I use the same methodology in figuring out which side to list first on the identifying labels I put on my 78 sleeves. However, the order a song is recorded usually has nothing to do with its side designation. In these years, union regulations stipulated that no more than four songs could be recorded at any session. "Sixteen Tons" may have been the first of the four (I don't have the Ford discography on hand), but the order of recording really didn't matter. They could have saved it for last because the bass clarinet player was late to the session. Who knows what determines the order at these sessions?
>
> Cary Ginell
>
>> Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2011 04:51:38 -0800
>> From: glongwell at snet.net
>> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
>> Subject: Re: [78-L] 16 Tons of Urban Legend?
>>
>> Well, from a matrix number point of view Sixteen Tons was recorded first.  Perhaps that means something.  That's probably why I listed it as the A side in my database.
>>
>>