[78-L] Beach Boys 78s

[Michael Biel]

On 4/17/2011 5:13 PM, Cary Ginell wrote:
> Forgive me, for I have sinned.
>
> Rather than spend expensive gas driving 30 miles into L.A. to try and find a Beach Boys 78 set, I went against what Record Store Day was all about and bought a Beach Boys 78 set on eBay.

So did I, and I got two of them, and the second one is Leah's birthday 
present (today!)  She was at Princeton Record Exchange yesterday because 
she was going to a show in Princeton anyway, but the Beach Boys had sold 
out immediately.  She was able to otherwise find everything on the list 
we were interested in -- apparently the BB was the fastest seller in the 
bunch.  I don't know what PRX was selling the BB for, but price stickers 
in ebay pictures showed one at 15.95 and another at 29.95, so the stores 
might have sold them at whatever they wanted.

I also considered the cost of gas that I didn't spend by going 60 miles 
to Lexington -- and possibly not getting it.  Leah would NOT have gone 
to PRX just to get this!   She had to take a train.  I agree with Cary 
that EMI's store price was not excessive, and the ebay prices in the 
$20s is also reasonable considering gas costs.  I specifically have 
compared it with Bryan Wright's recent 78 twin set of him playing the 
Bix solos.  I had no hesitation of paying $29 for it, and it also is a 
limited pressing of 500.  http://www.rivermontrecords.com/bsv2212.html

Yes the BB is a made-to-be-a-collectors-item, but so were all the other 
modern era 78 promos INCLUDING the Sinatra/Dorsey that is pictured on 
page 221 of the new edition of Sherman's Collector's Guide To Victor 
Records (which I assume ALL of you have bought by now!!)  There were 
only 1000 of those, and reportedly there were 5000 BBs but some of the 
ebay copies were reported with numbers above 5000, so maybe it was 6000.

The BB 78s are mono, and most BB records were originally mono supposedly 
because Brian Wilson is deaf in one ear.  I have not come across any BB 
records with the voices on one side and the instruments on the other, 
but there are Beatles and Elvis recordings released that way.  I must 
also add that Capitol issued some Glen Campbell and Dean Martin records 
with the voice in one track instead of in the center.  The music was 
spread, but the voice was not in the center -- and this was 1967.  There 
were Duophonic BB albums, but the real stereo BB albums I've heard were 
real stereo.

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com