[78-L] Milestones Among the Tombstones

[David Lewis]

I was researching some information about Doris Day's first long player "You're My Thrill," Columbia CL-6071 (1949). I noted that the material was recorded in two sessions and none of the selections were released prior to the album and its 78 rpm equivalent, C-189. The hit from this album, "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," was issued on a separate single, Columbia 38698, and its corresponding microgroove version, 1-480, in February 1950. The Billboard reviewer who covered the single thought that the flip, "Imagination," was also from the album, but it isn't; it was an older, 1947 recording that had already appeared on a different single.

There is a truism that Columbia did not release a coherent LP from Doris Day until 1955's "Love Me Or Leave Me," preferring to cobble them together from singles or to produce faux soundtrack albums that were movie tie-ins. There is some truth to this, but "You're My Thrill" is genuinely an album, albeit a 10" one. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that Mitch Miller did not appreciate the value of albums in the pop market generally when it came to the singers that worked for him.

This got me to thinking; CL-6071 is still very early in Columbia's Pop LP program, and I was wondering what would be the earliest pop LP from Columbia that was specifically recorded as an LP and not compiled from singles or a direct reissue of a previously released 78 album. I was not prepared for the apparent answer to arrive quite so quickly. "Dinah Shore Sings," CL 6004, does not have a 78 album equivalent, and it's eight selections do not figure in the Columbia singles catalog AT ALL. This is really curious; Columbia needed to re-purpose these things. No DJs were playing LPs in 1948, nor could you program one on a jukebox. Even "You're My Thrill" was released as a boxed set of 45s once Columbia realized the Microgroove single was a bust, and it was later refashioned into "Day Dreams," a 12-inch LP with four extra tracks in 1955. 

But not "Dinah Shore Sings;" as far as I can tell, it seems not to have been re-released at all. Prove me wrong -- the tracks are listed after my sig. The album has four orchestra leaders listed, but I can't tell which ones belong to which track. Also, "The Gypsy" appears listed as one of Dinah's Columbia hits in this 1948 ad:   

http://www.box.net/shared/olz9x053hhx93ujhxbqd

Uncle Dave Lewis
uncledavelewis at hotmail.com

A Cottage For Sale
Once In A While
Oh, Susanna!
It's De-Lovely
I'm Yours
It All Depends On You
They Didn't Believe Me
The Gypsy