[78-L] Milestones Among the Tombstones

[Michael Biel]

I was just discussing on the phone a few hours ago how all of the first 
Columbia Lps were reissues of their 78 albums, and then Uncle Dave has 
to screw things up with CL 6004 by Dinah Shore.  I'm not so sure about 
that but I would need to have the 1950 Columbia catalog to be sure.  
These annuals came out in around July and the 1949 which has the first 
Lp release does not show 78 albums that hit the stores later than their 
Lp, such as CL 6019 Christmas Songs by Sinatra which is in the 52-53 
catalog as C-167 (and B-167 on 45), and CL-6015 S'Wonderful by Buddy 
Clark and Dinah Shore which the 52-53 shows was on 78 as C-166 (no 45 
listed).  The 52-53 does not show a 78 or 45 for Dinah's CL 6004, BUT 
maybe the 1950 catalog would.   Besides having three columns for the 
numbers for the three speeds, the 52-53 catalog has another difference 
from the older ones -- it tends not to show the individual 3_000 78 
number for sides in a set, just the set number.  Asit is I am alittle 
surprised to see that apparently these three Lps appeared before their 
78 sets did, and that maybe 6004 had no 78 set.

Since I have it sitting here I looked to see what the 52-53 catalog says 
about CL-6128 Abe Burrows Sings? which has a 1950 copyright date and a 
full illustrated cover (signed Velae).  The catalog shows the Lp but no 
78 or 45.  But that doesn't mean that it did not have them.  What we 
need is a full numerical of all of the albums.  Some of the late 78 
albums might have gone in and out of print without ever hitting an 
annual catalog.  Note that this album is lower numbered than the Walter 
Gross album Lennick mentions, and it also shows only the Lp number, but 
yet there are some albums in this series,  such  as CL-6200 by Frankie 
Laine, which was issued on 78 and 45 as C-287 and B-287..

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com

On 7/23/2011 10:38 PM, David Lennick wrote:
> Bear in mind that when Columbia launched the Lp in mid 1948, the industry was
> in the middle of an AFM ban, so it would have been impossible to issue ANY new
> material for another six months other than spoken word (I Can Hear It Now), and
> tape wasn't even in general use while all the early lp masters were being cut.
> And ten inch albums still had their 78RPM equivalents issued simultaneously,
> like "Happy Holidays" (CL 6053, and even that was recorded in 1947 but not
> issued till 1949). I have a Walter Gross album (CL 6141) which has continuous
> unbanded sides, so that might have been new to LP.
>
> One speed..is all you need!
>
> dl
>
> On 7/23/2011 8:50 PM, David Lewis wrote:
>> 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
>>    		 	   		
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