[78-L] Milestones Among the Tombstones

[David Lewis]

I think we have a Winnah!! Congratulations -- BUDDY CLARK.

CL-6007 "For You Alone" was recorded with the backing of the Mitchell Ayers Orchestra, all in one day, August 20, 1947. None of these were issued before the LP appeared as part of the original package of 11 pop albums introduced at the roll out of the LP at the Columbia sales convention held in Atlantic City, on June 19, 1948. The 78 set -- C-152 -- was not issued before that, and it may have been released slightly later, but it is hard to tell exactly when as I can't find any reviews of it. What reviews there are about Buddy Clark in 1948 are glowing ones about his duets with Doris Day, released as singles, and highly popular. This is in agreement with Day's own statement that her duets with Buddy Clark really helped her recording career, which as a solo artist had only begun in 1947 and began to flounder quickly.

There is a great page in Billboard that fairly well lays out the debut of the LP, "FULL COLUMBIA LP STORY," ppgs. 3/18 of the issue dated June 26, 1948. "Under the guidance of CBS research director Peter Goldmark, assisted by Rene Snepwangers, CBS engineer, and William Bachman, CRI research director, the LP microgroove record potential was realized this year. [...] the company's main plant at Bridgeport, Conn., has been for several months pressing the new LP's for nationwide distribution."

"The initial LP catalog includes 101 records covering 325 compositions. There are 70 classical disks which cover works running from Bach, Beethoven and Brahms thru Prokofieff and Khatchaturian. Twenty disks are included to cover the light classic and show score field with items like 'The Chocolate Soldier', 'Grand Canyon Suite' and the original cast of 'Finian's Rainbow' included. The remaining 11 disks are in the pop field and include 'Frank Sinatra Sings,' 'Harry James Favorites'; 'For You Alone,' with Buddy Clark, and 'Dinah Shore Sings.'"

There was nothing in the first roll out of 11 called "Frank Sinatra Sings;" what they meant was CL-6001, "The Voice of Frank Sinatra," consisting of 8 previously released tracks from 1945.

Mr. 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 did wonder about the long delay -- almost a year -- between the session on August 20 and the release on June 19. This -- and Buddy Clark's luck in being the first artist to make an actual pop album -- are for reasons that relate DIRECTLY to the recording ban, although not the ones you might think. Here's part of an article that predates Billboard's initial break of the LP story for some months, published on February 28, 1948 under the heading, "Mr. P. Inventory Patsy: Confusion and Backlog Ache Pile Up wax, Distribs, Dealers Blame Ban:"

"The major wax manufacturers haven't reduced their releases (their backlogs should cover regular-size schedules for another six month) but on the coverage of songs by artists one great selling difficulty has arisen. Columbia, for example, has been strewing its outlets with Buddy Clark releases. Distrib objection is that with each new Clark disk they get all set to promote and sell, spend about a week hustling to excite retailers and consumers on the 'latest Clark ditty' and then voom, the parent firm sends out another Clark cutting. That type of release-spacing hurts the market. Columbia's defense, of course, is that in the deadline days they were forced to cover as many songs as possibly with available artists. Clark was available! Later, when particular songs were launched by publishers or competitive diskeries, the jumbo label couldn't avoid scaling one Clark release after the other. Spokesmen for the company, however, point out that the condition already has been virtually corrected with the Petrillo-deadline confusion now under control and release formulas being worked out that will take the stress off sales outlets. Columbia hasn't been unique in this problem, since RCA Victor in the past few weeks has been heel-on-heeling its Sammy Kaye, Tex Beneke and Freddie Martin releases."

"Heel-on-heeling" ... love that expression. Nevertheless, Buddy's prolixity in the studio in the late 1940s -- as things turned out -- was not the worst thing he could have done for his legacy.

Buddy got to do pop album No. 1 because "he was available," but also because Columbia was flooding the market with his releases to the extent that distributors were complaining. So with the session recorded 8-20-1947 they figured they could wait for a bit; moreover, the LP was probably one of those "release formulas being worked out that will take the stress off sales outlets." And his release was not the only one in mind; "Campus Favorites" by Kay Kyser -- CL-6012 and therefore the first of the second round of pop LP releases -- was also recorded in August 1947 but not issued until '48. 

Mr. Lennick:
"I have a Walter Gross album (CL 6141) which has continuous unbanded sides, so that might have been new to LP."  

Indeed it would've been, but the last disc of the original 11, "Happy Anniversary" by Ray Noble (CL-6011) was "A Musical Story" including an interior narration which carried from track to track. Even though it was issued as a 78 set as C-160, the strategy was probably employed with the LP in mind, despite being divided into eight tracks like the others. It was recorded in October 1947.

The June 26th article also indicates the delay was partly because Philco needed extra time to develop the pickup for the microgroove player, which was listed at $29.95, a bit expensive but within the means of most consumers in 1949. Columbia was offering the microgroove technology freely to anyone who wished to convert to making LPs, but with the caveat that high-fidelity technology was an intractable part of the equation.

Finally, the pop part of the first roll out of the LP was clearly not the main event; it was the huge classical part of the release that was their main concern. Goldmark and Snepwangers were classical music guys and the object was to eliminate all of those annoying side changes during symphonic works. Also improved fidelity was a big concern, something hard for us to appreciate as Tombstones sound like crap to us. But we're getting them more than 60 years after they were pressed, and most of us don't have that special Philco cart that was designed to play them, nor the machine that held it. 

Congratulations, Buddy. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.  

Uncle Dave Lewis
uncledavelewis at hotmail.com