[78-L] Double Sided Dance Band Discs - swing era

[David Lennick]

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town by Tommy Dorsey was backed with Jingle Bells by 
Benny Goodman, but that was a Christmas combo. I suspect that retailers might 
have been vocal in hating the split combinations.

One very late oddball pairing (early 50s) is on A-Bell, joining Sam Ulano's 
drumming narrative The Three Bears with an instrumental by Will Lorin's 
Orchestra, Poughkeepsie Pizzicato. And Ricky Nelson recorded only 3 sides for 
Verve, so one of them was backed with an instrumental led by Barney Kessel. Not 
swing era but odd splits nonetheless.

dl

On 11/14/2012 2:59 PM, Rodger Holtin wrote:
>
> I’m attempting to assemble a program or two of swing era “hits” with their flop-side counterparts - kind of a best-of/worst-of.  So far, so good, and got lots to choose from.
> We’re all familiar with the practice of early dance band records of Whiteman on one side and Roger Wolfe Kahn on the other, and during the Depression they coupled artists in medleys and stuff just to generate any kind of sale.  Remember the guy who wrote to The List about 10 years ago in total bewilderment that Victor would put the Vaughan Quartet on the Back of a Stamps Quartet record?  Anyway, all that pretty well went away by the time of the swing era, with a  few notable exceptions: Stardust by TD and BG on Victor 25320 and All The Things You Are by TD and Shaw on 20-1561, f’rinstance.  The only other one I know is 25518 Josephine by Wayne King and Miracles Sometime Happen by Roy Fox.Â
> So, today’s multi-part question for the Resident Experts of 78-L: save for special items (as noted above), albums and coin operator issues, when did the practice of mixing artists on a single issue cease to be a common practice?  Do we know why?  Any written policies extant that may clue us in to this marketing decision?  Seems “common sense” to us today, but maybe wasn’t always so “obvious” as it is to our latter-day eyes with perfect 20-20 hindsight.
>
> Rodger
>
> For Best Results use Victor Needles.
>
> .