[78-L] Sinatra and other singers and the 1942-1944 AFM ban

[David Weiner]

And everything was pressed on the worst-quality reground shellac
imaginable. Early Capitols sound like they were pressed on cement; even
Columbia's laminated discs sucked, and the faded=looking gold ink they
used on their red labels were nearly unreadable, even when new. I have a
few early Capitols (including the 1942 Ray McKinleys) on vinyl DJ
pressings and the difference in sound is enormous.  V-Discs were the
nicest quality pressings of the war years.

Dave Weiner

On 12/31/13 9:02 PM, "david.diehl at hensteeth.com"
<david.diehl at hensteeth.com> wrote:

>It seems counter-intuitive but the majors were not all that unhappy with
>the ban. Machinists and anyone with experience with electroplating could
>just about write their own tickets and these personnel problems were even
>more of a limiting factor than shellac shortages. Anybody with some sort
>of manufacturing experience could get a job with a defense contractor for
>pretty big money. Pressing plants were operating at maximum capacity
>given the high turnover in press operators. The only reason Decca caved
>in to the AFM was that it had the Oklahoma contract and knew it could
>promote the living daylights out of that one album and didn't really want
>anything else distracting buyers. Capitol picked up a couple of odds and
>ends but it had just about enough pre-ban material for the 14 month
>drought. Columbia at one point in 1943 announced that it was pressing
>NOTHING BUT Harry James records.
>See Ty's site http://78discography.com/Capitol100.htm
>DJD
>Visit the Blue Pages: the Encyclopedic Guide to 78 RPM Party Records
>http://www.hensteeth.com
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Rodger Holtin [mailto:rjh334578 at yahoo.com]
>Sent: Tuesday, December 31, 2013 05:37 PM
>To: '78- L Mail List'
>Subject: [78-L] Sinatra and other singers and the 1942-1944 AFM ban
>
>Can somebody provide a list or a link that will enumeratewith numbers and
>dates the Frank Sinatra Columbias cut during the AFM ban? I¹ve found a
>hodge-podge of conflicting/incomplete notes. Looking at the few I¹ve been
>able to trace, it looks like themajors did very, very little recording
>during the ban. I would have thought they¹d have done more ofthe a
>cappella stuff than they did, or at least more than I have found.
>Establishedol¹ Bing did only four tunes; Como, trying to build a career
>only six; Frankieabout the same but can¹t tell for sure. Same for Dick
>Haymes and Dinah Shore, I found only four each ­ were thereothers? Larger
>question ­ do we know how many of those a cappella records weremade?
>Anybody bothered to build a discography of them? Did Capitol bother
>recording at all? I've never seen an a cappella Capitol. RodgerFor Best
>Results use Victor
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