[78-L] Heartaches and Decca 25000s

[Rodger Holtin]

Was Fletcher Henderson 78

Congratulations, Art.  You are the only one I know who has a copy of the
Bluebird of Heartaches and I've always been curious about that tune and
Weems.  If it is so scarce on Bluebird, it must not have been a big seller
when it was new and must not have stayed in the catalog very long, and yet
he re-recorded it in 1938 for Decca, something I would have expected if it
had been a hit.  Even as fond of history rewrites as he is in "Pop
Memories," Whitburn does not even show it as being a hit for Weems in 1933.
I have seen/owned several of the blue label Deccas #2020, so I guess that
may have been the "hit" which prompted Decca to recycle it on the black
25000 series, of which I have seen almost as many as Near You.  I assume it
was the black label 25017 that the record dealer had so many leftovers and
started sending them out to radio stations, and it became the mega hit,
although Whitburn lists the Victor!  Hooboy.

The first copy of the Weems on 25017 was given to me by a neighbor who said
he got it before he shipped out to the south Pacific, before the war was
over.  When were the Decca 25000s started?  Based on what he told me and
what I have seen on the earliest of the 25000s, I have always assumed they
were a ploy to get around the OPA Price Ceiling that went into effect with
the war in 1942 so it was a way to recycle a lot of proven blue label sides
onto the higher priced black series.  Always looked to me like that's what
Victor did with so many Bluebirds recycled on to the Victor 20-1500s.
Right?  Wrong?  Maybe?


Rodger

For best results use Victor Needles



-----Original Message-----
From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com
[mailto:78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] On Behalf Of zimrec at juno.com
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2015 4:39 PM
To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
Subject: [78-L] Fletcher Henderson 78


David Burnham & J. E. Knox wrote:>> Bluebird 78s seem to abound in any
record collection I doubt if any of them is rare enough to become a
collectors' item and I'm not really interested in the monetary value of
records generally anyway, but I came across one record which I like simply
because of the physical artifact itself.  It is a U.S. pressed Bluebird with
the "Victor" label style used between fall 1938 and fall 1943 of Fletcher
Henderson's Band, Number B 10246.  It is in such pristine condition, (it
came from the CBC library and the surface shines like a new record), that
I'm sure it hasn't been played more than half a dozen times if at all, (well
it's been played once because I just played it).  What is particularly
attractive about it is that even though it's a reissue, from April 27, 1927,
unusual for Bluebird, they obviously used the original 1927 stampers.  There
is no distortion and the surface is so clean that switching CEDAR on and off
resulted in no audible chan  ge in surface noise whatsoever.
<snip>>As for rarity...two hard-to-come-by Bluebirds that spring to mind
(and only recently acquired by me after decades-long searching) are Bluebird
B-5014-B "Hold Me" by Little Jack Little and B-5131-B "Heartaches" by Ted
Weems and his Orchestra. Both were reissued in the 1940s on RCA Victor, to
be sure, but the reissues were dubbed. The original Bluebirds are scarce.
Fletcher Henderson's only other original-issue Bluebird (B-5682 "Hocus
Pocus"/"Tidal Wave") might also qualify, but I don't think it's as rare.
Blues, country and gospel on Bluebird from the 1930s has got to be quite
collectible. What you might be thinking about as not rare enough to be a
collectors' item would be the plethora of big-band stuff 1937-45, which
would largely be true. A master-pressed copy of Bluebird B-10352-A "Sold
American" by Glenn Miller may qualify as collectible, though; most copies
were dubbed (-1R master).

As most people on this list are aware, scarcity of a particular record does
not necessarily have a direct relationship to market price.
Perhaps the rarest of the issued Bluebirds are many of the 4500 and 4900
calypso series.  They were made for export only and many were confiscated by
the British.
Does anyone other on this list, other than Steve Shapiro, have any.
Art