78 RPM - Comments by vinyl

78 RPM - Comments by vinyl_dave

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
vinyl_dave 4th Feb 2024		78 RPM The Beatles - Hello Goodbye / I Am The Walrus (1967)	mister_tmg - that's not evidence. (Also it doesn't have a catalogue number so doesn't count.)
vinyl_dave 2nd Jan 2024		78 RPM Jack Gordon - Vienna, City Of My Dreams / Time Alone Will Tell (1931)	Hello, I'm searching (in vain) for a specific number on Imperial. Not found. It would be so much easier to discover whether it is listed here or not - IF they were presented in a correct numerical sequence. I notice 2575 is followed by 2472 and preceded by 2470. Where on Earth is the logic in that? (I know there isn't any.) [Date corrected. mod] I'm actually trying to find Imperial 2555 for reasons I can't satisfactorily explain but I'll have a go anyway. (I have the very record right here somewhere but can't get to it, buried amongst so many others which are in inaccessible (and heavy) boxes. Rummaging for one specific record in a full box, even if I know its number, is invariably to risk a possible breakage.) For reasons even more obscure, no other website appears to have that Imperial number! I've been searching all day.
vinyl_dave 2nd Jan 2024		78 RPM Francesco Tamagno - Un Di All'Azzurro Spazio Guardai Profondo / Di Quella Pira (1924)	This (double-sided) record DR.102 was issued about 1924 along with the first of the DA series, many of which were important early recordings. The 1947 sepia label repress as shown does not hint at the age or importance of the recording. I have a 1924 pressing with coloured dog. (Sorry, I can't scan it because it reached me in two pieces. Successfully superglued now but the scanner surface isn't quite 10".) (An old artist friend of mine, Graham Ovenden, died recently (2023). He always said the British Library would be interested in his collection, a massive, very specialised, collection of early and "important" records, even including 7" and 5" Berliners of the 1890s - and Pathe's - he had the contemporary machines too. When he died a dealer came and bought "some". What he didn't take went, so I'm told, to the tip. (I once saw him write an £800 cheque for one record, purchased from Nauck's catalogue.)
vinyl_dave 2nd Jan 2024		78 RPM Eartha Kitt - If I Can't Take It With Me When I Go / Just An Old Fashioned Girl (1957)	Since when was "Just An Old Fashioned Girl" a B-side???????????????????? How stupid. The argument is always - "Look at the earlier matrix number". I had this dispute with a DJ at Liskeard Radio, regarding Brian Poole & the Tremeloes "Candy Man". The silly man. I sent him a screenshot of 45cat. where, lo and behold, there is a Big 'A' demo.!!!!!!!!! Matrix nos. are not necessarily an indication of 'A' and 'B' for goodness sake. (And the embossed tax code can be on either side. Just machinery.)
vinyl_dave 2nd Jan 2024		78 RPM Elvis Presley - Tryin' To Get To You / Lawdy, Miss Clawdy (1957)	You SERIOUSLY tryin' to tell me that "Lawdy, Miss Clawdy" was the B-side??????????????????? How ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
vinyl_dave 28th Dec 2023		78 RPM Amy Brunton - My Man O' War / My Handy Man (1931)	Cellulose - which differs from Durium - no cardboard backing. I guess Duriums had shellac surfaces. (Same as Hit Of The Week on the other side of the Atlantic - but Duriums had finer grooves with two tunes on each single-sided disc.) Filmophones are double sided.
vinyl_dave 27th Dec 2023		78 RPM The Carter Family - Don't Forget This Song / The Little Log Hut In The Lane	The DT tax code in the centre dates this pressing to 1948-50 (E.M.I.). I have Zonophone 4375, also the Carter Family, with a tax code 'N' which dates the pressing to 1953-55.!!!!! Astounding - since the green Zonophone label had not been seen since 1932. (Here both this and 4375 have modified edge text, commensurate with any other late-40s / 50s E.M.I. label.) Obviously these were in an export series (perhaps to either South Africa or Australia). Question is - when were they actually issued on Zonophone? (And why not in Britain!) The recordings date from about 1930-32, probably. We can confirm the recording dates according to https://jazzdiscography.com/Artists/carter-family/78rpm-releases.php - I find these two : Friday, February 15, 1929 BVE 49864-2 DON'T FORGET THIS SONG Saturday, May 24, 1930 BVE 59982-2 THE LITTLE LOG HUT IN THE LANE Released in 1930 on Victor V-40328, also S. African Zonophone 4347 and (Australian) Zonophone and/or Regal-Zonophone EE.263. (And the same two titles issued together (no date given) on Montgomery Ward M-7022 (?!). There's a new one on me!) And, hold on! - they re-recorded that title (it looks as though they didn't forget it!) : Thursday, May 9, 1935 17506-1 DON'T FORGET THIS SONG Issued 1937 on A.R.C. 7-01-54.
vinyl_dave 26th Dec 2023		78 RPM Florrie Forde - My Wife Wont Let Me (1906)	p.s. My copy of the 10" also doesn't have an apostrophe in "wont". (I never noticed until now!)
vinyl_dave 26th Dec 2023		78 RPM Florrie Forde - My Wife Wont Let Me (1906)	By the way, Florrie Forde also recorded this title on a 7" Zonophone, probably at the same time. It hurries through the verses, omits the orchestral intro, and skips the repeated chorus. (I think there is an example on YouTube. At least, there was.) Here it is : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVaxPJ9h7ic
vinyl_dave 26th Dec 2023		78 RPM Florrie Forde - My Wife Wont Let Me (1906)	Matrix nos. on records of this age are far more useful than the catalogue nos. (Cat. nos. were often recycled, as a tune or song may be replaced (updated) to keep it on catalogue.) Release dates may never be known but the matrix no. provides the date of recording. In this case, 3547e settles it on early 1906, I'd put my money on February. (About 25 years ago I found a very handy "Record Collector" * booklet, published in the mid-1970s, and made graphs from the known matrix numbers.) Until late-1903 when Zonophone was acquired by the Gram. Co., Zonophone records only had cat.nos. The cat. nos. (of Zono. and Gram. Co.) didn't run in a very tidy sequence. Here, X-43100 is the 100th title of a female vocalist. 42000 series was for male vocalists. 44000 was for mixed vocal. 41000 was for spoken word. 40000 was for bands. (Instrumentalists had other series, e.g. 47900 was for violin solos.) The initial 4 (on Gram.Co. was on German records, usually German language, so (?) all Zonos. started with 4 until there was a complete change of numbering about 1930. From the late Eddie Shaw's book "DATES" (Date About all Those English Seventy-eights), the initial digits on early Gram.Co. releases are as follows : 1, Hebrew language, 2, Russian, 3, French, 4, German, 5 italian, 6, Spanish, 7, Scandinavian, 8, Danish, 9, Dutch, (otherwise - English). The second digit : 1, Spoken, 2, Male vocal, 3, female vocal, 4, vocal ensemble, 5, piano, 6 ?, 7 ?, 8, string quartet, 9 miscellaneous minor instruments. (77 bagpipes, 78 cello, 79 violin). Zonophone used a similar sequence but further divided : 1-499 bands, 500- orchestras ... 1000-4000 as above ... 4500 vocal chorus, 4750 choral, sacred, 5000 solo brass, 5500 solo piano, 6000 clarinet, 6250 banjo, 6500 fife and drum, 6700 bugle calls, 6750 xylophone, 7000 trombone, 7350 mandolin, 7450 ocarina, 7550 bassoon, 7700 bagpipes, 7850 cello, 7900 violin, 8000 instr. ensemble, 8500 balalaika, 9000 piccolo, 9100 concertina & harmonica, 9150 flute, 9250 misc., 9800 viola. (This sequence ran from mid-1904 to 1911 - or, I'd say, 1930.) When they ran out of numbers on reaching the thousand, they would add a prefix. 2- for second series, 3- for third series and so on. (I once argued with Eddie Shaw that matrix nos. were far more useful with regard to putting a date on these early records. He couldn't see it.) Also, label designs are not always reliable since old recordings were often issued a decade later. * The original "Record Collector" began sometime about 1940 for the exchange of old records among collectors. Now 7" Berliners were only just over 40 years old! Other collectables then were mainly jazz and early recordings of opera singers. Caruso, Scotti, Melba, Patti, etc. etc. etc. Remember that record companies were paying pennies for old "worn out" records for recycling during the War. (Oh dear.)