Personnel:
Bessie Smith (vocals); Buster Bailey (clarinet); Don Redman (clarinet); Fred Longshaw (piano).
A side (mx. 140166, take 5 or 6) recorded New York, NY, December 12, 1924.
B side (mx. 140167, take 5 or 6) recorded New York, NY, December 12, 1924.
(DAHR)
Images
Number:2032061 THUMBNAIL Uploaded By:fixbutte Description: A Side Label
Number:2032075 Uploaded By:fixbutte Description: B Side Label
Number:3683661 Uploaded By:DeweyGill SUBS Description: Bessie Smith Woman’s Trouble Blues Co 14060-D
This would then literally be the first combination of different label styles I've seen that wouldn't be a repress.
It could, of course, be that Columbia started printing only the B side labels on the older label style without the Inc. (used between February 1924 and February 1925), and then used the newer, March 1925 label only for the A sides. I find that very, very unlikely, though.
Back before 1921, Columbia, as you know, printed dates codes onto their labels. These codes allow us to see that they started printing labels 1 to 2 months before a record's release date, not in the same month.
Unfortunately, Dan Mahony doesn't list manufacturing data for this release in his "Columbia 13/14000-D Series" book. I will say that my copy of this record is identical to the one shown in fixbutte's images. My images are those shown on the Discogs entry for this record. I haven't seen an image of the A side without the "Inc." or outer notes circle, nor one of the B side with the "Inc." and outer circle (although I haven't searched exhaustively). Perhaps this wasn't a repress?
This is indeed an interesting label mix. The "Inc." label was only introduced in March 1925. This must be a very early repress. It speaks to the immense popularity of Bessie Smith in general and this record in particular that they needed to repress this record as soon as it had been released.
It's interesting to note differences in label styles on the A- and B-side of this record. On the "Woman's Trouble" side, there is an outer circle around the "Notes" logo and the word "Inc." appears at the end of the company name at the bottom. Neither of these appears on the "Love Me Daddy" side. Considering this record was released in March 1925 and the Flag label was replaced with the "pre-Viva-tonal" label in June of that year, it seems that Columbia was still tweaking this label style right up to the end of is short life.