78 RPM - Bunny Berigan - Bunny Berigan Memorial Album - Victor

78 RPM Record

Artist:	Bunny Berigan
Label:	Victor
Country:	USA
Catalogue:	P-134
Date:	9 Oct 1942
Format:	Album
Title:	Bunny Berigan Memorial Album
Collection:	I Own It I Want It
Community:	6 Own
Price Guide:	$48
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PRICE GUIDE

$48

Track	Artist	Title	Composer	Rating
A	Bunny Berigan	I Can't Get Started	Ira Gershwin, Vernon Duke	Rate
B	Bunny Berigan	Frankie And Johnnie		Rate
C	Bunny Berigan	Trees	Rasbach	Rate
D	Bunny Berigan	Russian Lullaby	Irving Berlin	Rate
E	Bunny Berigan	Jelly-Roll Blues	Jelly-Roll Morton	Rate
F	Bunny Berigan	Black Bottom	Henderson, De Sylva, Brown	Rate
G	Bunny Berigan	'Deed I Do	Walter Hirsch, Fred Rose	Rate
H	Bunny Berigan	High Society	Porter Steele, Walter Melrose	Rate

Notes

Bunny Berigan and his Orchestra
"Trees" arranged by Abe Osser
'Deed I Do - vocal by Kathleen Lane

A 10" Victor release, later pressings on RCA Victor
Individual discs: 20-1500, 20-1501, 20-1502, 20-1503

Victor Record Review, June 1942, pages 12-13.

Billboard, Nov. 11, 1944, page 16: Victor ad "Bunny Berigan Memorial Album: Just released by Victor!"
Billboard, Nov. 11, 1944, page 18: Popular Record Releases (from November 2 thru November 9)
Billboard, Dec. 9, 1944 review

This is the debut of the 20-1500 catalogue series, which, with changes in prefix due to speed (i.e. 47- for 45 RPM), lasted into the early 1970s.

Images

Comments and Reviews


W.B.lbl 9th Mar 2023		Abe Osser as arranged "Trees" (as listed on {Images #423005 & 2722468}), would later be known professionally as Glenn Osser.



xiphophilos 13th Aug 2021		Uploaded Nov. 1944 Camden repress labels of the Bunny Berigan Memorial album. The gold print is almost silver.



xiphophilos 7th Aug 2021		Thanks for setting me straight. Don't know how I could overlook the label name change. My own labels do say simply Victor.



W.B.lbl 7th Aug 2021		Actually, {Images #423003 - 423010} would have dated to 1946-47. It was after Feb. 1, 1946 when what had been Victor became RCA Victor, but before the "Manufactured Under U.S. Patent 2130239" was finally stricken from the label design some time in mid-1947. The concentric circles touching the RCA 'meatball' logo indicate an Indianapolis pressing. But yes, first copies of this album did indeed have the 1941-43 label design, as evidenced here. More specifically, it was {Images #423003 & 423004} and {Images #423007 & 423008} that have that single patent reference nestled in-between the 'meatball', and thus a 1946-47 pressing. {Images #423005 & 423006} and {Images #423009 & 423010} were pressed after mid-'47. I wonder, had Berigan lived, would he have been part of the band that accompanied The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson?



xiphophilos 7th Aug 2021		The original release of this album, announced in Victor Record Review, June 1942, pages 12-13 features a RCA Manufacturing Co., Inc. ring label with a gap where patent nr. 1637544 used to be (a design used from late Fall 1941 to Fall 1943). A second release of the same album, which would still have had Victor as label name, was announced in a Victor ad in the November 11, 1944 issue of Billboard on page 16: "Bunny Berigan Memorial Album: Just released by Victor!" It features the Victor Ring Label design with the company name RCA Victor Division of Radio Corporation of America (used August 1943-January 30, 1946), cf. M. W. Sherman, A Collector's Guide to Victor Records, 2nd ed., p. 106. This 1944 variant is probably far more common than the 1942 version. I myself own a Camden pressing of the 1944 reissue. Will try to upload images soon.



fixbutte 3rd Apr 2013		Thanks, W.B.lbl, thanks, LaurenceD, for your answers.



LaurenceD SUBS 29th Mar 2013		Thanks for fixing the release date. I can see from Google Books that the Victor Record Review of 1942 does mention this release, and Victor 20-1504 by Freddy Martin is advertised in the Oct 24 1942 Billboard. It certainly would have made sense to release this as soon as possible after Berigan's passing. As W.B.lbl said, the war years may have had an effect on actual production of this issue, because it appears that other record review periodicals do not mention this album until 1944. To answer your question fixbutte, they edited out the 45-second intro so that the record starts with the opening phrase of the main melody. That still leaves about 4:01, so the grooves had to be compressed somewhat, but the sound quality is not bad, and the volume is comparable to that of the other sides.



W.B.lbl 28th Mar 2013		I was in BMG's vaults for one day in the mid-1990's, and saw that date in their files for this set - but don't forget, this was when production of 78's was somewhat constricted by the war and the recording ban (never mind Berigan having passed away before that ban took effect).



fixbutte 28th Mar 2013		Okay, I've noticed the comment by W.B.lbl here: ...the old series came to an end with #27975 on 2 Oct 1942, with the new 20-1500 series inaugurated 9 Oct 1942 with a four-record memorial album of Bunny Berigan recordings, issued after Berigan's death). Berigan died on June 2, 1942 and the back cover of the album cites some papers from July (without a year), so the 1942 release seems very logical - but was it actually issued or only scheduled for release?



fixbutte 28th Mar 2013		@LawrenceD Was this actually released on October 9, 1942 (see note: "BB Nov 11, 1944 Popular Record Releases, 11/2 thru 11/9")? I know that Oct 1942 fits in with the numbers of the individual discs (Victor 20-1504 and 20-1505 were apparently released then) but why didn't they mention the album before in Billboard? I presume that the originally nearly five-minute long August 7, 1937 version of "I Can't Get Started" from the 12" Victor 36208 was edited for the 10" record (like before on Victor 25728)? How long is it actually?