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Topic: Release dates and chart sales of 78s in the UK

20th May 2024, 5:06 PM
	danceband91 Member since Nov 2020 119 Points	mister_tmg wrote: "She Wears Red Feathers" actually charted a month before the release date of March 1953 given in the CLPGS Columbia DB series book, although First Hits (the sheet music chart hit) gives the month of February 1953. I wonder why. The other records I've looked at so far do seem to have charted the same month or the following month. I suspect it would have been a mid-February release, which Newspapers seem to confirm. The EMI labels released the majority of records at the beginning of the month, but would sometimes put out mid-month special releases of single records (e.g. for records predicted to be very popular) or batches or records (e.g. before Christmas). The 'official' release date of these, however, would have been the following month, corresponding to the monthly supplement in which they would have appeared. This is why you sometimes see Christmas-themed records with a release date of January, despite obviously having being released before Christmas! I suspect the CLPGS book lists the official release dates, obtained perhaps from supplements or from trade catalogues. On the other hand, the Decca group seem to have made a habit of releasing two supplements a month - one at the beginning of the month and the other mid-month. I think this probably accounts for a lot of the records that enter the charts towards the end of the month (at least in the Missing Charts book). mister_tmg wrote: I wonder if it was typical for these hit records in the 78rpm era to start selling almost as soon as they were released. It would be interesting to have all the data on this to analyse. I suppose I got the impression that 78s were more of a 'slow burn' sales-wise, but maybe that isn't the case. Did The Missing Charts hit records usually chart the month they were released? Of the entries in the Missing Charts book for which I have accurate release dates (roughly 1500), 88% charted in the month they were released, 8% 1 month later, and 4% more than 1 month later. The majority of the records in the latter two categories are Brunswick and Decca releases, and interestingly the reviews in The Gramophone for almost all of these are also delayed relative to the release. The Gramophone does often note that the Decca group records have failed to arrive, so perhaps there was sometimes a delay from the time of announcement (in the monthly supplement) to actually getting the records released. On the flip side, there are 16 records that chart before official release. Some of these will probably be mid-month releases but others are definitely mistakes in the book. mister_tmg wrote: It would also be interesting to see which records might have taken a longer time to chart. "Bluebell Polka" by Jimmy Shand and "Don't Laugh At Me" by Norman Wisdom had been released a while before they officially charted in the UK, but I think those were resurgent sales of records which had already sold before the chart started. However, "Rose Marie" by Slim Whitman seems to have taken a year to chart from its original July 1954 release date. It would certainly be an interesting project to compare charting and release dates for the NME chart. There is almost always a reason for records charting significantly 'late'. For example, "Don't Laugh At Me" was sung by Norman Wisdom in his debut film "Trouble In Store", which was released on 28-Dec-53, which explains the recharting in February. "The Bluebell Polka" had a revival in late 1955 (although I don't why), with new recordings made by e.g. Ron Goodwin and Ambrose released in Nov-55 (I understand the latter was very popular although didn't chart). Slim Whitman's "Rose Marie" is an odd case, but Newspapers put its re-found popularity down to a sudden craze in Hillbilly / Country & Western music (perhaps kicked off by Frankie Laine's "Cool Water"?)