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Vinyl Album

Artist: Jean Ritchie Title: Songs From Kentucky Label:   Westminster / Argo Country: USA Catalogue: WN 18021 / RG 17 Date: 1955 Format: LP Collection:   I Own It     I Want It  Community:  1 Owns Price Guide: Valuation Page » Search eBay #AD  » Search Amazon #AD This site contains affiliate links for which we may be compensated.

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Track	Artist	Title	Composer	Rating
A1	Jean Ritchie	Old Joe Clark		Rate
A2	Jean Ritchie	Oh Soldier, Soldier		Rate
A3	Jean Ritchie	Gentle Fair Johnny		Rate
A4	Jean Ritchie	The Turkish Lady		Rate
A5	Jean Ritchie	Froggie Went A'Courting		Rate
A6	Jean Ritchie	Bachelor's Hall		Rate
A7	Jean Ritchie	Single Girl		Rate
A8	Jean Ritchie	Barbry Ellen		Rate
A9	Jean Ritchie	Hush Little Baby		Rate
B1	Jean Ritchie	There Was An Old Woman		Rate
B2	Jean Ritchie	One Morning In May		Rate
B3	Jean Ritchie	Jackero		Rate
B4	Jean Ritchie	Little Devils		Rate
B5	Jean Ritchie	Pretty Polly		Rate
B6	Jean Ritchie	Jubilee		Rate
B7	Jean Ritchie	Christ Was Born In Bethlehem		Rate
B8	Jean Ritchie	Sourwood Mountains		Rate

Notes

A very strange hybrid of a USA pressed record (An RCA Custom-Pressing) with a typical hard, board cover gatefold (à la Folkways) with the UK Argo RG 17 information printed on what might have been the back of sleeve but ended up being on the left inside of the gatefold. The inside right contains the internal entry of the record with a die-cut hole to show the record label. The sleeve states "Made in the USA by Westminster Recording Co. Inc., 275 Seventh Avenue, New York. This is almost certainly the case, given the construction, and yet, an additional and later ink stamp states "Made In England". There is also the name of the English printer "Graphis Press, London" mentioned as being the printer.

A Side: F8OP-3419
B Side: F8OP-3420

The text at the bottom says "Printed and made by Graphis Press Ltd., London" but I'm wondering whether this is actually just a copy of the image of the original UK issue, when the sleeve was almost certainly made in the USA.

Images

Number: 3635631  THUMBNAIL Uploaded By: Fokeman Description: Cover	Number: 3635645  Uploaded By: Fokeman Description: Inside left gatefold	Number: 3635638  Uploaded By: Fokeman Description: Back cover	Number: 3635757  Uploaded By: Fokeman Description: A side
Number: 3635758  Uploaded By: Fokeman Description: B Side

Comments and Reviews

ppint. 12th Aug 2024		thank-you philmh; that seems about as much detail as any ordinary, mere mortal 'catter could wish for, very succinctly elucidated.
PhilMH 12th Aug 2024		See wikipedia for the Westminster Records history, which I believe to be correct; Deutsche Grammophon now look after the catalogue within Universal, as well as the US Decca classical catalogue (basically returning to the 1950s arrangement). Chess is also now part of Universal: Joe and Sylvia Robinson's All Platinum Records bought the catalogue from GRT in 1975, but AP went bankrupt circa 1978, and was resurrected as Sugar Hill Records in 1979 (with financial help from the notorious Morris Levy of Roulette Records); SH signed a distribution deal with MCA in 1984, but then sold the catalogue to that company in 1985. Subsequent Chess issues since 1986 have variously been logo'd as Chess, Chess/MCA, MCA/Chess, just MCA, then from 2002 (when Universal dropped the main MCA Records brand, keeping just MCA Nashville) Geffen/Chess or just Geffen. Concurrently with the MCA issues were the unauthorized Chess releases via Charly in the UK and Europe; numerous lawsuits between MCA and Charly were resolved in MCA's favour in October 2001, see here for the final judgment in Jean-Luc Young's unsuccessful appeal against the ruling that he was personally liable for Charly's infringements of sound recording copyrights and trademarks.
ppint. 12th Aug 2024		argo record label in the uk: 1951-1957 independent, bought by decca 1957, ownership thereafter as per decca, being bought by polygram (or whatever the corporate name was in 1980), lacuna 1988-9, active again 1990, lacuna 1998-2020, active again 2020 (to date; still in use now, sfaiaa). argo record label in merkia: chess records label 1955-1965; renamed cadet 1955. no connexion with the above. i think both catalogues are now owned by universal, but i'm less certain about the chess records catalog(ue), which went through some interesting changes involving grt & other corporations. . .° westminster records, merkin independent 1949, bought by abc/paramount c. 1960, released classical recordings in stereo - some(many?) of which were licensed from them by the paul hamlyn/emi music for pleasure budget price uk record label, pretty much from its launching in 1965, iirc. yr hmbl srppnt. knows next to naught more about westminster records.° were they a relatively cheap (mid-range or budget) label ? ° - philmh will doubtless have full details stored in his internal and/or external memory bank(s). . .
annaloog 10th Aug 2024		Quote: Ah! I thought that Argo had always been part of Decca, so thanks for putting me straight.... Yes, thanks, so did I.
PhilMH 10th Aug 2024		Ah! I thought that Argo had always been part of Decca, so thanks for putting me straight. Anyway, I think the RG-17 catalogue number is just a careless leftover from the UK cover, which Westminster copied blindly, UK printer credit and all, and so isn't a valid catalogue number for US release purposes.
Fokeman 10th Aug 2024		PhilMH wrote: I agree with annaloog, Westminster should be the primary label here. It's not that unusual for US releases of UK Decca recordings to not be on London, who would have had the right of first refusal, and anything they didn't want they licensed out via their Declon division to whoever did want it. I'm not sure I understand what you are saying here. This is not a Decca recording. It was an Argo recording and well before any link between Decca and Argo. Decca aquired Argo eventually (in 1957) but in the early days it was an organisation set up by Harvey Usill and independent. There was no automatic right of London to issue the recordings.
Fokeman 10th Aug 2024		Thanks for your input. RG 3 does appear on the label but the RG 17 very clearly applies to this release on the inside of the gatefold sleeve.
PhilMH 2nd Aug 2024		I agree with annaloog, Westminster should be the primary label here. It's not that unusual for US releases of UK Decca recordings to not be on London, who would have had the right of first refusal, and anything they didn't want they licensed out via their Declon division to whoever did want it.
annaloog 1st Aug 2024		The main and alternate labels should be swapped: this is a US Westminster release (WN 18021) of a UK Argo recording (RG 3 ?) ... oddly (I'd think) licensed to Westminster rather than released on UK Decca's US London label. The RCA Custom matrix prefix dates this to 1955.
Fokeman 1st Aug 2024		I'm now swaying between calling this a UK or US issue. I think probably it was an entirely US issue? Any thoughts? I'm certain that this exists as a UK issue. But I'm not 100% sure that the images are of the original UK issue or the issue which Westminster put out in the USA? Or even a later issue put out in the UK using the American pressing?

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See Also

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Jean Ritchie - Jean Ritchie - Elektra - USA (1957)

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Jean Ritchie - Singing The Traditional Songs Of Her Kentucky Mountain Family - Elektra - USA (1952)

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Ferrante And Teicher - Soundproof - Westminster - USA (1956)

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London Symphony Orchestra, Hermann Scherchen - Romeo And Juliet Overture - 1812 Overture - Westminster - USA (1954)

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