Big Band - Small Band

Three rock and roll discs put out by Quality (Canada)

These three discs show how Quality would license sides from companies in the U.S.A. and reflect it on their label:

(1953) For the Crows, Quality fails to mention the original Rama label (cat# 5) at all:


(1954) A year later with Otis Williams and the Charms, Quality still uses their own label but acknowledges King records as the owner of the original DeLuxe label (cat# 6062):



(1956) Then for the Diamonds, Quality simulates a Mercury label & repeats the Mercury catalogue # (70835):


Click any image to enlarge

All three discs have dropped the erroneous "Not licensed for broadcast" statement, in favour of listing BMI Canada Ltd to collect performance royalties. BMI Canada underwent name changes in the 1970's, eventually becoming PROCAN. In 1990 PROCAN merged with CAPAC (a Canadian hybrid of ASCAP & the U.K.'s PRS) to become SOCAN.

Hail to the sleeve

  Here's an interesting example of "normal use" according to Mercury Records

That crazy older younger generation ....
Click photos to magnify

They would have you believe that laying albums and loose discs on the floor and then cavorting around them is "normal use" and that the discs would not suffer.
This is a Mercury/Quality (Canada) sleeve from the mid-1950's. Was the sleeve the same in the U.S.A.?

# posted by Fred Freud @ 11:01 a.m. 0 comments

My first MAPL 78 rpm???

One genre that I collect is Canadiana. I judge a disc by the old MAPL formula (Music, Artist, Production, Lyrics).
I think my pal Bud has sold me my first wholly MAPL side. Can anyone confirm that this side by Wilf "Montana Slim" Carter and the Calgary Stampeders was recorded in Canada, and if so, where?

Catalogue #58-01000-B
Click on the photo for a larger image.

I may have a MAPL disc which predates the Wilf Carter acquisition. It's another cowboy platter by Dixie Bill Hilton and the Calgary Range Riders on Apex (cat# 26364).

b/w "Careless ways". How can I date this disc and place the recording location?

Emerson: artist "Okays" their recording?
I have two sequential discs from Emerson with different label styles. Both are by the Six Brown Brothers in 1919, almost at their peak of popularity.
My guess is that my copy of Emerson 1055 has an earlier style of label than my copy of Emerson 1056. I base my guess on the fact that the handwritten-style of the "Ok Tom Brown" on 1055 has become typeset on 1056. Can anyone verify my assumption?

Emerson 1055 & 1056
Click photos to magnify

And the question today is: Who is okaying what? Was Tom Brown, leader of the outfit, okaying the quality of recording?

Also, the matrices from these two discs combined run: 4437, 4438, 4440 & 4441. The tantalizing mystery is who and what was on matrix 4439. These two discs are the only ones I know the Browns to have released on Emerson, but was a third disc in the works?

My Columbia Grafonola A2670 has Hugh Donovan singing "The rose of no man's land" (Mx 78148) on one side with "75c" in raised letters under the paper label. The label, however, states "Price in U.S. 85c. Price in Canada 90c".

Hmmm. Well, we'll set that issue aside.

My question is what are the numbers on the reverse side. Henry Burr sings "Over yonder where the lilies grow" (Mx 78152), and in a combination of stamped and raised letters underneath the label, it says "4 (space, space, space, space) - 661" I think the last numeral is a "1", but it's hard to tell because it looks like someone changed their mind before correcting the number to be a "1".

The "4" is barely visible at the very beginning of the catalogue number, A2670.
If you click the photos you'll get much larger images to study.

I won an eBay auction for "Jan August: Piano magic"; it's an album from Diamond Discs "with tones that sparkle" (Cat# D5).

The album cover clearly states that the three records inside are:
1. "Tea for two" b/w "A pretty girl is like a melody" (Cat# 2010)

eBay link to picture:
http://tinyurl.com/d65gnl

2. "Make believe" b/w "My melancholy baby" (Cat# 2030)


3. "Ol' man river" b/w "Some of these days" (Cat# 2031)


But instead of disc 1, I received:

"My shawl" b/w "Without you" (Cat# 2032)

It seems, numerically, to belong to this album, but the problem is that all four discs have something like a series title "Piano magic" next to the spindle hole.

My questions are:
1) Was this album released in different versions, with one disc substituted in the later edition? Or, is the cover just a misprint?
2) Was "Piano magic" a catchphrase that appeared on all of Jan August's discs, or is it exclusively this album's name?
3) To what does the phrase "Rhythm Stylists" refer, appearing below Jan August's name on each disc?

Thanks for any help in resolving this.

# posted by Fred Freud @ 11:53 a.m. 0 comments