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Re: [ARSCLIST] Philips U.S. releases in the 60's
A collector/dealer friend of mine told me that Wing didn't start off as
a budget reissue label. He's pretty knowledgeable and what you say
corroborates his opinion.
Phillip
Roger and Allison Kulp wrote:
The Wing label that was around in 1955-6,was essentially a different label.It was not a reissue label.As a collector of 50s rock,and R&B,I am very familiar with the original Wing,as the home of Freddie Bell and The Bell Boys,and the label some of the records by Buddy Johnson,The Griffins,etc. were issued on.
Roger
David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: Wing was started in late 1955 as both an LP and a 78 label. See Gart's ARLD,
page 244. I have Wing 78s (jazz) and we had a couple of Wing LPs in the house
in 1959, no classical material at that time.
dl
Tom Fine wrote:
Dave -- There were no Wing reissues made in the 50's, at least of
classical material. Wing was launched in the early 60's and was not the
idea of the classical division, not by a long shot. It was a marketing
department plan to fill voids in the rack-jobber world and get Mercury
stuff on racks at places like supermarkets and other sell-cheap outlets.
This was during a downturn in the record business. The Wings were
considered cheap junk by those in the know. The interesting thing is
that Mercury kept the name even after receiving ridicule for the early
60's Wing records. Like I said, they were still repackaging jazz albums
as 2-LPs-for-the-price-of-1 in the early 70's under the Wing label. I
think Wing was finally clipped for good in the mid-70's. I notice it did
not fly again in the CD era.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message ----- From: "David Lennick"
To:
Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2008 12:57 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Philips U.S. releases in the 60's
The Philips US reissue label I was thinking of was World Series. All
that I've seen are Canadian pressings, mid 60s, from when London
distributed the label up here. I think these were the first to
proclaim themselves "compatible mono stereo", and I vaguely remember
(don't own any, used to see them in radio stations and nobody ever
wanted to play them) that they were low level and had phasing
problems, or at least sounded slushy in mono.
Wing did some tolerable reissues, at least if you got the mono
versions or were assured that the original had been recorded in
stereo. But yes their fake stereo releases were pretty awful. Wing
blue label pressings from the 50s are appalling, pressed on styrene in
the US..at least up here we got Quality's low grade vinyl, better than
nothing. I have some 60s Wing US pressings that are as good as any
contemporary Mercurys. I also have Wing 78 issues from the 50s, so
Mercury may have used the name for a spinoff label similar to
Columbia's Epic and RCA's Vik (X, Groove).
dl
Roger and Allison Kulp wrote:
Tom,David,et al,
I have never seen a US budget Mercury reissue of a Philips Lp.I'm not
saying they don't exist,but,I have never seen one.Their buget label
was "Wing",that put out inferior reissues of mono Living
Presences.There are the Mercury-pressed Philips of Willem
Mengelberg,which I think are grossly underrated.Tom,you are well
aware of the Svastiaslv Richters,on Philips,that your mom produced,in
like 1963,and '64.
Some of these deep groove US PhilipsLps,on a black glossy label,are
as good as Living Presences,IMHO.These would be the pressings from
roughly 1963-67, by '68,they were beginning to go downhill,as were
Mercurys themselves.Philips began to export records to the US,around
late 1969,or early 1970,perhaps Don,or someone else could clarify
this date.Both British and Dutch pressings were imported.
Philips did,indeed,export pressings,from Holland,to other countries
before this.I just learned this last year,when I bought such a
record,from somebody in Mexico .(eBay of course.)This is one of those
1956 Clara Haskil Mozart Jubilee Lps.The pressing is a
post-minigroove maroon label Dutch pressing from the early 60s.(No
photo of record in the listing,just the cover.) I cannot recall,if it
says "Made in Holland" on the label,it may not.The cover is a copy of
the Dutch one,except it looks like it was printed in The
US.Heavy,laminated cardboard,like an early 60s Merc.On the back
cover,is a round orange sticker,slightly smaller than a quarter,that
says imported from Holland,in Spanish.
Roger
David Lennick wrote: Philips came into the
picture when US Columbia lost its arrangement with English Columbia,
which began exporting its product to the US as Angel (around 1953).
There were no imported Philips pressings sold over here in the 50s
except odd items like musicals and revues (Joyce Grenfell etc). Epic
probably relied a lot more on Philips than Columbia, being a new
label with not much homegrown classical product except Szell and the
Cleveland Orchestra, but all Beecham's recordings appeared on
Columbia (that was probably because of a contract with Beecham). As
well, all US Columbia product that was issued in Europe came out on
Philips.
As for recycling the 50s Philips recordings once Philips owned
Mercury, I recall some domestic pressings and budget reissues, but
I'd say (without being certain) that the full price stuff came in as
imports, as did Deutsche Grammophon titles in the 60s (there was a
period when those were imported by MGM and packaged on this side).
Partial answer, anyway. One way to answer whether Columbia and Epic
held onto old titles is to check in 60s Schwanns.
dl
Tom Fine wrote:
I'm hoping there is a student of Philips history here.
As I understand it, before Philips bought Mercury, they had a U.S.
distribution deal with Epic (CBS). I've seen Epic tapes and LPs of
Concertgabouw (sp?) and I Musici and perhaps others. After Philips
bought Mercury, by the mid-60's, they had a bunch of their classical
records on sale here, I believe manufacturered here and sleeves like
Mercury records (not thin paper like European Philips records from
the 60's).
So here are my questions:
1. Was some or all of the material originally out on Epic reissued
on US Philips?
2. Was the entire European classical catalog issued here by the
mid-60's?
3. Were the LPs indeed manufactured in the US or just sleeved here?
4. Were new masters cut or were European manufacturing parts sent here?
-- Tom Fine
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