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04 24 2012

New imported release on Record Store Day 2012

This year, on Record Store Day, Canadian independant record shops had the chance to order the cool red box set of Beatles 45s. This set was available in the USA a few months back, in late 2011, but were made available in Canada for the event in April 2012. The box includes four reproductions of Ticket To Ride / Yes It Is, Hey Jude / Revolution, Something / Come Together and Yellow Submarine / Eleanor Rigby, featuring the original labels and picture sleeves, a poster and a 45 adapter.





What is particularly cool about this box set is that it features remastered versions of the songs for the first time on vinyl, but mostly, this means that the Hey Jude disc features the "new" longer ending (more than the inscribed 7:11) only found on the mono remastered CD box set issued in 2009! Last year's special release also featured remastered tracks, now making a total of 10 remastered songs offered on vinyl. This year though, the record was imported to Canada from the USA instead of the UK.

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04 23 2012

THE BEATLES' VERY FIRST CANADIAN DISC
... HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY !!!

Monday, April 23rd, 2012 is exactly the 50th anniversary of the official release of the Beatles first record in Canada which was issued by Decca (Compo records) in Canada on Monday, April 23rd, 1962. In mid-April 1962, the 45 RPM record was pressed at 2377 Remembrance Street in Lachine Quebec. The building is still there in 2012 but the address is now 2496 Rue Remembrance in Lachine, Quebec. Below is a photo showing the building as it appears today near the corner of Rue Remembrance and 24th Avenue in Lachine.



Above - The Compo Pressing Plant In Lachine, Quebec as it appears today.(Source: Google Street Maps 2012)

Compo probably moved their pressing plant to 2377 Remembrance Street at the beginning of the 1940s and records were pressed here until the early 1970s even though Compo had opened a much more modern pressing plant in Cornwall Ontario in 1964.

Source: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/gramophone/028011-3011-e.html

The article on the Canadian Decca My Bonnie 45 appears at the following link:
http://www.capitol6000.com/mybonnie50th.html

And the article on the Canadian recorded sales for the Decca My Bonnie 45 appears at the following link: http://www.capitol6000.com/decca.html

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04 01 2012

Beatles Cover Versions

On the album BEATLES 65

Written by Piers Hemmingsen, March 2012

For Canadian Beatles record collectors and complete-ists, it is worth noting here that all four of the songs "covered" by The Beatles on Beatles '65 (issued December 1964) had in fact already been issued on vinyl in Canada by their original artists spanning the years 1956 through 1962.

Chuck Berry - Rock And Roll Music (September 1957)

Quality Records pressed both a 78 RPM version (1663) and a 45 RPM version (with the K prefix) of the coupling Blue Feeling / Rock And Roll Music in September 1957. Oddly the Rock And Roll Music side was assigned "-S2" status on the label which indicated that the track was the B side of Blue Feeling. In the USA, the single was issued as Chess 1671 and Blue Feeling was the B-side. Needless to say, Chuck Berry wrote the song and this was one of his very best songs of all. The Beatles would play the song in their 1966 concert tour set list… including Toronto!

 

CHUM Toronto charted the Quality K1663 disc for 6 weeks in 1957 and it peaked at number 6 in December 1957 (Source: Ron Hall, "Music World" December 1957).



Above - Music World, December 1957, Page 36 (Chuck Berry's 45 is at number 7 on the CHUM chart, probably compiled at the end of November 1957)

Mr. Moonlight - Dr. Feelgood And The Interns (June 1962)

The track "Mister Moonlight" was originally issued in the USA by Dr. Feelgood And The Interns as :

OKeh 4-7144 Dr. Feelgood And The Interns "Doctor Feel-Good / Mister Moonlight"
(original issues are on the yellow label, later purple label issues do not correctly list Roy Lee Johnson as the composer)

 

The 45 was issued in the USA in 1962 and became a well known cover song for many Liverpool bands including The Merseybeats (UK Fontana TF 431), as well as for the Manchester-based Hollies.

The composer of "Mister Moonlight" was songwriter, singer and guitarist Roy Lee Johnson who was also a member of the Interns backing group. Johnson apparently wrote the song while he was in high school. Doctor Feelgood was a pseudonym for pianist-singer Piano Red.

The 45 was also issued in England in 1962 as (EMI) Columbia 45-DB 4838.

In the USA, the Okeh label was distributed by CBS. So in Canada, the Dr. Feelgood discs were pressed and distributed by CBS but they were assigned to the Epic subsidiary label.

(Source: David Whatmough)

An album was issued in Canada on the Epic label in 1962 (mono only):

OKM-12101 - Doctor Feelgood and the Interns - Dr. Feelgood & Interns [1962] Issued with two different covers. One showed a large smile on the cover while the other had a doctor's bag. Doctor Feel-Good (S)/I'll Give Anything (S)/The Swabble (S)/I'll Be Home One Day (S)/I Ain't Gonna Be A Lowdown Dog No More (S)/Bald-Headed Lena (S)//What's Up Doc (S)/Mister Moonlight (S)/Sea Breeze (S)/Right String But The Wrong Yo-Yo (S)/Love Is Amazing (S)/Don't Let Me Catch You Wrong (S)

(Source: David Edwards and Mike Callahan, Both Sides Now Publishing)

 

In Canada, the album was issued with the "smile" cover using the same USA Okeh catalogue number OKM-12101. Note that the album includes Mister Moonlight (side 2, track 2).

At the same time, the following 45 was issued in Canada:

Epic 5-7156 What's Up Doc / Right String Baby, Wrong Yo-Yo (USA number Okeh 4-7156)



According to eminent Canadian musicologist David Whatmough, "only ten percent of the USA Okeh releases were given a Canadian Epic release" so it is possible that the earlier Okeh 45 "Doctor Feel-Good / Mister Moonlight" was not issued on Epic in Canada. A Canadian Epic catalogue number would have been 5-7144 assuming it was indeed issued by CBS/Epic. In any event, both sides of 5-7144 were included on the mono Lp which was issued on Epic in Canada. There are no chart entries for the 5-7144 45 RPM record in Canada which supports the theory that it was not issued on Epic.

 

Above Left - later CBS/Okeh issue of 4-7144 which does not credit Roy Lee Johnson.
Above Right - British EMI/Columbia issue of 45-DB 4838 from 1962 with the proper songwriter credit.

Honey Don't ! - Carl Perkins (April 1956)

In Canada, Quality issued the brilliant Carl Perkins coupling "Blue Suede Shoes / Honey Don't" in April 1956 on both 78 RPM and 45 RPM formats (Quality 1473 and Quality K1473). The Sun 45 version had been issued in December 1955 (Sun 234). The exclamation mark following the title exists on both the Sun and the Quality releases from 1955 and 1956 respectively.



Above L-R photos courtesy of Popsike



The rock and roll charts did not exist in Canada in 1956 so there are no chart entries for Quality K1473. Note that both sides of this single also appear on Carl Perkin's "Dance Album" (Quality) as discussed below.

Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby - Carl Perkins (very late 1957 / early 1958)

Carl Perkins is best remembered for being a rockabilly pioneer and for writing "Blue Suede Shoes". His very first album for Sun records is one of the very best of the early rock and roll albums of all time and can be classed as "essential" in any rock and roll collection. The Beatles performed at least five of the songs from the album at various times and George in particular was a huge fan of Carl Perkins early on. The Sun album includes Blue Suede Shoes, Matchbox, Honey Don't, Sure To Fall, and Everybody's Trying To be My Baby). The album was issued in the USA on the Sun label as SLP 225 in early 1958. In Canada, the album was issued by Quality records as:

Quality V-1611 - Carl Perkins - Dance Album of... Carl Perkins (mono only)



Photo courtesy of www.popsike.com

The song " Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby" is the third track on the second side. As it was not issued as a single in Canada, it did not chart.