As predicted, the Canadian Decca copy of my Bonnie did not sell for 14 500$. It was later dropped to 12 500$, 10 500$ and is still for sale as of today for 9000$. It is a record for which it is difficult to establish a true market value, as it does not turn up too often. Having it for sale with a "buy it now" price instead of letting an auction follow its course makes it even more difficult to establish a true value. Keep in mind that on its first auction run, it only reached 4500$ (not meeting the reserve price).
But My Bonnie is not the only record that attracted our attention this week, Sie Liebt Dich sold for an impressive 300$, while suprisingly, Do You Want To Know A Secret only sold for 32$ ! Other sales include Love Me Do (dash 5/6 copy) sold for 26$, Twist And Shout for 31$, and the scarce RCA pressing (no brackets) of Lady Madonna sold for 34.50$.
Some non-Beatles records also sold: Anne Murray's Snow Bird green Starline single sold for 10$, while very early 72000 series Sergio Bruni (72005) on the purple label sold for 10$.
And for the LPs, a very nice mono copy of Sing A Song With The Beatles found a new owner for 100$, a Gold Vinyl copy of Love Songs sold for 55$, while the rare stereo Lee Gagnon's La Jazztek sold for 50$. Sounds Incorporated saw their album sell for 10.50$ while Dave Clark Five Across Canada sold for 26$ and finally, two copies of Shinding With The Shadows sold for 20$ each.
The single "Roll Over Beethoven / Drifting Heart" by Chuck Berry And His Combo was issued in the USA in May 1956 as Chess 1626 on both 78 RPM and 45 RPM disc formats. This was Chuck berry's fourth single for Chess. The previous three singles on Chess were:
Chess 1604 Maybellene / Wee Wee Hours (July 1955)
(Note - this was issued as Quality 1413 on 78 RPM and K 1413 on 45 RPM in Canada)
Chess 1610 Thirty Days / Together We Will Always Be (September 1955)
(Note - this was issued as Quality 1430 on 78 RPM and K 1430 on 45 RPM in Canada)
Chess 1615 No Money Down / Down Bound Train (December 1955)
(Note - this was issued as Quality 1467 on 78 RPM and K 1467 on 45 RPM in Canada)
The following personnel played on the track Roll Over Beethoven which was recorded at Chess Studios in Chicago on April 16th., 1956:
Chuck Berry - guitar, vocal,
Willie Dixon - bass
Johnnie Johnson - piano
Fred Below - drums
The Beethoven single was originally issued in Canada in May 1956 on both 78 RPM and 45 RPM formats on the Quality label. Quality was the Canadian distributor for Chess until Phonodisc took over for Chess distribution in Canada in the early 1960s. The A side Beethoven pre-dated CHUM Toronto's top 50 ... as CHUM did not start it's rock and roll chart until 1957. The 78 issue carried the Quality catalogue number 1503 while the 45 issue carried the catalogue number K 1503.
David Whatmough lists an entry for the 45 in his excellent book"50 Year Directory Of Canadian 45 RPM and 78 RPM Records" (published by the author 2000-2002). To date I have not come across a copy of the original 45 (just the Quality 78) so I am assuming that the 45 was pressed in very small quantities. Perhaps the 78 RPM version was pressed in larger quantities.
The soundtrack LP From The Motion Picture "Rock, Rock, Rock" was the first LP to be issued in the US by Chess in December of 1956. It is also considered to be Chuck Berry's very first LP. In Canada the LP was issued as Quality V-1561 but still used the front slick of the Chess LP 1425. The LP was probably issued in Canada in early 1957 and the liner notes contain a brief summary of the track "Roll Over Beethoven".
The Chess LP "Chuck .. Berry Is On Top" was issued in July 1959. This compilation LP was issued in Canada by Quality (blue label) as V-1641 and features Roll Over Beethoven as track 3 on Side 2.
The complete Canadian Chuck Berry discography is found under the "Non-Capitol Artists" tab in the menu,
otherwise, simply click HERE to access it.
It seemd like it would be a fierce battle, but the record that started off at 0.99$ seven days ago, ended it up not selling because of a reserve price that was higher than what collectors were ready to pay. It very slowly reached a couple of hundred dollars after a some early safe bids and quickly became more interesting as people were trying to push and discover the reserve price; reaching a few thousand dollars in the following days.
Many players left the game then, but the remaining serious collectors hiked it up to 4500$ with only a few hours remaining and the reserve price still not yet met.
As it often the case, the price usually raises dramatically in the last few minutes of a sale, but this time it didn't budge; the rare disc reached an impressive 4500$ , but no more, remaining below the reserve price. The item was automatically relisted at 14 500$; which gives a slightly better idea of what the reserve price might have been… It is difficult to predict if the record will sell at this price, but if bids stopped around 5000$ the first time around, it would seem surprising to see it sell for 14 500$.
Nevertheless, this is definitely a great piece of history, and with only a handfull of documented surving copies, this item is surely not one we see for sale too often.
From June 9th., 2011 through July 9th., 2011 there is a fabulous new exposition called "From Elvis to The Beatles .. 1956 to 1964 ... the birth of Rock and Roll in Quebec". The show includes a nice display of early Beatles memorabilia from Montreal as seen in the attached photo. The expo is located at Centre Pierre Peladeau at 300 Boulevard de Maisonneuve Est in downtown Montreal, Quebec. The nearest Metro stop is "Barr- Uqam". More details are on the web site:
Link: http://www.museedurocknrollduquebec.com/
A lot of interesting items have sold lately, including once again the withdrawn Animals LP for 42$, Helen Shapiro (6020) for 38$, "More Smashing Smashers" for 39$, "Hits of the Yardbirds" for 57$, "Five Faces Of Manfred Mann" for 28$, all on the 6000 series. Pink FLoyd also saw their first two 6000 series album sell for 42$ each while the Beatles beat the weekly sale price record with "Long Tall Sally" for 127$. A very rare MT- copy of Please Please Me with the Dick James credits also changed hands during this busy week!
The Beatles will certainly break another sale record for the week as their first ever Canadian 45 "My Bonnie" on the black Decca label is for sale and will most probably reach sky high prices; already at 4500$ with another day to go, it will surely make a completist very happy!
Stay tuned, and we will keep you up to date with the sale of this very scarce item later this week!
Here are two cool 45 RPM disc variations from 1952 and 1953. Each one has a different style of "optional center" which allowed the owner to play the disc on a record player with either an LP/78 spindle of the newer RCA large hole spindle. The centre could be punched out with a bit of manual force and there were some directions printed on the accompanying stock sleeve. How many of these have survived today without the centre punched out ? Capitol of Canada was clearly experimenting with the new 45 RPM format and this "O.C. 45" was a short lived experiment until the RCA large spindle hole format became the norm in Canada after 1953. The 78 RPM continued to use the small spindle holes.
45 Capitol F-1067 | Nat King Cole | Strange / How (How Do I Go About It ?) |
---|---|---|
issued with tri-angular optional center by Capitol Records Canada (London) in 1952 | ||
45 Capitol F-1246 | Frank Sinatra and Billy May | South Of The Border / I Love You |
issued with circular optional center by Capitol Records Canada (London) in 1953 | ||
One odd question ... which O.C. was better ? .. tri-angular of circular ?
It is also interesting to note that at this time in the 1950s Capitol was using a different set of catalogue numbers than the USA. In the USA these two 45s were issued by Capitol on 45 RPM as F2309 (Nat King Cole) and F2638 (Sinatra/May)respectively.