Alphabetize... by Last Name or First?

There's a record store that I frequent and love...except for one oddity. "Bruce Springsteen" will be in the "B" section. Everything is by first letter of the name of the artist.

When I alphabetize, group names go by first letter of the group. Solo artists go by first letter of the last name. So, "Alice Cooper" is under the A's, as it's the group name (or was originally, anyway). "Aretha Franklin" is under "F".

What do you do?

 

Same as you. Dewey Decimal System, baby.

 

I am still trying to figure out whether I should alphabetize my physical collection by last name or first name. I have not come up with something I like since this past thread:

Alphabetizing your music collection in the computer age
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...-music-collection-in-the-computer-age.283240/

 

rule of thumb, when you look by name in the phone book, is it by first name or last?

 

However the record guides I read do it. So, Little Richard under "L," Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf under "W," Bruce Springsteen under "S," etc.

 

Last name or first letter of the band.

 

I put Cooper under C...i guess you can go either way on that one.

 

Last name, if it's the name of a person (David Bowie under B, Frank Zappa under Z); first name if it's the name of the act (Roxy Music under R, Talking Heads under T).

Thinking about it though Patti Smith and the Patti Smith Group are all under S (makes more sense like that), but Iggy Pop, and Iggy and the Stooges are all under P, in chronological order. And despite Iggy Pop being a P, Captain Beefheart is a C (and I'm really not sure why...)

 

Got all my Tull under T !

kiddin'

last name , except for the
aforementioned Alice Cooper

 

I'm a slacker. iTunes alphabetizes by first letter regardless, and I've never bothered to change things from, say, "Warren Zevon" to "Zevon, Warren." If I were to start now it would take me months. Anyway, now I'm used to this unorthodox system.

 

This question comes up so often, we should just have a test on what letter you alphabetize these artists under:

The Alan Parsons Project/I Robot
The Stooges/Fun House (1970)
Iggy And The Stooges/Raw Power (1973)
Iggy Pop/The Idiot (1977)
The Wailers/Catch A Fire (1973)
Bob Marley And The Wailers/Natty Dread (1974)
Huey Lewis And The News/Sports
Alice Cooper/Billion Dollar Babies (1973) [as band name]
Alice Cooper/Welcome To My Nightmare (1975) [as solo name]
The Jimi Hendrix Experience/Are You Experienced
Band of Gypsys/Band of Gypsys
Paul McCartney/Ram (1971)
Paul McCartney & Wings/Band On The Run (1973)
Wings/Venus And Mars (1975)
David Coverdale and Jimmy Page/Coverdale*Page
Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes/Live At The Greek
The Honeydrippers/The Honeydrippers Volume 1
Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucía/Friday Night In San Francisco [three artists, and two have prepositions]
Various Artists/A Christmas Gift for You from Phillies Records [produced by Phil Spector]

 

Do you really think Mr. Wolf named his son "Howlin'"?

 

I always forget if I put my PJ Harvey's under P or H.... But otherwise last name alpha please.

 

That would drive me crazy to shop there!

 

And of course the A's go under P for Philadelphia.

 

After about 20+ years of alphabetizing by last name (properly, as we learned in grammar school), I've long ago given up the practice since most software does it by the first name. Enough years have gone by since I went digital that I've come to expect seeing first name alphabetizations, and proper last-name alphabetizations have actually become a nuisance.

Here is a random slice of my digital artist files:

Harry Roy; Harry Stoneman, Harumi; Harvester; Harvey Mandel; Harvey Scales and the Seven Sounds; Hash Jar Tempo; Hasil Adkins; Hartfield & The North, Havana Black; Hackshaw Hawkins; Hawkwind; hayseed Dixie; Hazel; Hazel Dickens...et. al.

It's worth mentioning that I spent many years in Japan, where record stores alphabetize in this way too. So to me, it isn't alien.

One thing I really hate is when people name digital files thusly: "Rolling Stones, The" Not only is it ugly-looking, it's not a proper alphabetization either (proper would be to file it under the R's, but keep "the" in front of the name). So all my "the" artists are listed in the T's under "The". I admit this can be confusing sometimes...is it Eagles or The Eagles? But as long as I know where everything is it doesn't matter.

Here's a slice of my "The" section:

The Swinging Blue Jeans, The Swingle Singers, The Swirlies, The Sylvers, The Synthesizer Rock Orchestra, The Tailot, The Tangerine, The Tangerine Zoo, The Tartan Horde, The T-Bones, The Teardrop Explodes, The Teemates, The Teens, The Telescopes...et. al

I keep so little physical media around these days that it isn't worth alphabetizing anymore. If I accumulated some, I'd probably alphabetize it the new digital way, since that is what I have become used to. Nobody else is likely to pay it much mind anyway, so I don't really care.

 

Mother's maiden name.

 

I guess you're saying I should have him under "H"? Well, for some reason none of the record guides I consult do it that way, so I don't either. Less thinking I have to do.

 

OK I'm down with the classic Dewey Decimal model, but just realized I have been putting my Jethro Tull in the T section.. aarrgghh.
So it comes down to where it is less packed if you have dividers, as to where the' band name as person name' goes I guess, because I just seem to have an overly congested J-K section....I guess Tull could go in the A section for Anderson?
argh.

 

Last name then by year, much like the price guides.

sean

 

You raise some very interesting examples. I'll bet most people struggle with this...I know I do.

 

That baby must have been colicky.

 

Wow, Seederman...you file "The's" under "T"?

I just think of "The Beatles" mentally as "Beatles, The" and file under "B" without designating them as "Beatles, The". Else there's just too much confusion. To put it another way, I strip the "The" off.

 

You must have trouble with The The

 

The Dewey Decimal System only uses numbers. Most public libraries that circulate CDs file them by genre, then by the artist's last name, or group name. Some academic libraries use ANSCR, the Alpha-Numeric System for Collections of Recordings. And you ALWAYS strip off the "The", except in the case of "The The."