Hard to find DADC early pressings!

Lately I've been sorting out my early DADC pressings with the "neat" font (easy to read) circa 1984-1987. Most of these will start with a "DIDX" or a "DIDP" in the matrix depending on the label. Although numerous early Sony/CBS/Epic/Portrait (and other subsidiaries of Sony) label discs are plentiful, many DADC pressings from other labels are not! In fact many are just as rare as target CDs and other early pressings. I wanted to compile a list of some of the tougher ones to find, primarily OUTSIDE the Sony/CBS family. However I will list at least one tough Epic title that I had a hard time finding and I have only seen once. Feel free to do the same if you know it's rare!

Here are ones that in my experience are pretty rare:

1. Iron Maiden "Powerslave" Capitol CDP 7-4605-2

2. Eagles "Greatest Hits" Columbia House record club version E2-105

3. Tesla "Mechanical Resonance" Geffen 9-24120-2

4. Cheap Trick "Dream Police" EK-35773

5. Police "Ghost In The Machine" CD-3730 (I need this one!)

How about you guys? What are some other tough DADC discs from the early days?

 

I will also assume that a DADC Robin Trower "Bridge Of Sighs" must be rare since the master himself, Keith Hirsch doesn't own it! I do own it and I am fairly certain it's the only one I've ever seen.

 

As a slight deviation on this thread.....

Besides the DADC on the inner plastic of the cd....I have an older XTC cd, 'Drums and Wires'...that doesn't have the DADC there....but in the printing on the main part of the cd under the copyright date....saying mfg. by DADC.

I wonder if this was at all common. I haven't noticed it on other cd's.

 

That's interesting. I don't recall those from memory and I don't own an early DADC of that title for reference (I do own Skylarking as an early DADC) but you do mention an important element I left out. The early DADC discs will have a stamp in the plastic hub area. Thanks for mentioning that!

 

This issue shows a 1991 release date on discogs...so no, not an early DADC. I may have others like this, I just don't recall.

 

I was wondering how late DADC pressings were made. I have a Bangles "In Your Room" promo single from 1988 that has the DADC info in the inner circle...

 

Not really sure but I would think your disc would be close to the cutoff point as far as the early style goes. I mentioned 1987 above because that seemed to be last of the old style before Sony titles switched to the new style like in the picture above.

And so everyone understands I'm specifically talking about EARLY DADC pressings with the font that looks like the easy to read font style on the early pressings from Japan in the 35DP series, etc.

 

I have a copy now. It shows up here and on eBay from time to time probably because folks know it is in demand, but I never see it in the bins.

 

It took me a long time to track down a U.S. DADC pressing of the retail issue of The Who Who's Next with "DIDX-152" in the matrix code. The U.S. DADC pressing of the Columbia House issue with "DIDX-1530" in the matrix code is much more common.

 

1987 was the start of the matrix style show above in the photo that Sony DADC still uses globally for CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays.

I bought a new release Paul McCartney/All the Best! Capitol US CD and is had the matrix. They didn't just change all lines over at once. I think in another thread we were discussing, the latest pressing with the original hub mould ("Digital Audio Disc Corp. 'D'") and the original style matrix (same as the CBS/Sony Japan discs, not the one in the photo above), know to be seen was a late 1991 or 1992 pressing.

The hub mould started going away of the next few years also, with the just the "D" logo or nothing in the hub. It not uncommon to find mix and match discs until 1991 or so with the old style matrix and blank hubs or vice versa.

A couple things to consider about the early ones:

1. Capitol (EMI USA) used DADC for pressing CDs in 1985-87, particularly ones that very popular global releases that they couldn't get enough out of the West German plants to share (PolyGram/PDO and Sonopress) and Toshiba-EMI in Japan, such as (Dark Side of the Moon, Duran Duran, Tina Turner, etc.) and for USA-market Capitol releases.
2. Columbia House used DADC, not surprisingly because it was affiliated and next door(!), to make a lot of non-CBS catalog items around the mid-eighties.
3. The Yen was appreciating and DADC had enormous and growing capacity, so some of the Japan sourced discs started getting sourced from DADC for Motown, MCA, WEA, Telarc, GRP, RCA, A&M, etc.. Which is funny, because it led to tight capacity again, forcing CBS US to get discs from Japan from JVC and Denon/NC!

Like PolyGram/PDO West Germany in Europe who pressed a lot of discs for almost everyone, DADC became like that for a few years, simply due to the large relative capacity.

 

"Police "Ghost In The Machine" CD-3730 (I need this one!)"

It was 1 of the first 2 CD's I purchased before I had a player, Zep IV target was the other , still have them both. Outlandos early DADC took me a couple of years to find. Hendrix Axis Bold As Love early DADC is a rather tough one to track down as well.

P.S. Here is an excellent DADC write up courtesy of FFRACER; http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/dadc-question.115508/#post-2607552

 

Great post ffracer. You make some great points and also make a lot of sense! Much appreciated!

 

I've got all original Police titles in Japan for US, West German for US and US DADC except for that one title! Oh well, something to chase down!

 

Glad it had a happy ending

 

Thanks! Any time. Just trying to help and encourage the fun of collecting and/or music listening.

P.S. sorry for my typos, typing too fast!

 

and I though I was the only one that "crazy"... although my insanity also encompasses the 1st and 2nd Japan for Japan issues. When I was a kid in the late 80's the Police were my favorite group, but today might not even make my top 10. Guess like with all nostalgia you collect what you remember from your youth.

A problem with the early DADC's is they are seldom identified as such in internet sales unlike the WG's and Japan's

 

Same here! Seen only one! The one I own and I just found it in the last couple of years. It had a smooth top jewel case whenever I found it.

 

You nailed it. That's why I collect them! Yes DADC seems to rarely get identified but I've noticed they are starting to fetch some coin when listed as such. Maybe it's trending up!

 

On a related note, I've found early DADC pressings for Cheap Trick's "Heaven Tonight", "Budokan", "Dream Police", "One On One", "Standing On The Edge" and "The Doctor". Are there any early DADC for any of their other CDs? I've found zillions of DADC of their other Epic titles, just not of the EARLY variety.

 

I recently found a copy of 'Standing On The Edge'. The back cover had Made in Japan, with a smooth sided case. The disc on the other hand has 'Made in the USA by DADC' with the DADC name on the hub.

 

CBS US released a whole bunch of backcatalog CDs at reduced prices ('Nice Price' etc.) pressed by Sony DADC (with the stamp and no barcode) and some from JVC Japan and NC/Denon in Japan with no 'Made in Japan' markings on the inserts in 1985-7.

These came in longboxes, not plastic blisterpacks. Some of these titles were repressed many times due to popularity and some only a few times, hence the rare ones.

 

I guess I got mine from Columbia Record Clubs back in the day?
I Have Cheap Trick Dream Police EK 35773
ALSO, have a still Sealed 'Ghost In The Machine' CD-3730,
and a still sealed Zenyatta Mondatta CD-3720 / DIDY
( I never opened them because back then I only use to buy Vinyl, then transfer to Chromium Dioxide and Metal cassette tapes for my walkmans, and I only ended up getting it on CD because I heard GITM was one of the first DDD CD's back then? ) Then I got the 'Message in a Box' original issue, and now, 30 years later, GITM/ZM remains sealed...

 

Thanks! You accidentally explained something I'd wondered about... My copy of Lene Lovich's Stateless on Stiff/Epic is a Japanese pressing by JVC, even though - I believe - it was issued late enough that I thought CBS had stopped sourcing their CD pressings from Japan. There's no mention on the back cover of the disc being made in Japan, which I know doesn't necessarily mean much, but I think this title came out too late for such a notification. Your explanation makes perfect sense!

EDIT: Discogs shows this CD as a 1984 release, therefore this explanation seems to be more accurate in this case:

So, again, thanks!

 

You are welcome! Glad to help!

 

Yup!