The last LP issued on the "black rainbow" Capitol label?

That's why I love collecting canadian 45 and Lp pressings. All the Dunhill material came out on the red RCA Victor label there...the Lp's on the later black master's voice label with the large white lettering...very nice, those. The canadian Tamla-Motown I adore, and the pressings are very, very clean...much better than the crap vinyl Motown sometimes used here....and of course the blue Pye label, always a joy to obtain...the red UA...the orange WB the label began using here in late '64 and stopped in early '68, but continued on up north well beyond 1970, though they did change to W7 along the way...I also liked the lack of polystyrene pressings; mostly very quiet, good vinyl. Excuse me, I feel a new thread taking shape...

ED

Just one question, CT: you 'saw' a canadian "1 - 2 -3"; did you BUY IT??

 

Arin, they are. I've seen one pretty beaten up. Also I think it was pressed that way in Canada and the UK for a little while, then Canada went green target also. Not sure what they did overseas.

ED

 

Ed,

How do your Canadian Motown 45s tend to sound relative to US pressings? Motown 45s on nice vinyl instead of the typical noisy vinyl or styrene would be great.

 

Except for some of the noisier older ones which go back over thirty years, they sound nice. My favorite T/M Lp from Canada is a beautiful pressing of DIANA ROSS & THE SUPREMES GREATEST HITS. I know those songs were specially mixed to stereo for that album, but still....very, very sweet. And that purple banner label is wonderful, but that's the label geek in me talking... My domestic pressing's okay, but a little noisy...the thing is, piece for piece, clean canadian, in my experience, holds up better than most domestic, regardless of label. Since they pressed less copies of everything, maybe they were just more careful about their product. Maybe Canada, like the UK, Germany and Japan, just know how to do it better and use better grade vinyl. A dealer friend had a big stash of Canuck Lp's he bought from a guy from Montreal. Some nice, nice pieces, all the Moodies' Deram/Threshold...bought every one. I have some 1st's of those domestics that are so thick they look like the old 12" 78's...and almost as noisy. Some good pressings also, to be fair...but I just find US vinyl--save for the new stuff and audiophile pressings--to be too erratic to trust without hearing first. Can you tell I dig Canuck vinyl? Long live Canada!!!

ED

 

Actually, it was in a friend's collection, so it wasn't for sale. He used to go to Canada on a fairly regular basis, and found a lot of "retro label" singles and LPs. He also has a copy of "More Of The Monkees" on the black RCA Victor label with Nipper on top. Pretty cool.

 

I have a Canuck MORE OF myself; mono copy. Yes, pretty cool. All the Colgems stuff was put out on RCA Canada. Canada is a paradise of retro 1st pressings. One real strange one I have is the maroon 'metronome' Cadence label for THE FIRST FAMILY Lp, the Vaughn Meader take off on the JFK white house. Mono, but great condition; only cost 50 cents, which is my kind of price. Love those flea markets and junk shops; you never know...

ED

 

The Beatles' "Finyl vinyl" series of British LP's had the purple Capitol label, with the Capitol label being slightly smaller than any other form of reissue that I have seen. They also had little Parlophone and Apple logos on them as well.

The latest Rainbow Capitol label I have is from QMS' "Happy Trails" from 1969.

 

I'm confused by all these references to the Canadian wings of the major labels using older versions of the label art up here.

Two questions.

1. When did Decca U.S. stop using the black/silver 50s style label on their LPs and 45s?

I have I Can't Explain and Anyway Anywhere Anyhow (with a confusing Ralph Steadman pic sleeve that says Happy Jack in large print) on the "old" Decca labels.

2. When did RCA stop using the black label with Nipper, on their pop and rock records?

My copies of the first Monkees album and More Of The Monkees are on that label, as is my copy of Surealistic Pillow. Or is it just a case of the Monkees records being issued on Colgem in the U.S.

If that's the case there are many other situations with artists being released on diffrerent labels in Canada than the U.S. Just look at the whole Polydor/Atco situation. All the mid-late 1960s artists that were signed to Polydor in the UK were also on Polydor in Canada, such as the Bee Gees and Cream. Those albums are on Atco in the U.S. Very confusing to me. All the British Invasion bands of the 60s such as DC5, Holllies, Animals were on EMI in the UK and Capitol in Canada. But DC5 and Hollies were on Epic in the U.S. and Animals were on MGM. I have House Of The Rising Sun on the yellow orange Capitol label as well as several DC5 and Hollies singles. I have Hollies and DC5 albums on the black rainbow Capitol label too.

Check out the very extensive history of vinyl on the BBC's Web site.
BBC - A History of Vinyl - 1850 to 1969 On the 1960-1969 page you can listen to a clip from a Janice Long documentary "The 45 at 50", featuring Bob Harris discuss in great detail the label on a Connie Francis 45 from 1960 on MGM records, "A Heart Has A Mind Of It's Own". It's great. Something we here can appreciate.

Roger Daltry's caricature doing a Beavis impersonation. Or did the creator(s) of Beavis and Butthead see this Steadman drawing before?

 

My Lp of Bob Seger's Live Bullet has the the black rainbow label.

 

Decca in the USA switched to the black label with the rainbow band in 1960.
As far as RCA, there are two variations of the Nipper label. The first, used from about 1955 to 1964, has "RCA Victor" in silver at the top, with a large picture of Nipper. The second variation has "RCA Victor" in white letters, and the picture of Nipper is much smaller. This version was used from 1964 until 1968, when Nipper was retired and the boring orange label was launched.

 

This is a pressing from the 1980s. The original editions have orange labels.

 

One note on the Decca labels: while they began the rainbow band in 1960, the promo copies retained the old Decca style well into the '60s; my promo of "I Can't Explain"--among many others--has a pink label with the old design; very nice to watch spinning around. The Lp labels also converted in 1960, but with some exceptions--such as classical Lp's and the JFK tribute album THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS--most were rainbow band, too; even the WLP's. RCA stateside converted to the orange corporate label back in late' 68, though some scattered black labels exist of a few things, I'm sure. From 1969-mid-1974 it was all orange, all the time. The Colgems artists all turned up on RCA Victor Canada, as did all Dunhill artists until around 1969, when they matched the ABC/Dunhill logo here.
That's why I dig canadian pressings so much. And how about Columbia? Their 45's retained an early '60s orange style into the early '70s, while we went through a few variations before arriving at the standard red label that was kept until mid-1970, when a few different designs crept in(while the red label was still being pressed for quite a bit of copies; one of the plants must have had a lot of old labels left over). Other labels were licensed to Columbia Canada, including Musicor, and I have a James Brown "Hot Pants" from 1971(in STEREO!!; stock US 45 was mono)on orange Columbia with PEOPLE typed under the main logo. Cooooollll...

ED


FYI, Miike, that Who PS was issued here as the "Happy Jack" PS.

 

I have a "Pisces, Aquarius" LP on the black RCA label. It is pretty cool. I have a couple of 45s also. My ex-wife's grandmother lived in Montreal and everytime we'd go up for New Years (back in the '80's), I'd go trudging through the snow on a record shopping spree. There were some very funky record stores there and I got a lot of great buys. My favorite was a mint Zappa - Lumpy Gravy with no gatefold cover. Love that Boreale Beer! You can't get that down here.

 

Have access to a scanner? (hint, hint)

 

Really? Do you have one? My "RL" (Ludwig) pressing is green labeled.

 

I think it was The Knack - "Get The Knack" In fact, this is a great album that was critically panned as a knockoff of Meet the Beatles, right down to the label.

 

Tamman, that rainbow label was the beginning of the revival of the rainbow variant...Rainbow Mach II, you might say...what we're trying to figure out is the last pressing on the first rainbow, somewhere late in '69, even early '70, and possibly, up in Canada. We're just not sure; so far, THE BAND has been confirmed as a rainbow pressing, though most 1sts are green target.

ED

 

I have a copy that I purchased in Atlanta when it was first released and it has the black rainbow label. I've also got a couple of other copies that have the green label. Also have a German import that has the green label.

 

Just for completion sake, Thomas Dolby's Flat Earth was issued with the retro rainbow Capitol label. If you like this ablum, sealed promo's are easy to find with the gold stamp on the outer jacket. The promo's were pressed on premium vinyl. I have heard several of them and they are all audiophile quality!!!!