What is a Columbia Six Eye?

I purchased a good number of Columbia LP's in the late 50's when I was around 11 and up. I used to save my allowance and lunch money and buy one or two albums ($2.69) a month or so. Every once in a while I see a reference to "Six Eye". Looking at my original Columbia albums (bought just after they were issued) I only count 4 eyes in the Columbia symbol. In fact my earliest Miles Davis albums "'Round About Midnight" CL 949 ($2.87) and "Kind of Blue" CL 1355 ($3.19) only have one eye.

Any answers?

 

Nope 6-eye Columbia mono pressings got six eyes...

In 1962 the 'guaranteed high fidelity' or 'stereo' label began, and that had two, one on each side. But from 1956-62, six eyes it was....

 

An example of a Columbia 6-eye:

 

Thanks Grant. I was counting the spirals in each eye. I should have asked this question years ago.

 

are the 6-eye Columbia LP's generally considered to be of good quality in regards to sound? the reason i ask is that i own a mint Bessie Smith 6-eye Columbia LP and am wondering how it may fare compared to others - thanks!

 

I never realized those were supposed to be eyes! Good info to finally know (and to see).

Thanks Grant, for posting the pic.

 

I've never managed to work out what the Columbia logo was supposed to represent. It frightened me as a child.

I've seen the 6-eye label on some of Columbias CD remasters of vinyl jazz albums from that period, but not all of them.

 

You can see more examples of columbia labels at:
https://www.smugmug.com/index.mg?NickName=RecordLabels

Use the password "labels", and go to the C-D section.

 

In my experience, yes. Wonderfully smoothy sound. Also, what's nice, is that they can be beat to hell and still play great. They're evidently "deep-grooved" and you'll never find a beat-up record that plays better.

 

There are some 6 eye stereos, and IME even though they are still quite nice, those are not as good.

Two eyes monos are still pretty nice.

 

I also love the monos. Time Out is superb on the original issue LPs, though I do much prefer the stereo mix. It's a perfect example of just how advanced & ingenious that technology was (46 years ago!), considering the smugness about the superiority of all things modern or digital.

 

thanks for the reply! i'll have to give the Bessie Smith a spin later

 

Is that Bessie Smith one of the series of 4 compilation volumes? I've not played mine in ages.

 

hi Mike V,

i don't have the LP with me at the moment - i don't believe that it is one of the series of 4 compilation volumes, although it very well might be - i will try and do a search on the web to see what i come up with!

...i've found it to be a nice record to play on a Sunday afternoon

 

This picture's a bit out of focus, but this is one of the LP's in the series that Mike is talking about. Notice the blue label.

 

hey, that's the one i have! mike was right - guess it is one of the 4 compilation volumes!

...did all the compilation volumes have the same cover, albeit with either a 1, 2, 3 or 4 next to the volume? and, which one do you reckon sounds the best out of this series?

i believe the label is red on the LP i have, but i will definitely check it out later when i give it a sping

 

Grant, cool link, thanks.

 

Here is another in the series. I don't know if there are variations, but all the ones I've seen have the same picture but are a different color.



Edit: As far as sound quality, it's important to remember that Bessie's earliest recordings were acoustic. That is no microphone was used. The cutting needle just recorded the vibrations that were in the room through a horn. So the earliest recordings are not that great sound quality wise. But by the time you get to the early thirties the sound quality becomes much better. I don't know if this series is chronological, though.

 

In fact, it was with the "six-eye" design that the tint of red we associate with the Columbia pop and jazz labels first took effect - as well as the cool grey of Columbia Masterworks. (The latter only was in use to 1970, when with the change in label design it switched to warm grey.)

 

Remember, this is NOT considered a "6-eye" label, even though yes there are 6 "eyes" around the perimeter.

This confused me at first. This label came out around 1970. 6-eyes are earlier.

 

Pic doesn't work, Ryan.

 

hi another side,

thanks very much for the post(s)! i believe i do have the vol 1 - it looks like they used the same covers for vols 1-4 and just changed the color of the background.

i'm not sure if the series is in chronological order either, but i do know that the vol 1 does sound very old indeed, perhaps it was recorded in the way you suggested and was one of Bessie's earliest recordings - still a nice sounding LP!

 

I've always liked the Columbia "six eye" label design...it's very eye-catching. I have a number of "six eye" Columbia LPs, many of which were purchased new by my dad back in the '50s and early '60s. Unfortunately, a lot of them are beat up.

I was fascinated by the Columbia logo as a child. I didn't think it looked like an eye, though...I thought it looked like a record balanced on a pair of chopsticks, especially in the pre-1962 version where the "eye" has a spindle hole.

 

I always thought the logo looked like a eyeball TV thing with rabbit-ear antennas! But then you see the logo on CDs and such with the eyeball part on top, so go figure. <shrug>

 

Hi,

The reason for the Eye logo: The Eye is the CBS Eye! CBS meaning the Columbia Broadcasting System. It was originally the Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System before William Paley purchased it. In 1940, CBS purchased Columbia Records/American Record Corporation. They kept it until the merger with Sony Corporation.