I think I have a Royal Roost LP on styrene. It was fairly common. Problem was the breakable thing was fairly desirable, so vinylite was important. 45's, different story.
As a kid, I used to love taking my dad's Decca LPs (Al Jolson, Around the World in 80 Days, Ink Spots, Mills Brothers, etc.) and go "tink tink tink" along the rim, tapping with my fingernail. Even as a dumb little kid, I knew there was something "different" about the material.
A lot of styrene records had the label glued on,real low budget.50+ years later,the glue dries,and the label comes off.Others have the label as part of the record itself,just painted on.
If World Artists and Sunset* LP's are styrene, then Shelley pressed them. As for Harmony, the latest styrene LP's I've seen (along with styrene LP pressings by Columbia in general) were from 1960. * Sunset was actually the budget subsidiary of Liberty at the time, then incorporated in 1969 into United Artists.
The other $$$$$ collectible Jazz label Debut was also styrene, good luck with finding them with the labels aheared. A few other styrene encounters: Columbia (1953) Sunset (Liberty) Mickey Mouse Club (pre-Disneyland) Autumn Mercury (early 50's) Decca King
Yup. Both original Transitions that I have personally owned had either loose labels or they had completely fallen off but were still inside the cover. I recently found a Anna Maria Alberghetti on Mercury from the 50's that appears to be styrene. I have quite a few King titles, all country and haven't come across any styrene, thankfully. Period and Colonial are also usually styrene. I see a lot of Dixieland and Klezmer on those labels.
Also the now collectable classical labels "Allegro" and "Royalle" a/k/a the Record Corporation of America ("RCA") later reissued their product on Ultraphone, Gramophone, Varsity, Allegro/Elite, and Halo on styrene. The reissue styrene pressings actually are better than the originals, the originals were quite hissy and noisy. That budget label was known for issuing 1940's German radio air checks and using pseudonymous names for the orchestras. (For those who are into this kind of stuff) The "sources" were recordings of the German broadcast companies of NWDR Cologne, SWF BadenBaden and NWDR Hamburg, material which was issued on the later Allegro/Elite series, deriving from airchecks with all probability. A fourth source was Soviet Russian 78s or LPs. Some part of the material supplied by the "Berlin source" apparently came from the archives of East German Radio, a station which also held a lot of German war-time tape recordings, apart from their own productions made after the war years. Finally, every now and then dubs were used from old German Telefunken shellacs. http://www.soundfountain.com/allegro-royale/introduction.html
Every one of my Bill Doggett and Earl Bostic King albums are styrene presses And I have quite a lot of them.
Most of my King LPs are styrene,and I have lots of them,too,R&B and country.Sometime in the early 60s,they switched over to regular vinyl.Most of the better R&B,blues,and country records that were pressed on styrene were never repressed after they made the switch.The much rarer UK/European pressings on Parlophone,Electrola,and Odeon are the ones to own,but I've only found a couple of those. I can also tell you the early Jubilee LPs were styrene.Anyone who owns any can tell you as time goes on,they get as brittle as 78s.A few months ago,I discovered my early styrene copy of The Crazy Cadillacs,that I had not played in a few years,was broken in two.
This is a very interesting thread. It's making me realize how many styrene LPs are in my collection. I just checked a bunch of my King records, and indeed they all make that "boing" sound when tapped on the edge. Thing is, I had the perception that the old King records were pretty tough. They seem to play pretty well for me. Over the years I did play them a lot using a Linn Adikt cartridge with a Gyger II type stylus. I have not noticed any appreciable wear or sonic degradation. But isn't Gyger II considered one of the forbidden stylus types when playing styrene?
I never seen a styrene Jubilee LP, which label variation? I seen tons of the Blooper albums, Rusty Warren, Barry Sisters, and albums by one off singers and never a styrene press. I found several original Liberace and Arthur Godfrey red label Columbia LP's pressed on styrene which is odd since that's what they used on the Harmony LP's. What was a bummer is when we put several big $$$ collectable albums on our wall to sell. There was a sign reading "ask for assistance with the LP's on the wall". The records are in a large frame on the wall made of molding. This one goof comes by and sees this album... The next thing, this guy is tugging on it. We try to stop him before he breaks the LP, before we get to him a loud SNAP is heard. Then the guy walks away sheepishly (as usual) like nothing had happened, we wanted to kill him. This was a dead mint copy that came from the owner's own collection that he bought when he worked for Tone Distributors who distributed King. He pulled the two pieces of record out of the cover and looked at the guy and said "I hope you're proud of yourself". Not too cool since the guy split without apologising. Time after time, I see Harmony and Sunset albums that are cracked from the edge to the spindle hole. Fragile suckers.
The Kings pressed after '61 or '62 are vinyl.You will know a styrene when you see it.They look very different.I do not believe I have ever seen a blue label King in styrene,only black labels.Like this one The styrene label Jubilee Cadillacs I had looked like this
my art farmer farmers market blue label/trident logo 2nd issue is styrne. you flick it and its like glass.
The super early blue labels were styrene. I have 2 Earl Bostic stereo LP's with the yellow "stereophonic" stickers on mono jackets. Those styrene records give a new meaning to IGD. I have two Jackie McLean albums on Jubilee with that same label and they're pressed on vinyl, far from quality vinyl, but on vinyl anyway. I would kill for that 5 Royales album. Just to put on "The Slummer The Slum", crank it to 10, and bask in the sonic raunch of Lowman Pouling's Gibson.
I have several blue label King Earl Bostic albums with the "STEREO" Sticker on the jackets. Based on what I've learned from this thread, they appear to be styrene.
The ones I have are since they were pressed before 1961, What sucks about them besides the inner-groove distortion is some of those albums are stereo re-recordings. I thank the heavens that my original stereo "Charles Brown Sings Christmas Songs" is NOT a styrene press.
Same here, and the stereo mix has never been re-issued. Gusto reissued it in mono ages ago, we sold tons of them.
Non classical Mercury LPs were styrene too for a while in the mid to late fifties.I have seen more styrenes on Emarcy than I have on Mercury proper.
Great topic, and just in time for something I'm working on...by the way, does anybody recall any threads here devoted to styrene 45's? Now playing on Ariel Stream: Vanessa Daou - Two To Tango
I had a styrene Chipmunks Song Book LP on the Sunset label. Got it for Christmas in 1968 or 1969, and after just a couple of plays on my kiddie record player it was practically unplayable.
I'm helping someone sort through their parent's record collection to find any collectible/rare stuff. I came across a Dinah Shore album, pressed on the budget Harmony label and it's interesting because this is the first polystyrene album I ever came across. It's weird holding it and tapping the edge and just hearing (from tapping the edge of the album) and feeling how different it is from traditional vinyl.
OK. I just went through my 10" LP collection, all from the early to late 50's and not one of them were made of styrene. A few were Decca's and they had Microgroove and Unbreakable printed on the labels. All had labels which were simultaneously applied during pressing. One was wrinkled which happens during pressing. None were glued on. With the terms "vinylite" and "Deccalite", people are confusing polystyrene with the lighter and stiffer vinyl/acetate mixture. I have also seen labels glued onto vinyl records. To my knowledge, polystyrene is injection molded. A friend of mine worked for MCA(parent of U.S. Decca) back in the day and toured one of MCA's record factories. He only saw only vinyl records being pressed. He works with injection molding companies currently and knows the difference in materials. I showed him several 45's and he was able to pick out the polystyrene ones and said that they were injection molded. He currently has a project going with RTI and has been dealing with Rick. My friend told me that the pressing going on at RTI was very similar to when he was watching Decca records being pressed. Rick gave him a 180g vinyl puck to give to me. It's hard and round and makes a great paperweight. People think it's a hockey puck when they see it. One way to tell a polystyrene record from one made of a vinyl compound is that polystyrene pretty much won't warp. I set several records out in the sun on a hot CA day and the records made of polystyrene didn't warp.