Columbia + RCA = ?

[JOv2]

Oh, good grief!

This is about as sacrilegious as it gets.

…Until I happened upon this gem a few days ago I would have thought such blasphemy would have been limited to a Goddard Lieberson nightmare: the mere thought of Columbia’s elegant 6-eye label compromised by the #1 backward record company this side of Venus.

What’s next, "360 Dynaflex Sound"?

 

[Vinylalbumcovers]

Oh, good grief!

This is about as sacrilegious as it gets.

…Until I happened upon this gem a few days ago I would have thought such blasphemy would have been limited to a Goddard Lieberson nightmare: the mere thought of Columbia’s elegant 6-eye label compromised by the #1 backward record company this side of Venus.

What’s next, "360 Dynaflex Sound"?

Not even really sure why they'd do this. The album was always on RCA. Sony Music bought BMG some time ago and with it came RCA. They have access to all the period-correct logo and typography they'd need. I'm not nearly as bothered by this as you are but I just don't know why they'd do it. It's not like it's at all harmonious with the cover art.

Ed

 

[Rudy]

Universal has done a different kind of mash-up--selling some jazz albums under a Verve logo that came from other labels. With a couple, though, they still kept an A&M label but put the Verve logo on the label as well.

With RCA, though, the painting of Nipper is copyrighted and/or owned by one specific entity, which is why you don't see Nipper on many of the RCA reissues. So in that case you'll often see just the old time RCA logo or the more modern 70s RCA lettering which appears on the album jacket above.

This is about as sacrilegious as it gets.

In my morning fog, it took me two glances to notice the old time RCA logo where the six Columbia "eyes" should have been. Certainly one of the strangest things I've ever seen! And makes no sense either--RCA and Columbia are only related through a merger.

I do like label parodies though. This one is a favorite "double-take" label (and Costello was on Columbia, after all):

 

[Harry]

I've not seen anything like the RCA thing - that's a hoot. But I have one of those sets of 5 CLASSIC albums from Paul Simon issued by Sony/Columbia.

Three of the albums were originally Warner Brothers, so for consistency, this set just features black labels with silver printing. The first two albums, originally on Columbia, feature both the Columbia and the Legacy logos. The other three, originally on Warner Bros., only have a Legacy logo.



Funny, an earlier set I see on Discogs has the same 5 albums. The images there show all of the discs with red Columbia labels. [edit: just found that this second set was for Europe.]

 

[Rudy]

The rough part with many of those "5 Classic Album" (or other numbers of albums in one package) is that some artists from the 60s that have fallen out of EU copyright are very poor quality. If it comes from a major label I'll consider it, but I've seen so many of these now from knockoff labels from the EU that IMHO it has ruined the market for these, and is also defrauding innocent consumers of their money with such lousy product.

 

[Harry]

I've bought a few of these - not tons, but all have been top quality and major labels.

 

[Rudy]

One of the best run of reissues I bought were the four Dionne Warwick 4-album sets (spread across 9 CDs) which also added in the non-album singles and tracks. Released on Edsel in the UK, but properly licensed from Rhino. My complete Bill Withers set is also a prize--I paid less for all nine albums in the set than an import of a single album CD would cost, and these were an official Columbia Legacy release.

But for each legit release like this, there are probably dozens of others these days which are not legit. These are just a handful, right off the top of my head. These are duping innocent consumers out of their cash with shoddy packaging and poor sound quality (or at best, ripoffs of existing CD versions), with not a penny going to the artist.

Release label on this one is "Enlightenment". Not Fantasy or whoever owns them these days.



Another label, called "Reel to Reel", released this awful-sounding trainwreck:



Here's another pile of crap from a label called Broadcast Archive. No mention of Blue Note Records anywhere.



Yet how do unknowing buyers tell these frauds apart from a legitimate Blue Note release, such as this one?



Buying in a store makes it easier since we can look for label and licensing info. The fraudulent releases often do not show the rear of the packaging, so there's no way to tell if they are legitimate or not. I feel they should be blocked for sale in the US, but Amazon isn't going to turn down making a fast buck from selling this trash...

 

[JOv2]

Yeah, that Nesmith mini-LP was from an EU 5-CD set. Sound quality is passable -- then again, early '70s RCA ain't exactly the creme de la creme of sonic fortitude... Some were good others not so good but I really can't recall any '70s RCA LP that ever knocked my socks off. (At the other end of the tone arm, you've got their fine Living Stereo "classical" LPs from the golden era (1956-62) and more than a few pop LPs from the same "pre-DynagrooVe" period, which were aural delights.

 

[Harry]

An RCA anecdote: While working for my first radio station in around 1974, I brought home a haul of discarded softer albums, mostly from the 60s that the station was certain it would never need again as they moved to rockier, more modern 70s stuff.

Later I moved to a station that had embraced the softer stuff and they were occasionally on the lookout for older records that had become tougher to find at that time. One day the PD asked me if I had Gale Garnett's "We'll Sing In The Sunshine", and I said I thought I did, grabbed the next day and brought it in.

The album looked to be in pretty rough shape and he was not anticipating finding a usable copy with what I brought in. But he put it on his turntable and was amazed at the decent sound. "They don't make records that solidly anymore," was his comment. That old RCA record looked like junk, but played well enough to be dubbed to cart for air.