Close to You Promo LP

[andywithaz]

I bought a promotional copy of Close to You through Gemm for about $8. I thought that this was probably some worn out copy that was played by a radio station over and over again. Wrong This copy is Mint and I mean MINT!

I can't get over the condition and the sound of this LP. The sound is absolutely spectacular. I swear that this sounds better than my other LP and the CD version of this.

I thought that maybe since it was a promo that it was pressed on higher quality vinyl ot maybe it was one of the first ones off the stamper. Is there anyway to tell

The cover is also slightly different with RIAA symbols on the back and different fonts on the tracklisting

 

[W.B.]

Hopefully, I can help. Prior to the summer/fall of 1970, A&M's mastering department put simple numbers after the matrix number on the wax (i.e. on the original 45 of "Close To You," 'A+M 1962S-8'). It was around the time of this album's release, if not just shortly after, that the practice of designating the pressing plant to which the lacquers went, first took effect. (My stock copy of the first label variation inside the silver-colored cover with the RIAA symbol and A&M Records & Tapes logo shows the respective lacquers written in Bernie Grundman's distinctive handwriting as 'A+M SP 4441-P2' and 'A+M SP 4442-P2'; it was pressed by Columbia's Pitman, N.J. factory. You've seen the first-label variation for Side 1 -- "Love Is Surrender" as 3:09 instead of 1:59, Carpenter-Bettis compositions published by Almo instead of Irving, "Reason To Believe" as published by Faithful Virtue Music Co., Inc. instead of Koppelman & Rubin Music -- before.)

With regard to Pitman's pressings, they usually had a '1' on the 6:00 side of the metal part that produced the stamper used on that particular copy. The pressings from Columbia's two other plants at the time (Terre Haute, IN and Santa Maria, CA; A&M lacquers bearing a 'T' and 'S' code, respectively, before the lacquer number) had somewhat different designations for stamper generations on their LP's than on their 45's. L.A.-based Monarch Record Mfg. ('Circle MR', with A&M lacquers marked 'M' before the lacquer number), however, seems harder to tell in that regard. Where did your promo pressing come from?

 

[andywithaz]

Mine has a "3" so it must have came from Pitman. Was Pitman the best plant sound wise

 

[W.B.]

Mine has a "3" so it must have came from Pitman. Was Pitman the best plant sound wise

One of them; indeed Columbia pressings in general were among the better ones, I.M.H.O. Pitman certainly had the best collection of fonts as used on the label copy of the records they pressed. In its early years, the fonts in use were inherited from their previous East Coast plant in Bridgeport, CT (closed early 1964); by the time this second effort from Karen & Richard came out, some of the fonts in use in '64 were retired and others were added (at an accelerated pace post-1968).

(For the record - no pun intended - the fonts on pre-1973 ochre-label Pitman copies of Close To You are as follows - except as noted, all Linotype: album title and artist set in 18 pt. Gothic No. 13; "STEREO" set in 10 pt. Franklin Gothic {Intertype}; catalogue and side numbers in 12 pt. Erbar Bold Condensed; and small text type in 6 pt. Spartan Heavy Condensed.)

My philosophy in record collecting is: If a certain record uses label copy fonts from Columbia in Pitman (whether pressed there or in Terre Haute or Santa Maria), why get said record in other fonts or from other (non-Columbia) pressing plants? I make some exceptions to that rule, up to a point; to wit: predominantly East Coast-pressed (say, RCA in Rockaway, NJ; Capitol in Scranton, PA; Decca/MCA in Gloversville, NY). After all, I'm an East Coast boy . . .

 

[Rudy]

Some of the time, the promo copies are the first LPs produced by a set of stampers. So while the vinyl wouldn't be any different, the sound could be more full-bodied than a later pressing.

The few A&M promo LPs I own do sound quite good. I still keep hoping to find a promo of the TJB's Coney Island; I don't know if it's the album itself or just bad luck, as I've never found a decent copy of it anywhere. The absolute worst is a Columbia Record Club (CRC) release that sounds noticeably worse than the standard A&M copies.