Real minutiae. Read at your own risk.
As you might have noticed from my picture sleeve thread, I'm sort of doing a bit or organizing and cataloging some singles. One of the things that I've noticed is the billing of the artist on the labels and the picture sleeves is occasionally different - but only in terms of the use of the ampersand symbol.
On the earliest records, the artist was credited as "The Tijuana Brass featuring Herb Alpert". Then came "Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass". Finally things sort-of standardized as "Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass."
But I have some duplicated titles where the label credits the group as "Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass", while another pressing of the same title lists "Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass." Now I'm sure that this was purely a printing convention at one pressing plant versus another. We know that Monarch pressed some, while Columbia may have pressed others, and the typesetting and fonts were determined by the pressing plants.
But in examining this phenomenon, I looked for an explanation of the ampersand and its use and something jumped out at me:
From Wikipedia, for what it's worth:
It is with great certainty that I conclude that although there is a somewhat technical distinction here, that actual usage of the ampersand in the artist's field on the records doesn't mean anything different than the "and". This conclusion is supported by the fact that some of the picture sleeves use the "&" while the actual record uses "and" - while at the same time a different pressing of the same title with a picture sleeve both agree and use the "&".
Based on a couple of examples, it appears that Monarch pressings may have favored the "and" while other places might have used the "&".
By the way, apparently the & symbol was once considered part of the alphabet, coming after the "Z". It was pronounced "and per se", with the "per se" from the Latin meaning by itself. Over time, the language corrupted a bit and "and-per-se" became "ampersand".
Anyone want to check their Brasil '66 records?
As you might have noticed from my picture sleeve thread, I'm sort of doing a bit or organizing and cataloging some singles. One of the things that I've noticed is the billing of the artist on the labels and the picture sleeves is occasionally different - but only in terms of the use of the ampersand symbol.
On the earliest records, the artist was credited as "The Tijuana Brass featuring Herb Alpert". Then came "Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass". Finally things sort-of standardized as "Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass."
But I have some duplicated titles where the label credits the group as "Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass", while another pressing of the same title lists "Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass." Now I'm sure that this was purely a printing convention at one pressing plant versus another. We know that Monarch pressed some, while Columbia may have pressed others, and the typesetting and fonts were determined by the pressing plants.
But in examining this phenomenon, I looked for an explanation of the ampersand and its use and something jumped out at me:
From Wikipedia, for what it's worth:
Wikipedia said:In film credits for stories, screenplays, etc., & indicates a closer collaboration than and. The ampersand is used by the Writers Guild of America to denote two writers collaborating on a specific script, rather than one writer rewriting another's work. In screenplays, two authors joined with & collaborated on the script, while two authors joined with and worked on the script at different times and may not have consulted each other at all.[18][19] In the latter case, they both contributed enough significant material to the screenplay to receive credit but did not work together.
It is with great certainty that I conclude that although there is a somewhat technical distinction here, that actual usage of the ampersand in the artist's field on the records doesn't mean anything different than the "and". This conclusion is supported by the fact that some of the picture sleeves use the "&" while the actual record uses "and" - while at the same time a different pressing of the same title with a picture sleeve both agree and use the "&".
Based on a couple of examples, it appears that Monarch pressings may have favored the "and" while other places might have used the "&".
By the way, apparently the & symbol was once considered part of the alphabet, coming after the "Z". It was pronounced "and per se", with the "per se" from the Latin meaning by itself. Over time, the language corrupted a bit and "and-per-se" became "ampersand".
Anyone want to check their Brasil '66 records?
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