Whipped Cream & Other Delights: Pressing with Logo At T

[Ed Bishop]

I know, I know, this is obscure stuff, and only obsessed and anal guys like meself give a fig, but here's the scoop.

As we all are aware, the original early A&M albums(and there weren't many from late '62 through '64)had first pressings with the A&M logo at the TOP of the label[boxed logo after the first few Lp's]. And some of these are uncommon if not rare: trying finding a stock copy of LONELY BULL or SOUTH OF THE BORDER that way and...good luck! When those albums started to hit big in '65, they were pressed & repressed & repressed &...with logo at the left. The problem is the sheer volume of copies pressed from 1965 through the balance of the decade(the early ones fell of the Billboard Lp charts in 1968)make finding any true 1st press Alpert fairly tough.

My question: what's the latest 'Logo at Top' A&M *STOCK* pressing you guys have seen? I know this info might be available elsewhere, but I'm curious, since the latest I've ever seen jogged my memory today. For only the second time in my browsing life, I came across WHIPPED CREAM with that 'top' label, but it was(visually, anyway)VG- and not something I'm tempted to buy, even though I don't have a pressing in my collection.

But I am tempted, if only for posterity's sake....

 

[Harry]

Our Gallery has a shot of the sixth album on the label, CANADIAN SWEETHEARTS, with the logo on top, but WHIPPED CREAM would certainly be later than that:

Personally, the only "A&M-at-top" item I own is the George McCurn album, the second for the label, and first to go out of print, making it an easy task to find a first pressing - I doubt there WAS a second!

Note the difference in the placement of the text all over the label from this other picture in our Gallery:

...so even the McCurn album had pressing variations.

Harry

 

[Ed Bishop]

We can agree on that! I have a mono copy (LP-102). Harry, can you play the stereo McCurn and verify that it's true stereo all the way through? Someone asked a question about it at the BSN board(they were wondering if his only chart single was available in stereo somewhere)but only having the mono, couldn't answer what they wanted to know.

As for WHIPPED CREAM, as mentioned, the 2nd time I've come across the 'Top Logo'(as I call them). As you'd expect, in both instances the cover is the original, with "A Taste Of Honey" tinted green, as it was until the song became a hit, which then changed the cover to highlight it in yellow.

And because the next A&M Lp was We Five's YOU WERE ON MY MIND, issued months later, I doubt *that* one has a top logo pressing, though it can't be entirely ruled out.

My hunch is that LP/SP-100, 102, 105 & 106 should be Top Logo only, but could be wrong there, too.

 

[W.B.]

Personally, the only "A&M-at-top" item I own is the George McCurn album, the second for the label, and first to go out of print, making it an easy task to find a first pressing - I doubt there WAS a second!

I see that, based on the typesetting, this sample was pressed by RCA in Indianapolis - which would press for A&M again after 1979 when the label made a deal for RCA to "distribute" their product.

 

[Steve Sidoruk]

Here is some early "at the top" A&M gold from my collection. SP110 is the highest album number with the logo at the 12 o'clock position that I have ever seen.

This is the mono album with an error on the label. The album cover is LP107 and so is the number etched in the runoff groove of the disk.

 

[W.B.]

'Course, the 45 label design had the A&M logo at 9 o'clock from the outset, and I suppose 'twas just a matter of time before the LP label design followed suit.

I of course prefer the Pitman label copy variation of SP 107 over the Terre Haute; and it's nice to see how the original copies of SP 4110 looked like. If I were to find an original, this'd be what I'd look for.

 

[Ed Bishop]

Perhaps I should go back and find that VG- copy, just for posterity.

 

[Rudy]

We can agree on that! I have a mono copy (LP-102). Harry, can you play the stereo McCurn and verify that it's true stereo all the way through?

SP-102 is true stereo all the way through.

 

[Harry]

We can agree on that! I have a mono copy (LP-102). Harry, can you play the stereo McCurn and verify that it's true stereo all the way through?

SP-102 is true stereo all the way through.

I'd like to qualify that statement. Though it's true that the album is stereo all the way through, I'm not sure about the "hit", "I'm Just A Country Boy." The reason is that this track reminds me of what was done to "The Lonely Bull" and "Acapulco 1922". The bass, guitar, drums and lead vocal all emanate from the center, indicating a base track that might have been mono. This stereo track on the album has a bit of stereo echo happening with the lead vocal, and there are strings toward the right and some backing vocal thingies on the left, making this a "true stereo" track. But we could say that about "Acapulco 1922", too, that it's "true stereo" since it's got woodblocks and other percussion off to one side or the other. But we all know that it's a basic mono track, with added stuff to make it "stereo" for the album.

I've never heard, nor do I own, the mono McCurn song "I'm Just A Country Boy", so I'll have to defer to those who have to determine if those elements are present in the mono version too. If they are, then I'd have to say, "yes", the version on the album is full stereo. If those elements are missing from the mono version, then I'd call the stereo version a "fudged stereo" version.

Harry

 

[Rudy]

Dave Lewis's album "Little Green Thing" could also be called "true stereo", but IMHO, it is a dual-track recording. The organ is on one side, and the guitar and drums on the other. Kind of like the horrid Beatles "stereo" recordings that had all the vocals on one side and all the music on the other. Lewis's album really wasn't meant for stereo--it was probably recorded as two tracks so the organ could be mixed against the guitar/drum track. The last track on Lewis's album is fake stereo, and sounds it.

I'd have to relisten to McCurn's album, and that song, to see how it stands up. (It's a song I usually skip.) The other stereo tracks I'm familiar with have that familiar "A&M stereo" sound to them--something like bass/drums on one side, other instruments on the other side, and the main melody tracks in the middle. Typical 3-track, like most A&Ms that were recorded at Gold Star. If "Country Boy" is indeed not the same, it could have been recorded elsewhere.

 

[Rudy]

Note the difference in the placement of the text all over the label from this other picture in our Gallery:


...so even the McCurn album had pressing variations.

Notice the different catalog numbers too--it's like A&M couldn't yet settle on a good numbering scheme for stereo vs. mono LPs. Lonely Bull was 101S, and the McCurn shows up here as 102S and SLP102.

 

[Ed Bishop]

Thanks, guys! Interesting info.

Given that they were an indie, it is worth noting how much stereo A&M recorded. Rechannelings on stereo Lp's were few and far between although, yes, a few tracks here and there were doctored up to be true stereo, like "Lonely Bull," a matter of necessity, I suppose. [One mystery: why Montez' "Call Me" took so long to turn up in stereo].

So we're agreed: the 12 O'Clock logo extends only so far as WHIPPED CREAM? Still, that's 11 Lp's, wonder why Herb & Jerry decided to go to 9 O'Clock. A little thing, but even musicians and label moguls have idle time, I guess...

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I would bet that by the time WHIPPED CREAM came along, Herb & Jerry had other people to worry about logo placement.

 

[W.B.]

So we're agreed: the 12 O'Clock logo extends only so far as WHIPPED CREAM? Still, that's 11 Lp's, wonder why Herb & Jerry decided to go to 9 O'Clock.

I suppose for uniformity's sake, to correspond with the 45 label which always had the "9 o'clock" layout?

 

[Ed Bishop]

That is possible..though I kinda like that 12 O'Clock thing.

As for what Herb & Jerry were doing, never assume the guys at the top *don't* have time for such seemingly trivial details. In my experience, execs not only have time for that(though they spend more time approving than designing), but for a lot of other things...suggesting that some really do have too much time on their hands...