Embassy records

['LIVEWIRE?']

Dave - Al Bowlly was hardly what could be called a 'session' artist, being a very popular singer during the 1930s. He was killed in an air raid during WW2.

[Hartley118]

Well they weren't known then as 'session' artists, rather as 'with vocal refrain'. You'll find Al Bowlly uncredited with Ray Noble & orchestra in the well-known 'Love is the Sweetest Thing'. Even more surprisingly, I gather he's to be heard as vocalist with the Durium Dance Band on those unusual flexible records.

Listening to that interesting Brian Matthew broadcast (thanks Top Cap!), I've just learned that Bowlly performed uncredited on ten Woolworths Victory records.

It was really only after WW2 that vocalists began to gain the individual credit they were due.

Martin

[Boom]

Originally Posted by 'LIVEWIRE?'

Dave - Al Bowlly was hardly what could be called a 'session' artist, being a very popular singer during the 1930s. He was killed in an air raid during WW2.

Filched from Wikipedia:-

'After a spell with a Filipino band in Surabaya he was then employed by Jimmy Liquime in India. Bowlly worked his passage back home by busking'

[Hartley118]

...........I knew I had one somewhere in my collection......Here's some Woolworths nostalgia which illustrates the value that Embassy offered. On one record, I guess from 1958, the two big hits together: Hoots Mon and Tom Dooley.

Martin

[awc]

Just been listening to All Shook Up and Teddy Bear by a certain Shorty Mitchell from 1957 on a 78, WB 249

Very different to the Elvis offering but quite sweet in its own way. Sleeve is blue and states Tops in Pops rather than the usual red cover.

[AC/HL]

The dance band purists didn't like vocalists being added initially, but it caught on. Many famous singers started there, Frank Sinatra and Vera Lynn are two out of many.

[Hartley118]

Here's an interesting account of life at Levy's Sound Studios in the Embassy days, with lots of technical detail, by Bill Johnson who became the Levy brothers' chief engineer.

http://www.robertfarnonsociety.org.u...dios-1955-1961

Martin

[leslie5555]

I have a few "Avenue" 7 inch records which were cover versions of hits, I bought them in 1970 when I was 15 they had 3 tracks on each side and ran at 33 rpm some of the tracks were quite good and sounded very much like the original record, others not so good, a bit like the top pops albums, which I also have a handful of.

[Hartley118]

By sheer coincidence, I just came across this record sleeve advertising the original Levy's 'Home of Music' when they started out selling records in Regent Street and before they started making records for Woolworths. I see that they're already offering a private recording service in I guess the early 1930s. Not sure where the 'established 1890' came from though.

78 sleeves can sometimes be as interesting as the records!

Martin

[Grubhead]

Originally Posted by electronicskip

I think most of the K-Tel stuff was original, I've still got a few. As were Ronco Records.

They were, but unless the tracks lasted no more than 3 minutes, they would edit them down. Mud's Tiger Feet for example is missing the second verse.
A four minute track could be reduced down to 2 minutes.
Generally any LP with more than 8 tracks on it from various artists, except 60's and 50's material will have the tracks chopped down to fit.

The BBC's Top Of The Pops LP's had no more than 6 tracks a side. Whereas the K-Tel had 10!

[Grubhead]

Originally Posted by electronicskip

I used to buy all those rubbish Top of the Pops LPs from the local Finefair supermarket back in the day which used to feature some slightly scantily clad female on the cover and had cover versions of the real thing on the discs.

Some of them are worth a fortune. One fetched £155 in 2012!

[camtechman]

#20,

What's wrong with 'K-Tel'? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nothing, they made the best vacuum, spinning record cleaning system ever made !!

It even got rid of those light scratches & clicks on the record.....but added scratches that would obliterated the light ones.... Marvellous Gadget.....

[Grubhead]

Do you mean this:

[camtechman]

Sorry, The one I was referring to was made by RONCO, not K.TEL

It was an upright clamshell device into which you placed a record vertically into the slot and switched on the internal battery powered motor and this also clamped two velvet pads against both sides of the record, which spun round like a whirling banshee !

Here's the link to it on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/Egx7QzjvNBY

Note the "Foot Note" feature: "Cordless".......sounds better than "Battery Operated" (That's Marketing for you !!)

[Grubhead]

I thought you meant that. I had one myself. When it bust I took it apart to find that it was operated by a small electric motor.
Sometimes the record would actually come out of the device and roll along the floor like a penny! We had lino down at that time, so it could travel some distance!

You can now get on CD's (by the way) the old Embassy Records. They have them for most of the early 60's. The entire year of records.

[ben]

I have a number of those Embassy singles, on 78 and 45. Gordon Franks did a cracking version of Perez Prado's Guaglione. Got that on 78.
Also some of the names were: Ray Pilgrim Beatmen (Beatles covers, predictably), The Typhoons, the Starlings, Steve Stannard. I can post some photos of the labels if required.
The versions were nearly always quite decent. Far more consistent than Cannon, Top six, Avenue etc.

As concerns the Hallmark TOTP albums, the production changed around 1978 and quality of the playing and vocalists dropped considerably. Early on they used some top session players. EMI got in the act with MFP Hot Hits, but I think there were only about twenty editions. Marble Arch (yellow label, Pye) had 'Chartbusters' - some great versions, but a limited series. Contour's '16 chart hits' are generally pretty lame, as were Leo Muller's Stereo Gold Award '12 tops'.

I could go on all night, so will stop now!

[camtechman]

Slightly different from Embassy Records, I have the full set of floppy vinyl records sent to all Beatles Club fans. They were issued each Xmas for years:1963,64,65,66,67,68 & 69.

[Grubhead]

Now they are worth some serious money!

[EMI BTR 3]

I was given this variant of the Ronco cleaner one Christmas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd9HdmnfLMM

I don't remember it having any vacuuming properties, but I do remember that it sported two foam rubber wedges that the record ran between, that were supposed to get the dust off of a record. Needless to say it saw virtually no use at all.

Speaking of the first records Woolies sold, the Little Wonders, here is a transfer I made several years ago of LW number 1, 'Ben Bolt' as credited to TENOR. The singer is Harry McClaskey who made many records under the pseudonym Henry Burr.

https://app.box.com/s/v33aj4q4ybb45nq04xqm

[Vintage Engr]

Originally Posted by camtechman

In my early years of record buying I could only afford the Woolies "Embasy" sound-a-like 45's but, as my pocket money was increased, I proudly went to my local record shop: "The Record Cabin" (in Edmonton Nth London).

Then one day, flushed with pocket money, 15th birthday money & a Pye Golden Guinea voucher (claimed from Cadbury's Drinking Chocolate promotion). I went mad and bought the ; Ball, Barber & Bilk Pye Golden Guinea LP and my first ever EP; Acker Bilk's Band Of Thieves.

Joy of Joys

I too remember 'The Record Cabin'. You must then also remember Frank Mozer's, also in Edmonton, the shop that sold electronic components, amazing place. It was packed on a Saturday morning. That's where I bought many of the parts to make record players to play my Embassy records!
Yes, they (the records) were a bit grim, but they were cheap. I think I still have 'My old man's a dustman' on Embassy.

David.: