78Rpm Acetate Oddity - The Mar-Keys

[Amsterdam Russ]

Got a 78rpm acetate recently - no labels on either side - and am curious as to its origin.

One side plays Neil Sedaka 'Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen' and the other is The Mar-Keys - 'Last Night'. The deadwax has 1-11262-78W on one side, and 2-11262-78W on the other. The 78 plays outside in.

Whilst the Sedaka side plays fine to listen to, 'Last Night' starts off very wobbly, much like an off-centre cut. About 10 seconds in and it's fine. Also, a few seconds prior to each track starting there is a low frequency oscillating sound, a bit like someone slowly turning the dials in a 50's sci-fi movie. It sounds like this noise is coming from the recording process somehow, and not an external source. Once the song starts, the noise goes.

Any ideas how this might have come to be made? Is it possible that both tracks were cut at the same pressing plant? Both tracks were released in 1961, on RCA and Satellite respectively, but at different times. Mind you, the Sedaka song was a massive seller for quite a long time, so it probably would have been repressed many times. Suggestions offered so far are that if they did get pressed at the same place that plant worker might have done it for themselves, or that it was a test before the pressing started.

No idea how plausible either of those might be. Any ideas at all?

As another question, did The Mar-Keys 'Last Night' come out on 78?

Thanks in advance...

Edited December 1, 2009 by rigilbert

[Guest franky m]

78rpm records were pressed in India long after the the format was deleted in the UK and US

[Guest]

It was probably done on one those home recording set-ups. Seen tons of these around the sound quality is usually horrible....

[Amsterdam Russ]

78rpm records were pressed in India long after the the format was deleted...

Even though this came from the States, that's certainly a possibility - thanks.

The idea of it being a home recording sounds good, although why would you want to go to the trouble of recording something you already have on 45? An early form of tape swapping perhaps? From what I've now read, home recording acetates were usually of radio shows and live performances of one kind or another, but of course that doesn't mean this one wasn't done at home.

Overall the sound quality is fine, as good as you would expect from a crackly old 78. Also, if this was made non-professionally, why go to the trouble of sequential numbering?

[Gene-r]

I've a feeling this could be a genuine UK double-sided acetate cut by Decca in 1961. 78 acetates were still being cut right through the 60s and 70s, mainly because of the improved sound quality so that they could be played as backing tracks on TV programmes, mainly for the artist to mime to.

Judging by the sound quality of your acetate, it could be one of those that was rejected because of the poor quality.

Another theory thickens the plot. Acetates in the UK and US normally didn't have matrix numbers. I wonder if this was a test cut for a scheduled release somewhere else in the world? Probably the "11262" is the date on which the acetate was cut (ie, 11 February 1962).

As an aside, both tracks were pressed in India as 78s (Neil Sedaka on RCA and the Mar-Keys on London). Someone let an Indian 78 of "Last Night" go on Ebay for around £80 a few years ago. The Sedaka was also on 78 in South Africa, but not sure about the Mar-Keys.

With the possible date of February 1962 in mind, bear in mind how long records take to be released in another country - can be anything like 6 months after its original release. I've seen an Indian 78 of "Multiplication" by Bobby Darin. Whilst this was a UK Top 10 hit in 1961, the release year given on the Indian 78 is 1962 (a bit like the Billy Fury label scan in my next post below, which was also a 1961 UK hit - note the year of 'publication').

Hope this helps.

Edited December 2, 2009 by Gene-R

[Gene-r]

And talking of Indian 78s, just how neat are these (note release years)!

[Amsterdam Russ]

It does indeed help, Gene. Thanks very much - and for posting the great scans! Whilst I've also been able to find out that the Sedaka track was released on 78 in Brazil, and possible the Philippines as well, I've not been able to determine more about the distribution of The Mar-Keys. By the looks of things it didn't get a US release in 78 format

Good point about the dates. Mind you, if it originates from the US rather than UK, then wouldn't 11262 be November 2nd 1962 (working on the typical US date format of MMDDYY and not the UK form of DDMMYY)? However, that's a moot point if 78 acetates of US/UK origin typically didn't carry matrix numbers!

Thanks again for the information!