"Red" Verve (D.J.) copy

[Ik001]

"Red" Verve (D.J.) copy.

Just bought one of these. As I've never seen before just enquiring whether they are common?

Any input would be appreciated?

 

Ian

[45cellar]

I have this one, not seen many red ones Ian

[Mal C]

was going to say, if its solid center I'm interested, as likely Aussie.. looks good in red dunnit...

[Kev John]

I have Howard Tate - Stop -  US Verve Red Demo 

atb Kev 

[Benji]

Wasn't it something like different label colours for different music styles on Verve? Like black Verve for Jazz, dark blue issues for Soul/R&B.

Demo-wise I recall yellow and light blue. Are the red/orange ones maybe some foreign press, e.g. Canada?

[Ik001]

9 hours ago, Benji said:

Wasn't it something like different label colours for different music styles on Verve? Like black Verve for Jazz, dark blue issues for Soul/R&B.

Demo-wise I recall yellow and light blue. Are the red/orange ones maybe some foreign press, e.g. Canada?

I think your point about the Canadian pressing could correct Benji.

[Tricky]

Not sure about that Benji

High keys for instance has blue issue and blue demo and a black issue with yellow demo.I thought it was just diferent pressing plants perhaps.

Trev

[45cellar]

I always thought that The High Keys was released at the changover period from Black Label to Blue Label and respective Demo's. Yellow and Light Blue. There are different pressing plants involved.

 

[Garethx]

That's certainly not Canadian. Benji is right in that the label colour was a marketing tool meant to relate to the type of music: blue for Soul/Pop, black for Jazz with corresponding light blue and yellow demos. Certain titles existed on both black and blue labels but I don't know quite why. The red demos are just an oddity. Tommy Yates, 'Something's Got To Give' is on both black and blue issues and light blue and red demos. 

It isn't simply down to different pressing plants, as all variants of the Tommy Yates I've had or seen come from the same MGM Bloomfield, New Jersey plant. The other MGM singles plant was H.V. Waddell in Burbank, California. These have quite different typesetting for singles.

Sometimes the MGM labels needed to rush-use other pressing plants for big sellers: Southern Plastics, MidWest, Monarch, Allied etc. but the Verve 45s were rarely anticipated to sell out of their original pressing runs: the label was run on very conservative lines, sales-wise. Verve Folkways, for example was specifically started as a tax-dodge which then confounded the MGM board by actually having hits.

It's just occurred to me that red labels with black type would have been pretty difficult for radio DJs to read in low light, which is why most companies used light labels with higher-contrast type colours: white with red, yellow with black etc. An experiment with red-labelled DJ copies would probably have been short-lived for this reason.

[Tlscapital]

1 hour ago, 45cellar said:

I always thought that The High Keys was released at the changover period from Black Label to Blue Label and respective Demo's. Yellow and Light Blue. There are different pressing plants involved.

 

Verve 10378 - Wilson Pickett - My Heart Belongs To You / Let Me Be Your Baby - 1965 promo light blue, stock dark blue and stock BLACK  (never seen a yellow promo)

Verve 10423 - The High Keys - Living A Lie / Let's Take A Chance - 1966 promo light blue, promo yellow ,stock dark blue and stock BLACK

Verve 10464 - Howard Tate - Look At Granny Run Run / Half A Man - 1967 promo light blue, stock dark blue and stock BLACK (never seen a yellow promo)

Those 3 singles I know had those color variations so I guess some other Verve 45's did suffer the same fate. And those 3 singles are 80+ issues appart.

So it's not a "transitional" color change from black to blue but indeed releases from different pressing plant to supply demand and distribution.

The yellow promo of the High Keys is not from another pressing plant though. So that one is a bit of a mystery (old batch of labels for a rush promo release maybe ?) as it is with the black label where there's no "Frost Music", but only the "Maltese Music Co." credit !!! Where on the 3 others issues it credits "Frost Music & Maltese Music" so there is maybe a licence problem with this one.

 

Edited February 20, 2016 by tlscapital

[Ik001]

1 hour ago, tlscapital said:

Verve 10378 - Wilson Pickett - My Heart Belongs To You / Let Me Be Your Baby - 1965 promo light blue, stock dark blue and stock BLACK  (never seen a yellow promo)

Verve 10423 - The High Keys - Living A Lie / Let's Take A Chance - 1966 promo light blue, promo yellow ,stock dark blue and stock BLACK

Verve 10464 - Howard Tate - Look At Granny Run Run / Half A Man - 1967 promo light blue, stock dark blue and stock BLACK (never seen a yellow promo)

Those 3 singles I know had those color variations so I guess some other Verve 45's did suffer the same fate. And those 3 singles are 80+ issues appart.

So it's not a "transitional" color change from black to blue but indeed releases from different pressing plant to supply demand and distribution.

The yellow promo of the High Keys is not from another pressing plant though. So that one is a bit of a mystery (old batch of labels for a rush promo release maybe ?) as it is with the black label where there's no "Frost Music", but only the "Maltese Music Co." credit !!! Where on the 3 others issues it credits "Frost Music & Maltese Music" so there is maybe a licence problem with this one.

 

The one in question is :

TOMMY YATES "If You're Looking For A Fool"/"Darling, Something's Gotta Give VK-10556.

[Tlscapital]

1 minute ago, ik001 said:

The one in question is :

TOMMY YATES "If You're Looking For A Fool"/"Darling, Something's Gotta Give VK-10556.

Yes I know and understand. The point I was making here above was to point out that, even not knowing for facts, those color variation for promos between blue and the yellow are not from different pressing plants, but COULD BE due to a shortage of ready made colored to match labels for rush releases. One could guess the red colored promo release were released as for the same reason since both promos, the light blue and the red promo copies, of the Tommy Yates are from the same pressing plant.

[Garethx]

Yes. Tommy Yates red and blue promos are from the same plant.