Date:Sat, 23 Feb 2008 06:26:05 -0500
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From:Tom Fine <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:Re: Philips U.S. releases in the 60's
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Dave -- There were no Wing reissues made in the 50's, at least of classical material. Wing was
launched in the early 60's and was not the idea of the classical division, not by a long shot. It
was a marketing department plan to fill voids in the rack-jobber world and get Mercury stuff on
racks at places like supermarkets and other sell-cheap outlets. This was during a downturn in the
record business. The Wings were considered cheap junk by those in the know. The interesting thing is
that Mercury kept the name even after receiving ridicule for the early 60's Wing records. Like I
said, they were still repackaging jazz albums as 2-LPs-for-the-price-of-1 in the early 70's under
the Wing label. I think Wing was finally clipped for good in the mid-70's. I notice it did not fly
again in the CD era.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Lennick" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, February 23, 2008 12:57 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Philips U.S. releases in the 60's
> The Philips US reissue label I was thinking of was World Series. All that I've seen are Canadian
> pressings, mid 60s, from when London distributed the label up here. I think these were the first
> to proclaim themselves "compatible mono stereo", and I vaguely remember (don't own any, used to
> see them in radio stations and nobody ever wanted to play them) that they were low level and had
> phasing problems, or at least sounded slushy in mono.
>
> Wing did some tolerable reissues, at least if you got the mono versions or were assured that the
> original had been recorded in stereo. But yes their fake stereo releases were pretty awful. Wing
> blue label pressings from the 50s are appalling, pressed on styrene in the US..at least up here we
> got Quality's low grade vinyl, better than nothing. I have some 60s Wing US pressings that are as
> good as any contemporary Mercurys. I also have Wing 78 issues from the 50s, so Mercury may have
> used the name for a spinoff label similar to Columbia's Epic and RCA's Vik (X, Groove).
>
> dl
>
> Roger and Allison Kulp wrote:
>> Tom,David,et al,
>>
>> I have never seen a US budget Mercury reissue of a Philips Lp.I'm not saying they don't
>> exist,but,I have never seen one.Their buget label was "Wing",that put out inferior reissues of
>> mono Living Presences.There are the Mercury-pressed Philips of Willem Mengelberg,which I think
>> are grossly underrated.Tom,you are well aware of the Svastiaslv Richters,on Philips,that your mom
>> produced,in like 1963,and '64.
>>
>> Some of these deep groove US PhilipsLps,on a black glossy label,are as good as Living
>> Presences,IMHO.These would be the pressings from roughly 1963-67, by '68,they were beginning to
>> go downhill,as were Mercurys themselves.Philips began to export records to the US,around late
>> 1969,or early 1970,perhaps Don,or someone else could clarify this date.Both British and Dutch
>> pressings were imported.
>>
>> Philips did,indeed,export pressings,from Holland,to other countries before this.I just learned
>> this last year,when I bought such a record,from somebody in Mexico .(eBay of course.)This is one
>> of those 1956 Clara Haskil Mozart Jubilee Lps.The pressing is a post-minigroove maroon label
>> Dutch pressing from the early 60s.(No photo of record in the listing,just the cover.) I cannot
>> recall,if it says "Made in Holland" on the label,it may not.The cover is a copy of the Dutch
>> one,except it looks like it was printed in The US.Heavy,laminated cardboard,like an early 60s
>> Merc.On the back cover,is a round orange sticker,slightly smaller than a quarter,that says
>> imported from Holland,in Spanish.
>>
>>
>> Roger
>>
>> David Lennick <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Philips came into the picture when US Columbia lost
>> its arrangement with English Columbia, which began exporting its product to the US as Angel
>> (around 1953). There were no imported Philips pressings sold over here in the 50s except odd
>> items like musicals and revues (Joyce Grenfell etc). Epic probably relied a lot more on Philips
>> than Columbia, being a new label with not much homegrown classical product except Szell and the
>> Cleveland Orchestra, but all Beecham's recordings appeared on Columbia (that was probably because
>> of a contract with Beecham). As well, all US Columbia product that was issued in Europe came out
>> on Philips.
>>
>> As for recycling the 50s Philips recordings once Philips owned Mercury, I recall some domestic
>> pressings and budget reissues, but I'd say (without being certain) that the full price stuff came
>> in as imports, as did Deutsche Grammophon titles in the 60s (there was a period when those were
>> imported by MGM and packaged on this side).
>>
>> Partial answer, anyway. One way to answer whether Columbia and Epic held onto old titles is to
>> check in 60s Schwanns.
>>
>> dl
>>
>> Tom Fine wrote:
>>> I'm hoping there is a student of Philips history here.
>>>
>>> As I understand it, before Philips bought Mercury, they had a U.S. distribution deal with Epic
>>> (CBS). I've seen Epic tapes and LPs of Concertgabouw (sp?) and I Musici and perhaps others.
>>> After Philips bought Mercury, by the mid-60's, they had a bunch of their classical records on
>>> sale here, I believe manufacturered here and sleeves like Mercury records (not thin paper like
>>> European Philips records from the 60's).
>>>
>>> So here are my questions:
>>>
>>> 1. Was some or all of the material originally out on Epic reissued on US Philips?
>>> 2. Was the entire European classical catalog issued here by the mid-60's?
>>> 3. Were the LPs indeed manufactured in the US or just sleeved here?
>>> 4. Were new masters cut or were European manufacturing parts sent here?
>>>
>>> -- Tom Fine
>>>
>>
>>
>> ---------------------------------
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