Columbia Company Sleeves

[JimN]

A problem: the site also says that the next version (solid green Columbia) wasn't introduced until January 1063, but that is not right. "Dance On!" / "All Day" was released before Christmas 1962 on the new black label and in the new sleeve. That last entry makes the site info at least a little unreliable.

Oh I don't know Jim. 1063 beats William the Conqueror by three years so solid green Columbia should be fine as far back as you like

[JimN]

I've never seen the third one down (the purple one) and i have many Columbia/Parlophone sleeves.
If i remember some used to have adverts on the back, one was for a morphy richards hairdrier and (for something like £3!) and another for mascara, i showed my mum them and she remembered them!
Did anyone ever use that Emitex that was constantly advertised? Was it any good?

Right: this is definitive. All my Shads single sleeves were immediately marked with the record title, number and the name of the shop where they were bought. There is zero chance of a disc/sleeve mismatch for records I bought in the sixties and I have my box of Shadows singles right beside me.

At first, there were no adverts on sleeves (this was with the 1960-pattern "Circles" design), then the Stripes design sleeves advertised a variety of EMI LPs on the reverse sides (1961/1962). The artists were Norrie Paramor, John Barry, Edith Piaf, Russ Conway, Shirley Bassey, The Big Ben Banjo Band (that's Norrie again), Victor Sylvester, Russ Conway, Alma Cogan, Manuel and the Music of The Mountains (Geoff Love), and Cliff Richard & The Shadows (one each). Only the titles and serial numbers were included in the ads,

On the solid green sleeves (Greensleeves!) from Dance On! onward, they switched to advertising three EMI products:

(a) Record tokens
(b) Emitex record cleaning cloths (which, in answer to the question above, were great and worked really well to keep records free of dust. You had to use it every time you played a disc, which ruled out use of the autochanger as far as I was concerned)
(c) Record Mail - a monthly publication available at record shops for 1 penny. It detailed all recent and imminent EMI releases.

On DB 7650 (Don't Make My Baby Blue) in 1965, EMI started advertising Miners make-up "for pop-pickers". This was not seen on a red sleeve, only green.

For the next single, DB 7769 (The War Lord, still 1965), they went back to Record Mail, Emitex and record tokens.

The well-remembered Morphy-Richards hairdryer advert appeared (on a red, rather than a green, sleeve) in 1966 on DB 7853 (I Met A Girl / Late Night Set). The Hair Dryer was priced at £3/17s/6d and the optional Salon Pack (whatever that was) was another £2/9s/6d. The same Morphy-Richards ad appeared on the red reverse of the sleeve for A Place In the Sun (DB 7952). I have never seen it appear on a green sleeve.

For The Dreams I Dream (still '66), DB 8034, the sleeve returned to the 1965 Miners make-up ad, in green.

In 1967, for Maroc 7 / Bombay Duck (DB 8170), a new ad turned up: "Miss Disc" (hair spray, deodorant, cologne and talc). This was on a green sleeve.

Tomorrow's Cancelled / Somewhere was released (summer 1967) in a white sleeve with small reproductions of the front covers of twelve EMI LP sleeves on the front and six more on the reverse. The reverse also had an ad for EMI record tokens. The LPs advertised on the obverse of the sleeve were by:

- The Black And White Minstrels
- Paul Jones (of Manfred Mann fame)
- Frank Ifield
- Vince Hill
- Mrs Mills
- Matt Monro (with a moody cover shot taken in the studio control room)
- Manual and th Music Of The Mountains
- The Beatles ("A Collection of ... Oldies")
- Wout Steenhuis
- Nat King Cole
- Lou Rawls (that comes as a surprise; I didn't know he was well-known as long ago as that) and
- The Beach Boys.

The reverse had:

- Ciulla Black (Sings A Rainbow)
- Cliff's Hit Album
- The Shadows' Greatest Hits
- The Hollies
- Ken Dodd and
- Frank Sinatra.

Later in 1967, London's Not Too Far / Running Out Of World came in a green sleeve essentially the same as the one used for Dance On! in 1962. And 1968's Dear Old Mrs Bell came in the same 1962-pattern sleeve.

Slaughter On 10th Avenue (1969) came in a red Columbia sleeve with adverts on the reverse for LPs as follows:

- Established 1958
- Don Partridge
- Genesis - The Gods
- The Black And White Minstrel Show
- Pink Floyd (SCX 6258)
- Rolf Harris and the Young Generation (possibly a risky combination) and
- The Seekers - Live at the Talk Of The Town.

Fast forward to 1973 - Turn Around And Touch Me (EMI 2081) came in a plain black sleeve with no markings - but that might not have been original - my copy had been played at the record shop for demonstration purposes and may have originally been in a branded sleeve. It was the only copy they had left, so I settled for it.

Thereafter, the red/orange EMI sleeve was normal and usual, apart from a few singles with picture sleeves.

[Moderne]

This is really interesting (no I'm being serious!). My copy ofthe 1968 single Don't Forget to Catch Me by Cliff & The Shadows (with the lovely Fletcher, Flett song What's More (I Don't Need Her) on the flip) is in a blue Columbia sleeve - with adverts for From HBB&J, Cliff's Good News LP, Pink Floyd etc. on the back.

[JimN]

I don't think I've ever seen a blue Columbia sleeve. Not from the UK at any rate.

Do you still have it?

[Uncleboko]

What about covers for 78s, did they follow the same pattern as for 45s but larger. I don't recall that I had any Shadows 78s but somewhere in my attic lies Diana by Paul Anka & Last Train to San Fernando by Johnny Duncan, which I'm sure were both on Columbia and I might have Move it on a 78!

[JimN]

What about covers for 78s, did they follow the same pattern as for 45s but larger. I don't recall that I had any Shadows 78s but somewhere in my attic lies Diana by Paul Anka & Last Train to San Fernando by Johnny Duncan, which I'm sure were both on Columbia and I might have Move it on a 78!

The 78s I remember from the period came in generic sleeves made of stiffer paper then the later 45s. They usually looked quite dull and old-fashioned, with a lot of buff-coloured (manilla) paper used. I cannot remember ever seeing one printed in colour on white paper, which was the norm for 45s.

Examples:

[UlrichS]

What about covers for 78s, did they follow the same pattern as for 45s but larger. I don't recall that I had any Shadows 78s but somewhere in my attic lies Diana by Paul Anka & Last Train to San Fernando by Johnny Duncan, which I'm sure were both on Columbia and I might have Move it on a 78!

All Cliff 78rpms and also the only Drifters 78rpm plus the Five Chesternuts one came in the same sleeve:

78-GBR-C01a.jpg

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I have never come across any variations regarding the rear.

I don't think I've ever seen a blue Columbia sleeve. Not from the UK at any rate.

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The 78s I remember from the period came in generic sleeves made of stiffer paper then the later 45s. They usually looked quite dull and old-fashioned, with a lot of buff-coloured (manilla) paper used. I cannot remember ever seeing one printed in colour on white paper, which was the norm for 45s.

Jim,
The pic you have linked shows a US Columbia sleeve.

[JimN]

One of those Columbia sleeves certainly is from the USA, the other (the bigger one) is from the EMI Columbia in London. Their liveries were more or less the same at one time.

The blue Columbia sleeve is a real rarity!

[Moderne]

D'oh...have just scanned my blue Columbia sleeve and was about to post it...but Ulrich beat me to it!

[Moderne]

...I've never done that before...can you tell?! How do I reduce the size, please...for future reference?

Regarding 78 covers, the purple one is the one used for Cliff + Drifters releases - I think...never seen the 'circles' sleeve in 10" 78 form. A new one was specially printed for the 78 re-pressing of Move It! for the boxed set - 'And They Said It Wouldn't Last'.