Liner Notes

Unique 78 RPM Shellac Records

Welcome to a 78 RPM Sunday!

As I was flipping through my dad’s shellac collection looking for patterns to create a few 78 RPM episodes for this season, I found these 7 disks. What they had in common was their one-sidedness.

Yup. In the early days of records, they only pressed one side. And I’ll talk about why in detail a little later.

What’s most important to remember is that every one of these disks was pressed more than 110 years ago.

So, get ready to hear songs that were recorded and released with no flip side in Volume 215: Single-Sided 78s.

Video Intro

Listen here or on my PodBean Podcast Episode page:

You can check out the video version here or on YouTube:

Credits and Copyrights:

All 78 RPM Shellac Recordings are on the Victor Record Red Label

Alice, Where Art Thou – Evan Williams (recorded Camden, NJ, July 18, 1912.)
Written By – Wellington Gurnsey and Joseph Ascher

A Dream – Evan Williams (recorded Camden, NJ, December 18, 1913, released in 1914)
written by Charles B. Cory, J.C. Bartlett

Absent – Evan Williams ( recorded Camden, NJ, February 28, 1913. released in 1914)
Catherine Young Glen and John W. Metcalf
Eventually became the flip side of A Dream in 1923

A Perfect Day – Evan Williams (recorded Camden, NJ, July 16, 1913)
written by Carrie Jacobs-Bond
Eventually became the flip side for Just A-Wearyin’ For You, a recording my dad did not have, but was recorded in 1911.

Good-Bye, Sweetheart, Good-Bye – Evan Williams
Published in 1868 by John L. Halton

Love is Mine – Enrico Caruso (1912)
Composed By – Clarence G. Gartner
Lyrics By – Edward Teschemacher

O Sole Mio (Neapolitan Folk Song) – Emilio de Gogorza (Recorded 13 May 1909)

I do not own the rights to this music. ASCAP, BMI licenses provided by third-party platforms for music that is not under Public Domain.

#78RPMShellac #vinylcollecting #victorrecordredlabel

Here is the Episode Script!

Thanks sweetie and thank YOU for tuning into episode 215 of Spinning My Dad’s Vinyl.

Welcome to a 78 RPM Sunday!

As I was flipping through my dad’s shellac collection looking for patterns to create a few 78 RPM episodes for this season, I found these 7 disks. What they had in common was their one-sidedness.

Yup. In the early days of records, they only pressed one side. And I’ll talk about why in detail a little later.

What’s most important to remember is that every one of these disks was pressed more than 110 years ago.

So, get ready to hear songs that were recorded and released with no flip side in Volume 215: Single-Sided 78s.

[Music: Alice, Where Art Thou]

There is Evan Williams with
Alice, Where Art Thou – (recorded Camden, NJ, July 18, 1912.)
Written By – Wellington Gurnsey and Joseph Ascher

Ok…Why these records for this episode?

Because this stack of shellac, that most likely belonged to my grandfather, are such true representations of the earliest days of recording. Which was decades before vinyl LPs came around.

Of course, I thought they were unique since one side had the grooves and the other side was completely smooth.

Plus, I keep finding history in my dad‘s collection, and I keep learning history because of my dad‘s collection. The five records that you will hear from a singer I had never heard of, will be a testament to that.

While all the recordings you’ll hear on this episode are one-sided, the next two songs eventually ended up being the flip side of each other when they were re-released nine years later.

[Music: A Dream]
[Music: Absent]

Evan Williams with Absent (recorded in Camden, NJ, February 28, 1913. released in 1914)
Written by Catherine Young Glen and John W. Metcalf
In 1923 it became the flip side of the song we heard before that

A Dream (recorded Camden, NJ, December 18, 1913, released in 1914)
written by Charles B. Cory, J.C. Bartlett

There’s no one album to talk about, no covers and no liner notes.

But I will tell you all 7 records were released on the Victor Record Red Label.

Discogs didn’t have any sales info on any of these 78s, but eBay had one of them on sale for about 20 bucks.

There is a price listed on a couple of the labels of one dollar. That’s $24.66 in today’s money. Think about buying a single song for nearly $25.

My dad’s records are in bad condition. They were never really properly protected or cared for. I’m just glad this new 78 RPM needle I bought for the Audio Technica turntable makes them sound pretty good.

So I will value each of my dad’s shellac at their original price of a buck a piece.

This next song became a flip side for a song my dad did not have.

[Music: A Perfect Day]

A Perfect Day – Evan Williams (recorded Camden, NJ, July 16, 1913)
written by Carrie Jacobs-Bond

In 1923 this song became the flip side for Just A-Wearyin’ For You, a recording my dad did not have.

We will have two other artists to finish the show, but five of the seven songs are from Evan Willams, so let’s learn a little about him.

Evan Williams was born on September 7, 1867 in Mineral Ridge, Ohio was an oratorio tenor. His parents were recent poor Welsh immigrants from Pembrokeshire, Wales. When Evan was 13 years old, his Mother died in childbirth, and he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle in Thomastown, a Welsh immigrant mining community near Akron, Ohio.

While he was working in his youth in coal mines in the Akron area, the quality of his voice was discovered when he was singing in a local church choir. He began voice lessons with Madame Louise Von Feilitsch in Cleveland. He began rising to prominence as a singer when he participated in a Welsh choir in Galion, Ohio, in 1891. By 1894 he was performing in London and began dividing his career between appearances in the United Kingdom and in the United States.

At this time in his career he was hired to be the soloist at the Marble Collegiate Church in New York City. He was reputed to be the highest-paid church singer in the world at the time. In 1896 he gave his first performance at the well known Worcester Music Festival in Worcester, Massachusetts. In 1907 he returned to the United States for most of the rest of his performing career, where he sang as a tenor soloist for various choral societies and in concerts all over the country. His recording career with Victor Red Seal records was very successful.

He recorded almost one hundred 78-RPM records for the Victor Talking Machine Company in the United States and The Gramophone Company in England. Williams gave more than 1,000 performances and recitals during his 25-year professional career across the United States and in England and Wales.

Williams was a great draw at many music societies and events.

He died on May 24, 1918 in Akron, Ohio from blood poisoning, the result of a boil. Evan Williams was 50.

So let’s say goodbye to Evan for now.

[Music: Good-Bye, Sweetheart, Good-Bye]

Good-Bye, Sweetheart, Good-Bye – Evan Williams
Published in 1868 by John L. Halton

Time now for this episode’s interesting side note and it has to do with the one-sidedness of these records.

When the Victor Talking Machine Company first started making records in the early 1900s, they only pressed music on one side of the disk. This was because the process of making records was still new, and manufacturers were focused on making sure the sound quality was as good as possible. They also wanted to keep things simple so customers wouldn’t be confused by a two-sided disk. Another reason was marketing—companies could charge more for single-sided records since people had to buy more of them to get different songs.

Around 1908, Victor and other companies started making double-sided records because they figured out how to press music on both sides without hurting the sound quality. This made records more valuable to customers, who could now get twice as much music for their money.

Even though one-sided records were very common at the time, they became rare once two-sided disks became the standard. Today, collectors look for these early one-sided records because they are a piece of history from the very beginning of recorded music!

Next up, one of the first voices to ever be put to a shellac disk.

[Music: Love is Mine]

Love is Mine – Enrico Caruso (released in 1912)
Composed By – Clarence G. Gartner
Lyrics By – Edward Teschemacher

Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you.

While 78 RPM shellac records are a bit more of a pain to digitize than vinyl, there’s still some great musical history on the shelves that hold that part of my dad’s collection.

I do remember my dad having plenty of 78 RPM records during my growing up days in the house. I’ve already featured many that I do remember from my youth. I do think I might have noticed these records featured in this episode because of one side being smooth, but who knows what I really remember anymore.

And I’m pretty sure my dad gave up playing them many years ago, which is why he probably kept gifting them to my brother-in-law who happens to have a fully functional Victrola, which you’ve seen in previous episodes.

I have several photos of Aaron holding up a gifted 78 RPM album with my sister looking on in disgust. She’s never been a big fan of the Victrola taking up space.

And now…to close us out, probably the most popular tune in the entire Neapolitan song book. In fact, the label that covers the smooth side on this one even says it’s the most Neapolitan song there is.

[Music: O Sole Mio]

O Sole Mio (Neapolitan Folk Song) – Emilio de Gogorza (Recorded May 13 1909)

And there you have selections from all the one-side 78 RPM shellac records in my dad’s collection.

So thanks for tuning into Volume 215: Single-Sided 78s

however you did. If you want more information about this SHOW, head over to spinning my dad’s vinyl dot com.

I’ll be back next week with all my skips, scratches, and pops

FOR Volume 216: The Classical 216

Until then,
Go with the flow my friends.