Little John Records was a cheap children's budget record label in the early 50's. These records sold for ten cents each without sleeves, it is a miracle that any of these Little John's made it to the present in decent shape! I have most of the 31 Little John releases (I have 2 out of the 3 runs they made complete), and that includes the complete Christmas series, X-1 through X-10. Here's a link to a playlist that features the entire series!
What do all these albums have in common? They all have the same recordings on them! The left two albums are the Sounds Of A Thousand Strings Christmas album (The bottom left is the original 1st pressing, and the top left is a reissue). The top right Premier record album is titled "1000 Strings At Christmas" and is credited to Al Goodman. The bottom right is a Wyncote release titled "Christmas Favorites" with the artists credited as "The International Pop Orchestra" and is a reissue of the Premier album (the Wyncote release I examined actually had the Premier XS-4 matrixes scratched out in the dead wax). Budget record labels traded and leased masters to different budget labels so that they would, in turn, trade or lease masters they could use themselves. The question I have about these releases is when these recordings were really recorded and by whom.
[Update 2023:] Contrary to what I thought many years ago, recent scholarship (or a discovery of a fellow collector online) was not Crown Records who recorded these tracks but instead on a highly obscure Christmas label (which I sadly cannot remember specifics) issued around 1958, Crown's first issue of these tracks on their label (which they likely purchased from the before alluded obscure label) in 1959, while the others were issued later in the 1960s. This set of tracks also appears in various Background Music libraries for their Christmas/Holiday music sets, so even if one did not have a copy of any of these records, chances are pretty much everywhere American background music played in the 1960s and 1970s if one was able to hear and was alive at the time, would have had to have heard at least one of these tracks at least once (if not many times)... except for those who did not listen to any media whatsoever during this time.
Overall, one fact about budget record collecting one must never forget is that recycling material was often a mult-label venture, sometime over the span of decades, often with different artist attributions and certainly in different packaging each time! It is all part of the fun of collecting these sorts of records. However, it also can be a part of the annoyance of budget releases (besides them being overpriced in record stores if they have a name artist on them or are often not in good shape and are scattered in the often hard-to-search-through bargain bins), buying something one already has but in a different package without being any the wiser until one plays it. The neurons connect that one has heard those tracks before.
This post features me unboxing the Dave Clark Five album that Crown Records issued in 1964, that I got on Ebay. This album is one of the more collectible Crown releases, and the Goldmine record price guide even lists it! Below are a couple pictures (that are not mine) to give you a better look at this album, including a reissue on Custom (which is a label related to Crown)! Now for some Ebay drama, the seller listed this album as a VG+ album, I received a maybe G condition record. I will probably ding the seller for that massive over sight.
If you have ever flipped through a stack of records at a thrift store, you may have noticed the names of labels like Pickwick, Crown, Royale, Halo, Grand Prix, Design, Custom, or some other label that made cheap albums. I will tell you more about these records if you have not noticed them. Budget labels were and still are thought of by most collectors as inexpensive pieces of junk. However, budget labels put records into people's homes who may not have been inclined or able to obtain them from the higher-priced outfits.
Little Wonder was one of the early budget labels that changed the record industry; at that time, records (records then at that time played 78 rpm or thereabout) were about 75 cents to a dollar each, or about 20 bucks in today's dollars. Then the machines were also costly, so you would have to be pretty well off to have a phonograph in your house with a decent set of records to play on them! One of the main reasons the records were so expensive was that Victor and Columbia Records held all the patents for the disk phonograph and kept the machines and records at high prices. Then that all changed; a man named Henry Waterson teamed up secretly with Columbia to make a cheap record that measured 5 1/2 inches across between 1914 and 1923. These records played for only 1-1 1/2 minutes and were single-sided. These records made records affordable to more people while causing the other big labels to lower their prices to compete with them, especially after 1919 when the patents for lateral disc records expired. There is no doubt that Little Wonder was one of the most critical budget labels of all time because of its lasting effects on the whole record industry.
"Back To The Carolina's My Love" (Al Jolson)
After Victor's and Columbia's patents expired, record labels started popping up everywhere; some were Grey Gull, and the million-budget labels used the Grey Gull masters for their releases. Soon, the Great Depression was on, and Hit Of The Week records blossomed and died in a few short years. Then, we had significant label budget subsidies in the '30s, such as Blue Bird and Harmony Records. Then World War Two broke out, and budget labels would take on the attributes that made labels such as Pickwick loathed and hated by the record industry.
To think that only 48 days separate us from Christmas, So I have to get busy on getting you those Christmas records that I have in my vast budget record collection! Here I offer you a selection, more if I get around to it, of the Mexicali Brass Christmas album. Does "The First Noel" interest anyone? I hope you do, as the trumpet playing is delightful. I have to apologize for the surface noise and other artifacts that I couldn't remove, if I did the tracks would be dull and lifeless, hey what is brass without the bite?
