Compact- 3. 3 Little LPs (Juke Box EPs)The Stereo Singles Project, Part 3. Compact- 3. 3 Little LPs (Juke Box EPs). By Mike Callahan, Tim Neely, Dave Edwards, Patrice Eyries, Randy Watts, and Thomas Reed. Last update: November 2. The Beginning. By the spring of 1. Columbia were showing very poor sales, the record industry was looking around for other formats that. ![]() Parkway records announced in the May 1. Billboard that they would be testing the market for a 3. EPs that had been around since the early 1. Their test case. would be a new Chubby Checker offering, and Chubby was hot at the time. Each side would have 2. They would be mono. The Parkway disc would be viewed as. Search or upload videos. Popular on YouTube: Music, Sports, Gaming, Movies, TV Shows, News, Spotlight. Browse Channels. Tabtight professional, free when you need it, VPN service.
It failed miserably. Record stores didn't want to carry another format, and people were reluctant to buy. None of the four songs charted from the compact double, though "Dance the Mess Around" charted. But that didn't stop some of the majors from jumping in to test the. Capitol issued about a dozen discs featuing their most popular artists' biggest. RCA- Victor started issuing compact doubles, too. These major labels found the same thing that. The Stereo Singles Project, Part 3 Compact-33 Little LPs (Juke Box EPs) By Mike Callahan, Tim Neely, Dave Edwards, Patrice Eyries, Randy Watts, and Thomas Reed. ![]() Parkway did. They didn't sell. In October, 1. 96. Archie Bleyer announced that he would release six "Little LPs" with three songs on. Cadence's back catalog. It was a new format and this was. Little LP" had been used. Cadence put a series of ads (see left) in. Billboard over the next several months, but when these hit the stores, they got the same chilly. By spring, 1. 96. Bleyer gave up. Mercury immediately liked the Cadence idea, though, and in November, 1. Cadence's announcement, started their own series of mono "Little LPs." They called them "Compact 6. Little LPs." The initial offering was ten different records, but Mercury abandoned the series almost. The next fall, a Billboard story (9/2. A. Mercury executive shudderingly recalled the experiment. Bombsville,' he said."The First Generation. But somebody was listening. That somebody was in the form of Seeburg jukebox company. They. liked the idea of Little LPs, but wanted them in stereo to play in a jukebox they had planned. They began. working with various labels on a very hush- hush project, to produce some of these stereo Little LPs. Then in September, 1. The curtain was unveiled later in September on their new stereo jukebox console which. Little LPs and had places to display album covers for them (see photo below). Seeburg gave. credit to Cadence for the innovation of the Little LP, and pointed out that jukeboxes had largely become. Little LPs with adult content such as easy listening or. Immediately, the industry as a whole spoke up, as usual with divided opinions. Making Little LPs for. But nobody was jumping on. Been. there, done that, got the red ink. Everyone seemed to see making Little LPs for Seeburg — and. Seeburg agreed, although by making the Little LPs available for jukebox operators through. But no advertising aimed at the general public would be done. Seeburg hit the ground running. Before the new jukebox was even available, they had signed up. ABC- Paramount, Audio Fidelity, Cadence, Columbia, Command, Decca, Dot, Everest, Impulse. Jazzland/Riverside, Kapp, London/Monument, Mercury, RCA- Victor, Time, and Washington. The list of. artists looked like a who's who of easy listening and classical music. Nary a rock and roller in the bunch. The discs would cost the jukebox operators $1. Seeburg as well as the individual record labels' distributors. Seeburg would put together a catalog of. By January, 1. 96. Little LPs. By 1. Seeburg was openly gloating in the trade press about how their idea had. Little LPs. Seeburg noted in January, 1. By 1. 96. 6. there would be over 1. Little LPs in the catalog, and that didn't include the Little LPs in circulation. Wurlitzer or ATI. But by October, 1. Seeburg found that being a Little LP producer and distributor was getting to be a. So they sold their catalog, inventory and distribution network to Robert. Garmisa at Garmisa Distributing who would set up a new company (Garwin Sales) to take over their. Billboard, 1. 0/2. Bobby Garmisa was enthusiastic. Little LPs would henceforth be released at the same time as the parent albums, not. Garmisa, it turned out, had underestimated the effect of problems such as a. Little LPs, and the ambivalence of the one- stops to carrying the product, not to. Little LPs. By 1. Little LP hassles, Garmisa finally gave up. We thought it would be a. Garmisa later told. Billboard (8/2. 9/7. But even our best release only sold 5,0. We invested 8. 6 cents to $1 in each package, which. When Garmisa left the Little LP business, he sold the 1. Little LPs he had in the erstwhile Seeburg. WIND- Chicago newsman Henry Baskin (aka Bill Churchill), along with partner Reuben. Rube" Lawrence. Baskin began offering this older stock at 5. Baskase Products. Baskin's stock, including Little LPs from Columbia/Epic. Soma, Bomar. Warner Bros., Atlantic, London, UA, Blue Note, Hilltop, and Reprise, was sold off piecemeal. By. February, 1. 97. Lawrence noted that they had peddled some 5. Little LPs overseas to the UK and. The zenith of the Little LP was the 1. By 1. 96. 9, however, with Garmisa exiting the. Little LPs dropped to nearly zero. A few small manufacturers, like Thunderbird and. Juke, issued some, but that was about it. For over a year, from 1. Little LPs for the big labels, and this marked the end. Little LPs. The Second Generation. In the spring of 1. Little LPs for the labels who wanted. This was the beginning of the second generation of Little LPs, a phase where many fewer Little. LPs were manufactured. Whereas in 1. 96. Little LPs were being issued per year, output. But the content shifted more toward rock music than during the first generation. One of these companies was run by Bernie Yudkofsky of Gold- Mor distributing Co. In Englewood, NJ. Yudkofsky initially bought some of the stock from Baskase and started producing new releases for. Columbia/Epic and London/Parrot (he had 9 new releases by August, 1. Yudkofsky took a. Why should I do what was done years ago when the Little. LP program was ruined – why should I flood the market?" By May, 1. Gold- Mor had produced. Little LPs, then released four more Little LPs, this time from RCA, in August, 1. By January. 1. 97. Yudkofsky had released 5. Somewhat more active was Richard Prutting's Little LPs Unlimited, located in. Northfield, IL. Little LPs Unlimited had nine releases out by May, 1. Decca and Atlantic). August, 1. 97. 0, had brought out 1. Little LPs, manufacturing discs for Sun. International in addition to Atlantic/Cotillion and Decca/Kapp. Little LPs Unlimited numbered their. They had reached 4. LLP#1. 48) by May, 1. August, 1. 97. 1, 7. November, 1. 97. 1, 1. January, 1. 97. 3, and 1. November, 1. 97. 3 (averaging about 5. The two newcomers disagreed on one thing. While Yudkofsky felt the covers (and labels) should. LP cover, including being in full color, Prutting did not think color covers. Little LPs had monochrome covers from the start. The Gold- Mor Little LPs for. Columbia and London/Parrot at this point also started using the normal LP labels (example at left). Both were of the opinion, however, that big hits did not belong on Little LPs, because they were already. So the Little LP (at left) for Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water. These second- generation Little LPs often had only five. LPs of the time typically had only 1. Although both Yudkofsky and Prutting talked up the success of their product in the trade press, a few. In 1. 97. 1, Seeburg began making. Little. LPs weren't popular enough to warrant hardware attention. The other jukebox makers weren't far. Also, because Little LPs could not be returned for credit like ordinary singles, buyers were very. In May, 1. 97. 2, Little LP Unlimited moved to Danbury, CT, and were planning to expand into. Little LPs. By 1. Little LP as a jukebox commodity was dying. Some of the same problems that killed off the. In August, 1. 97. Billboard (8/1. 3/7. Little LPs. "Do you know. I'll sell them cheap," one operator sarcastically noted.
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