Clarence Clemons, the longtime and legendary saxophone player for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, died on June 18, 2011, at the age of 69.  His death came just six days after suffering a stroke.  Clemons was a fixture with the E Street Band, first appearing with the group in 1972.  As such, Clemons appeared on many top Springsteen albums, including Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town.  Clemons’ saxophone solos on Springsteen hits, such as “Jungleland” and “Badlands”, helped to define the Springsteen sound throughout the years.

Springsteen and Clemons developed a great friendship and appeared inseparable on stage.  That closeness is forever immortalized on the cover of  the landmark 1975 album Born to Run, shown below.  Upon Clemons’ death, Springsteen said “With Clarence at my side, my band and I were able to tell a story far deeper than those simply contained in our music.”  Here’s hoping that story is told to future generations.  It’s a great story that words cannot adequately convey.

R.I.P., Clarence Clemons.

In 1987, the CD as a commercial music carrier was five years old and had seen significant growth in popularity.  CDs were no longer just manufactured in Japan and West Germany.  Manufacturing plants had opened in the U.S., Austria, the U.K., and Korea, for example.  Sales of traditional LPs and cassettes were starting to wane in favor of the convenience offered by the CD.  As CDs became the mainstream accepted music format, record labels began using commercial and especially promotional CD samplers more to promote their talented artists than the digital music format.  An example of this is a two-disc compilation released by CBS/Sony in Japan in 1987 simply titled, New CBS ’87.  This sampler was released under catalog number XDDP 93001~2.

As the name implies, New CBS ’87 was used to promote new music from the stable of popular CBS artists.  Perusal of the CDs and inserts reveals no promotion of the CD format.  For example, gone is futuristic, laser-laden, or outer space-themed artwork highlighting the physical CD, as is typically found on earlier samplers.  For New CBS ’87, the inserts are rather generic. 

Contained on the New CBS ’87 CDs are hits or soon-to-be-hits from such artists as Bangles, Patty Smyth, Beastie Boys, and Wynton Marsalis.  This is a promotional sampler, and the back insert is marked “NOT FOR SALE”.  Although this set was issued in Japan, minimal Japanese text is found on the inserts.  The spine labels are in English.  This would suggest that New CBS ’87 was produced as a marketing tool for export.

The New CBS ’87 discs were pressed in Japan by CBS/Sony.  Disc 1 has “CSR” stamped on the plastic ring, and the matrix code is “XDDP-93001 11 +++++”.  Disc 2 has no text stamped on the plastic ring, and the matrix code is “XDDP-93002 11 +++++”.  Shown below is the cover, back insert, spine labels, and one disc for the New CBS ’87 sampler.

The cover for the promotional sampler set New CBS ’87 (CBS/Sony, catalog number XDDP 93001~2).

The back insert for the promotional sampler set New CBS ’87 (CBS/Sony, catalog number XDDP 93001~2).  The track lists for both discs are shown.  “NOT FOR SALE” is printed in the bottom right corner.

One set of spine labels for the promotional sampler set New CBS ’87 (CBS/Sony, catalog number XDDP 93001~2).  The other set of spine labels is also printed in English.

The promotional sampler New CBS ’87 (CBS/Sony, catalog number XDDP 93001~2).  Shown is Disc 1 of the two-disc set.  The disc has “CSR” stamped on the plastic ring, and the matrix code is “XDDP-93001 11 +++++”.  Note that the disc is marked “Sample” on the right side.

Back in 2007, a post was entered here featuring a rare West German “green-arrow” pressing of Rush Moving Pictures on the Mercury label (click here for more details).  As a follow-up of sorts, I recently obtained a similar West German pressing of Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers Night in Tunisia that I feel is worthy of home-page recognition.  This CD was released on the Philips label under catalog number 800 064-2 and bears a “blue-arrow” design obviously made in the same vein as the aforementioned Rush CD on Mercury (both labels were distributed by Phonogram in the 1980s).

The green arrow represents the earliest Mercury CD label design, while the blue arrow is one the earliest used for CDs on the Philips label (the combination of a light blue coating with royal blue text was used for the earliest classical CDs released by Philips).  Both arrow designs were limited to a handful of titles on their respective lables and were replaced early on.  As such, CDs bearing these early designs are rare and highly sought after.  Regarding the Blakey blue-arrow disc, it should be made clear that the featured album is the 1979 release, Night in Tunisia, not one the earlier albums entitled A Night in Tunisia.

Although the Night in Tunisia CD does not explicitly state that it was made in West Germany, it has all the tell-tale signs of an early Polygram pressing (the accompanying inserts do state “Printed in West Germany”).  One distinguishing feature is the matrix code — “800064 2 01”.  The grouping of catalog number characters in one block and with no dash between this block and the CD format code “2” are typical of the earliest West German Polygram pressings.  To be clear, note the arrangement “800064 2”.  Later West German pressings of Night in Tunisia, bearing a different label design than the blue-arrow, would likely have the matrix code in the form “800 064-2 0X”, where X would be greater than 1, another indiciator of a later pressing.  So a later pressing might have as the matrix code “800 064-2 02” or “800 064-2 03”.

Shown below are pictures of the inserts found with the blue-arrow Night in Tunisia CD and a picture of the disc itself.

The cover for the West German blue-arrow pressing of Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers Night in Tunisia (Philips, catalog number 800 064-2).

The back cover of the booklet for the West German blue-arrow pressing of Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers Night in Tunisia (Philips, catalog number 800 064-2).  Pictured from left to right are ensemble members James Williams (piano), David Schnitter (tenor sax), Robert Watson (alto sax), Art Blakey (drums), Dennis Irwin (bass), and Valery Ponomarev (trumpet).

The back insert for the West German blue-arrow pressing of Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers Night in Tunisia (Philips, catalog number 800 064-2).  Note that it states “Printed in West Germany” along the bottom.

The West German blue-arrow pressing of Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers Night in Tunisia (Philips, catalog number 800 064-2).  The matrix code is “800064 2 01”.  Three spelling errors are noted.  Tunisia is twice misspelled “Tunesia”, and alto next to Robert Watson in the personnel list is misspelled “also”.  This label design is very similar to the early green-arrow design assigned to the Mercury label.

It’s March, which means that the sports world, in the U.S. at least, is engrossed in “March Madness”.  That is, the NCAA Basketball Tournament.  As such, I thought it fitting to inject a bit of CD madness into keithhirsch.com.  Enter the famous English ska band of the ’70s and ’80s, making their first appearance on keithhirsch.com — Madness!

Madness enjoyed great success in England, with several charting singles, including “Night Boat to Cairo”, “My Girl”, and “One Step Beyond”.  In 1983, the band gained widespread popularity and broke through to the U.S. market with the hit “Our House”, which was featured in a humorous video aired frequently on MTV. 

Despite the success of “Our House”, Madness remained primarily an English phenomenon.  As a result, most of the early Madness CDs were released in the U.K. on the Virgin label.  Featured here is a compilation CD released by Virgin in 1985 entitled Complete Madness.  Although the CD was released in 1985, the 16-track compilation was originally released in 1982 and does not include “Our House”.

The Complete Madness CD was released under Virgin catalog number HITCD 1 and was pressed in West Germany by Sonopress.  Shown below are pictures of the cover, back insert, and West German pressing for this early issue.  This CD is difficult to find in my experience, though not impossible.  It serves as an excellent compilation of the band’s early hits and is a fun listen.

The cover for the original CD issue of Madness Complete Madness (Virgin, catalog number HITCD 1).  This CD was released in the U.K. in 1985.

The back insert for the original CD issue of Madness Complete Madness (Virgin, catalog number HITCD 1).   The catalog number is printed in the top right corner in yellow.  As noted below the Virgin logo and CD format symbol, the album was first released in 1982 (Phonogram date) and first appeared on CD in 1985 (copyright date).

The original West German pressing of Madness Complete Madness (Virgin, catalog number HITCD 1).  Note that “Manufactured in W. Germany” is printed at 3 o’clock.  The disc was pressed by Sonopress, as evidenced by “SONOPRESS” being stamped in the mirror band.  The matrix code is “C-0603/HITCD1 A”.

There are many reasons I and other collectors of early CD pressings are drawn to particular discs.  Some of them look cool.  Some sound great.  Some are rare.  And some have unique content.  It is primarily the last reason that this month’s feature is highly sought after by CD collectors.

Here we consider the first Japanese issue of Janet Jackson’s 1986 blockbuster album Control, released by A&M under catalog number 32XB-72.  It was with Control that Janet proved that there was room for more than one Jackson in the world of pop music.  The inclusion of hits “Control”, “Nasty”, and “What Have You Done For Me Lately” should be enough for any CD collector to seek the first Japanese issue of this classic, but it is a lesser known song that places this first issue high on collectors’ lists.

Take a look at any common Control CD, and you will find nine tracks.  The Japanese 32XB issue has 10.  Included on this disc, and only on this disc, is “Start Anew” as track five.  “Start Anew” was actually recorded for Jackson’s preceding album, 1984’s Dream Street.  The song did not appear on that album, but it was released on 7″ and 12″ singles in Japan in 1985 to limited acclaim.  “Start Anew” then appeared on the Japanese 32XB Control CD in 1986.

The Japanese 32XB CD was in print for a short period before being replaced in 1986 by the more common D32Y issue.  Shown below are the cover, back insert, and CD for the 32XB issue.

The cover for the first Japanese issue of Janet Jackson Control (A&M, catalog number 32XB-72).  This is the standard cover artwork found with other CD releases.

The back insert for the first Japanese issue of Janet Jackson Control (A&M, catalog number 32XB-72).  Note that “Start Anew” is listed as track five.  The catalog number is printed in the top left corner.

The first Japanese issue of Janet Jackson Control (A&M, catalog number 32XB-72).  “Start Anew” is listed as track five on the left side of the disc.  This disc was pressed by CBS/Sony.  The matrix code is “32XB-72 11 +++++”.

Here is a first on keithhirsch.com.  For the first time, an early Canadian issue is posted.  It is a Japanese pressing of Santana’s 1981 album Zebop! that was released in Canada around 1984 or ’85.  This CD was issued on the Columbia label, part of CBS/Sony, under catalog number CK 37158.

When considering early Japanese pressings of CBS/Sony titles, one normally considers U.S., European, and Japanese issues.  That is because these are the key markets that were represented by unique pressings (i.e., unique label designs and catalog numbers).  Of course, these early Japanese pressings were issued in other smaller markets as well.  For example, most Japan-for-Europe CBS/Sony CDs were also issued in Australia.  And, many Japan-for-U.S. CBS/Sony CDs were also issued in Canada.  This takes us to the featured Zebop! CD.

This Zebop! CD is a Canadian issue, but it bears the original U.S. catalog number and is the same disc as the original Japan-for-U.S. issue.  It is Canadian by virture of the inserts.  The inserts are similar to the ones issued in the U.S., and the key difference lies in the copyright statement.  The copyright statement on the U.S. inserts reflects the original pressing being made in Japan and starts off “Disc manufactured in Japan by CBS/Sony…”  For the Canadian issue, the copyright statement does not mention Japan and instead references CBS Records Canada Ltd. in Don Mills, Ontario.  The UPC on the back insert and the back cover of the booklet is unique to this Canadian issue.

The CD has “CSR COMPACT DISC” repeating in the plastic ring, and the matrix code is “DIDP-20117 21A1 +++++”.  The disc has “MANUFACTURED IN JAPAN” printed along the perimeter.

In my experience, this Japanese pressing of Zebop! is very rare.  I have come across copies with U.S. inserts on just a few occasions, and this copy with the Canadian inserts is the only such copy I have located.  Shown below is the cover, back insert, a spine label, and the Japanese pressing for this Canadian issue.

The cover for the original Canadian issue of Santana Zebop! (Columbia, catalog number CK 37158).  This cover, including the CD format logo in the bottom right corner, is identical to the one found with the original U.S. issue bearing the same catalog number.

The back insert for the original Canadian issue of Santana Zebop! (Columbia, catalog number CK 37158).  The layout of this back insert is similar to the layout of the original U.S. back insert.  However, note the copyright statement along the bottom referencing CBS Records Canada Ltd.  The UPC is also unique to this Canadian issue.

A spine label for the original Canadian issue of Santana Zebop! (Columbia, catalog number CK 37158).  The spines for the original U.S. issue are identical in appearance.

The Japan-for-Canada pressing of Santana Zebop! (Columbia, catalog number CK 37158).  The disc has “CSR COMPACT DISC” repeating in the plastic ring, and the matrix code is “DIDP-20117 21A1 +++++”.   “DIDP 20117” is printed beneath the catalog number at 3 o’clock, and “MANUFACTURED IN JAPAN” is printed along the perimeter at the bottom of the disc.  This disc is identical to the original Japanese pressing issued in the U.S.

I began collecting Target CDs nearly nine years ago.  For the past few years, I have often convinced myself that I have seen every significant Target pressing variation there is to see.  Then, just when I think that collecting Target CDs is destined to be a ho-hum, been-there-done-that experience and it’s time to move on to something else, an unusual variation I have never seen comes along.  This keeps happening!  Yes, it happens less frequently now then it did a few years ago, but it still happens.  Enter our latest entry on keithhirsch.com:  A West German Target CD of Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy (Atlantic, catalog number 19130-2) with black text on the disc face instead of the common silver text.  Given that many West German Target pressings of Houses of the Holy show up for sale online, I was shocked to first stumble upon this black-text variation only a couple of months ago.  Let’s look into the details of this unusual pressing.

With the exception of the black text replacing silver, this Target CD is identical to the standard West German Target pressing of Houses of the Holy.  Thus, it has the familiar Atlantic color scheme of a red target and green coating.  Furthermore, it has the expected “MADE IN WEST GERMANY BY POLYGRAM” text printed in green along the perimeter.  The matrix code is “7567 19130-2 2895 383 01 *”, which is identical to the matrix code found on the silver-text pressing in my collection.

The inserts with the black-text pressing were printed in the U.S., and there is no barcode on the back insert.  The silver-text version is typically found with West German inserts lacking a barcode.  The U.S. inserts suggest that the black-text variation was pressed after the silver-text version.  The cover and spine labels are identical for the two Target pressings.

Shown below are pictures of the cover, back insert, and spine label found with the black-text pressing, as well as both the black- and silver-text Target CDs.  It appears that the black-text disc is extremely rare since this is the only copy I have come across, but it will be interesting to see if more copies turn up.

Now have I seen every Target CD variation?

The cover found with the black-text West German Target CD of Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy (Atlantic, catalog number 19130-2).  The common silver-text version is found with the same cover as are later U.S. Non-Target pressings with catalog number 19130-2.

The back insert for the black-text West German Target CD variation of Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy (Atlantic, catalog number 19130-2).  “Printed in U.S.A.” is stated along the bottom.  There is no barcode, indicative of an early CD issue.  The back insert for the more common silver-text Target variation in my collection was printed in West Germany and also lacks a barcode.

A spine label for the black-text West German Target CD of Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy (Atlantic, catalog number 19130-2).  The silver-text Target variation and later U.S. Non-Target pressings with catalog number 19130-2 are found with the same spine label.

The black-text Target variation of Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy (Atlantic, catalog number 19130-2).  The disc has the typical Atlantic color scheme of a red target and green paint coating.  Note that is has “MADE IN WEST GERMANY BY POLYGRAM” printed in green along the perimeter.

The standard silver-text Target pressing of Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy (Atlantic, catalog number 19130-2).  The only difference between the two Target pressings shown here is the color of the text printed on the green coating.

Happy Holidays 2010!  As has become a tradition on keithhirsch.com, I thought I would kick off another holiday season by featuring an early Christmas CD.  This year, we have a Japanese pressing of the 1968 Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass classic Christmas Album.  This CD was released by A&M in the U.S. under catalog number CD 3113.  The album is a nice mix of traditional Christmas songs that everyone knows, such as “Jingle Bells” and “Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow”, as well as a few that you may not be familar with, like “Las Mañanitas” and “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”.  The album has 10 Christmas songs in all.

This early CD was pressed in Japan by Denon, as evidenced by the dot-matrix matrix code in the mirror band.  The disc and back insert bear the “AM+ Audio Master Plus Series” logo, which was used on early A&M CD releases.  If you are in search of this album in time for the holidays, note that there are later U.S. pressings that were issued under the same catalog number and are more readily available than the Japanese pressing.  A remaster is also in print from Shout! Factory.

Shown below is the cover and back insert for the original U.S. issue of Christmas Album, as well as the Japanese Denon pressing.  As with other early Herb Alpert CD issues, this Japanese pressing is rather difficult to find in my experience.

I wish you all a safe and happy holiday season. 

The cover for Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass Christmas Album (A&M, catalog number CD 3113).

The back insert for Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass Christmas Album (A&M, catalog number CD 3113).  Note the production credits below the track list citing the founders of A&M records, Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss.  As can be seen in the lower right corner, this insert was printed in the U.S.  The back insert bears the “AM+ Audio Master Plus Series” logo in the lower left corner, which was used on early A&M CD releases.

The Japanese Denon pressing of Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass Christmas Album made for the U.S. market (A&M, catalog number CD 3113).  The disc bears the typical Denon dot-matrix matrix code font in the mirror band.  The matrix code is “CD-3113 1A6 69”.  Note that “Made in Japan” is printed above the catalog number at 6 o’clock.  Also note the AM+ logo at 6 o’clock.