RCA Victor was responsible for the development of the 45rpm vinyl record, in 1948; for which alone it deserves several hearty cheers. The roots of the company lie in the formation of the Consolidated Talking Machine Company, of Philadelphia, Pa., by Eldridge R. Johnson. To begin with, Johnson issued records on his 'Improved Gram-O-Phone Record' label. After a court battle with a rival, from which he emerged successful, he incorporated the company as 'Victor'; this was in 1901. He joined forces with Emile Berliner, and in 1902 their new Victor label acquired its now-famous 'His Master's Voice' trademark - the one with the dog looking down the horn of one of Berliner's gramophones. Victor gained a reputation for quality, both of the music which it recorded and the way in which it recorded it. The company was sold to bankers Seligman & Speyer in 1926; in 1929 it was sold again, this time to the Radio Corporation of America.
In Britain in 1931, RCA's British branch, the Gramophone Company (HMV), merged with Parlophone and Columbia to form Electrical and Musical Industries. RCA sold its shares in the new company in 1935, but its products continued to appear on the HMV label over here until 1957, when it launched its own label (1) via a licensing agreement with Decca. It stayed with Decca throughout the '50s and for much of the 60s, changing its label name to RCA Victor towards the end of 1962 (4). After the agreement ran out, at the end of May 1968, it struck out on its own as an independent company, taking over responsibility for its own release schedule and promotional activities; it did however sign a one-year pressing and distribution deal with Decca, which was intended to cover the period until its own projected plant came into use ('Billboard', 25th May 1968). 'Record Retailer' of the 20th September 1969 observed that the company had just completed 100 days as a full independent, which suggests that it had fully parted company with Decca around the 12th of June. A handful of singles from the 13th to the 27th of June are reported to have been made by Orlake, presumably as a stop-gap; subsequent pressings were made by Decca or CBS.
A little later than scheduled, RCA opened its own pressing plant at Washington in 1970, on the 7th of May; the plant had twelve presses for 12" records and six for 7" ones, though the latter could be adapted to press 12" records ('RR', 8th May 1970). 'Billboard' of the 19th of December 1970 reported that RCA singles were to be pressed by CBS from December 1st, with the RCA plant manufacturing LPs only. The implication is that RCA pressed at least some of their own singles previous to that date, but the numbers must have been small - the dozen or so orange-labelled RCAs from before December 1970 that I have seen in the vinyl have had Decca-style or CBS-style matrix numbers. The change to 12" manufacture mentioned in 'Billboard' seems to have been incomplete, as 7" records released in 1971 on RCA Maxi Million and RCA associated labels such as Neon and Vanguard can be found as RCA pressings. Be that as it may, the production of singles must have been increased at some point as 'Music Week' of the 19th of February 1972 stated that RCA was manufacturing half of its own singles at that time, with CBS being responsible for the other half. According to the article a three-day shutdown on major electricity users had hit the company hard and had led to the cancellation of singles releases scheduled for the 25th of February. It also stated that no more singles would be issued until the restrictions were lifted.
The gossip column of 'MW' of the 20th of January 1973 hinted that RCA was planning to launch its own Reggae label, but the plans seem to have come to nothing. The 'Three-day week' of 1973-74 saw the company struggling to fulfill orders for its hit singles: 'MW' of the 26th of January reported that 500,000 copies of The Sweet's 'Teenage Rampage' were being specially pressed and imported, with dealers being asked to insert the plastic 'spiders' themselves prior to sale - RCA had tried inserting them before despatch but the process was taking too long. A month or so later 500,000 copies of David Bowie's 'Rebel Rebel' were being brought in from the USA, this time with 'spiders' already inserted ('MW', 23rd February). The problems continued until the autumn, with 'MW' of the 14th of September commenting on the import of another 250,000 singles from the USA, due to the shortage of pressing capacity. July 1975 saw a certain amount of cost-cutting taking place: RCA's van sales operation ceased ('MW', 12th July), and the artist roster was pruned, with the company releasing acts which had received a promotional push but hadn't gained satisfactory sales - Ducks Deluxe and Krisja Kojan were among the victims ('MW' 17th July). According to 'MW' of the 24th of January 1976 the switch from van sales to direct distribution had proved successful and was paying off. The possibility of closing the pressing plant was raised in 1976, and talks about redundancies took place in the summer of 1977, but the death of Elvis Presley in August of that year prompted a huge demand for his records and the plant won a reprieve. Sadly the reprieve proved temporary, and closure took place in 1981. 1977 saw the simultaneous re-release of Elvis Presley's sixteen No.1 UK hits, in picture sleeves - previous to the singer's death, I hasten to add; again there were problems with pressing capacity, and some of the singles had to be imported from Canada. That same year saw the launch of a 12" 'Disco Direction" singles series, aimed at the growing Disco / Dance market.
Despite its various difficulties RCA flourished in the '70s, with the likes of Elvis Presley and David Bowie shifting records by the ton. It played its part in the Glam Rock saga, with Sweet repeatedly hitting the Top 10, and registered a number of one-off hits during the Disco boom. It also had some of the big names in the Country & Western and Easy Listening fields on its books, artists such as Dolly Parton, Waylon Jennings, John Denver and Perry Como. The company handled a number of other labels, including Vanguard, Soul Train, Solar, Windsong, Grunt, Prestige and New York International (q.v. all). It had a dedicated Classical label, RCA Red Seal; a short-lived Progressive label, Neon; and, from 1969-70, a label for Children's records, RCA Bluebird (q.v. all). Throughout the '70s RCA issued EPs of million-selling tracks from their back-catalogue under the 'Maxi Million' banner; these had a special label and sleeve, so I've given them their own page (q.v.). In 1979 some other reissues - two-track ones this time - were given a special 'Golden Oldies' sleeve (30), but their labels didn't have any corresponding legend; some of them were numbered in a dedicated GOLD-000 series. In 1980 there were serious discussions about a merger between RCA and Pye. Michael Levy was poised to sell his Magnet Records (q.v.) to the new joint company and to serve as its head, but despite basic merger terms being agreed ('MW', 5th July 1980) the deal fell through ('MW', 30th August).
Early RCA singles had the usual tri-centred push-outs of Decca products of that period. At first there was no date on them (1), but the omission was rectified in May 1958, the year being put at 10 o'clock (2). Decca stopped doing tri-centres in 1960; in line with the other labels, RCAs singles began to have four perforations (3). The label name was changed to RCA Victor in December 1962 (4), RCA-1321 being the first record to have the new label; some popular singles can be found with both RCA and RCA Victor labels, the latter being later pressings. This redesigned label stayed in use until the start of 1969, when it was replaced by an orange one with a white logo (5). The logo was described as 'Ultra modern' in 'Record Retailer' of the 7th of February 1968; according to the article it was supposed to come into use when the company went independent, at the end of May of that year, but its introduction seems to have been delayed. After its introduction it remained in use until nearly the end of the 1970s. In July 1979 a couple of singles (PB-5169 and PB-5170) were given black labels in the same design as the orange ones, as shown in a scan which Robert Bowes has kindly provided (16), but the orange label remained in pole position until October / November 1979, when it was gradually replaced by a silver-on-black design which no longer had the word 'Victor' on it (18). This new label had the logo at the top and its perimeter credits moved. There was also a new, black, sleeve to go with it (31).
As far as manufacture goes, the few 1969 orange-labelled Decca pressings that I have seen in the vinyl have had a prominent raised ring starting 2mm inside the dinking perforations (5). These seem to have disappeared in November 1969, suggesting a change of manufacturer - presumably to a mixture of RCA themselves and CBS. As can be seen from the appropriate scan, singles manufactured by CBS (6) lacked the raised inner ring of the Decca products. The printing in the centre (7) was only done on a handful of labels. As has been stated above, RCA pressed some of its own singles in the early '70s, particularly ones in the Maxi Million series (q.v.); their labels are noticeably glossier than the CBS ones, and when the labels are perforated the indentations at the pointed end of the prongs are gentler than those on CBS products. The seventh and eighth scans are of the RCA and CBS pressings of the same single; they don't show the difference in glossiness but the difference in the indentations can just about be made out. For the sake of interest (!) here's a close-up. The CBS pressing is on the left, the RCA on the right. The pictures also show the difference in diameter in the rings around the spindle hole, the CBS one being 32mm, the RCA 25:
CBS continued to press the majority of RCA's singles until the spring of 1975, though Decca, Lyntone, Phonodisc and what I believe to be Linguaphone pressings can be found; after that time RCA's Washington plant took over from CBS. As can be seen from the label scans, there is a difference in size between the dinking perforations of the two main companies, CBSes (6, 7, 9) being wider than the 'native' RCAs from the second half of the decade (15). These later RCAs are visually very much the same as EMI's pressings; a look at the run-off markings seems to be the only way to tell between them. 1975 also saw the introduction of a blue-and-orange company sleeve (29), in place of the green-and-white one (29). Contract pressings of popular items sometimes resulted in records with large spindle holes (10) or injection moulded records (11, 17), all of which were manufactured by Phonodisc. Linguaphones had a steep bevel and a narrow raised area around the spindle hole (12), while Deccas had either a wider raised platform and wide perforations (6) or a 'polo mint' around the spindle hole (13). These 'polo mints' also featured on Pye pressings by Pye-pressed RCAs were less common than Decca ones.
As mentioned above, the vinyl shortage of 1973-74 led to several singles being pressed abroad, primarily in the USA. These were proper British issues, not imports of the American versions, and they had UK catalogue numbers (14) - they did however tend to come in American sleeves (35). Some American singles were pressed there specifically for export to the UK market; these had their original American catalogue numbers with an 'EX' appended.
In line with those of the other Decca-family labels, demo copies of Decca-era RCA singles were single sided until October 1960, the 'A' and 'B' sides being on separate discs (19). As was the case with the other Decca family demos, they came in plain brown sleeves (33). In November 1960 the practise was discontinued, and demos began to feature both sides; they kept the distinctive green labels (20). A black 'A' was added at three o'clock on the label from July 1962; this was replaced by a hollow silver / grey 'A' from September of that year, and the green colour got bluer (21). December 1962 saw the introduction of the 'RCA Victor' label; demo copies kept the large silver / grey hollow 'A' but the black print turned silver, presumably for reasons of legibility (22). With the occasional variation this design stayed in place until October 1968, when the blue-green colour was changed to pink (23) - the scan appears by courtesy of Mystdrf of the 45cat site. These pink labels lingered on for a handful of releases after the change of the issue labels to the new white-on-orange design in January 1969; they were replaced by issue labels overprinted with the appropriate text and a solid central 'A' that same month (24). In late February the solid 'A' was hollowed out (25); that layout was to remain in place for the remainder of the decade and beyond, though in late 1973 and earlyish 1973 around a dozen records were given a taller, thinner 'A' (26). The orange colour was replaced by black towards the end of 1979 (27). Late in the decade - or possibly in the early '80s - promotional singles were given a dedicated sleeve (34).
RCA's numerical system was something of a mish-mosh. After decades of a straightforward RCA-1000 series (which evolved into an RCA-2000 one towards the end of 1970) things started getting complicated at the start of 1974. The RCA-2000 series was replaced by two others: APB0-0000 and LPB0-5000 - the prefixes are explained in the note below. The APB0s consisted of singles that originated in America and were available in that same coupling of 'A' and 'B' sides over there; the LPB0-5000 series featured material originating in Great Britain. There was also an LPB0-7500 series: it consisted of records (by American artists) which were hadn't got American equivalents and were available only in the UK with that particular combination of 'A' and 'B' sides. Happily RCA's experiment with descriptive prefixes didn't last long. The old main RCA-2000 series was reintroduced in April 1974, after only four months, and the APB0s and LPB0s were gradually phased out. The last LPB0 came out in August of that year, the last APB0 in October. From around September 1974 a handful of American singles were issued with their American catalogue numbers, in the PB-10000s, but thankfully the practise was abandoned early in the following year.
That state of affairs continued until January 1977, when the RCA-2000 series were replaced by three main parallel PB ones: PB-0000, PB-5000 and PB-9000. Records numbered in the PB-0000s had exact American equivalents, and their catalogue numbers were basically the same as the American ones: thus PB-0768 was the equivalent to the American PB-10768. Records numbered in the PB-9000s had no American equivalents - if the titles on them appeared in the USA they came out in different couplings. The PB-5000s were peculiar to the UK; if they came out in the USA they did so on labels other than RCA. There were several minor variations on the PB theme: PB-5500s and 5600s seem to have originated in Germany, PB-6000s in Italy, and PB-8000s in France. 1978 saw the appearance of an XB prefix, which appears to have been used for material licensed to British RCA; there were also some FBs, which seem to have featured material licensed to American RCA. EPs and Maxi-singles had their own 'PE' prefix. In 1980 all these PBs disappeared and the RCA prefix made a comeback, with numbers starting at RCA-1. RCA issued hundreds of singles in the '70s; a rather holey discography can be found on its own page, here. RCA is still in operation today, as part of BMG. And if you've read this far, I can only admire your perseverance.
THE RCA NUMBERING SYSTEM OF 1974
For those among you who are interested in the vagaries of the 1974-76 RCA numbering system, 'Music Master' states that the first letter denoted the place of origin (A = America, F = France, J = Japan, K = Canada, L = London, I = Italy); the second letter indicated the label type (B = Grunt, F = LSA series, H = LSB series, P = Victor, R = Red Seal, V = Victrola); the third showed the product type (B = single, D = quadraphonic disc, K = Cassette, L = LP, S = Cartridge, T = quadrophonic tape); and the figure referred to the number of units in the set (0 = 45 rpm single, 1 = one LP / cassette / cartridge, 2 = double LP / cassette / cartridge, 3 = triple LP / cassette / cartridge). Thanks to the figure '0' often being represented by a capital 'O' on typewriters APB0 can frequently be found listed as APBO, but 'Music Master' says that the former is correct. Be that as it may, it can be seen that the APB0 numbers mentioned above belonged to American Victor singles playing at 45 rpm; while the LPB0s were London Victor singles playing at 45 rpm. Anything prefixed JRD3 would be a quadraphonic Red Seal triple-album set originating in Japan; etc, ad infinitem.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.