From the Bing Crosby Internet Museum message board this week:
If this is true, and Universal publically has denied anything was lost despite persistent reports to the contrary, this is a tragic loss of an important piece of American cultural history.
Quote:
| According to a well-known mastering engineer I'm acquainted with, who frequently works on compilations covering the 50s and 60s for labels such as Varese and Collector's Choice, the entire Decca masters from the '30s through the '50s were destroyed in the Universal fire. He says anything that was not previously issued on LP or CD is gone. That goes for Bing, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, many others. Here is what he said: quote: "Valuable" is an interesting word when used by record companies. "White Christmas" is a valuable song by Bing Crosby since it has made mega-money for Universal. But what about a rare single by Crosby that was only out briefly on a 78RPM record? That may not be valuable in the same sense, but it is a part of history that is lost forever. Anyone ever wishing to do a rarities collection by a well-known artist using songs previously unreleased would have a hard time doing such a project now. In the past, however, all these tapes were pretty much there. I think over the years, my success in finding tapes at Universal was probably 98%. That's pretty good. This guy knows a lot of people in the business, especially people who work in the tape libraries at the various labels, whom he has frequent contact with in the course of his job. This apparently is what they have told him. So we can all forget about any new-to-CD Bing Crosby material from Universal -- from tape sources, anyway. Better buy those new "Chronological" CDs from Sepia, because that's the only way we're ever going to get those '50s Decca songs now. The master tapes no longer exist. |
If this is true, and Universal publically has denied anything was lost despite persistent reports to the contrary, this is a tragic loss of an important piece of American cultural history.
