STARLINE - The Beach Boys on 45

USA

Collectables label

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Pink and black label

Dark Turquoise or Light Blue Labels

"Cema logo" variation

 Light Blue Labels

"Collectable Records Corp" variation

 Light Blue Labels

"Manufactured by Collectable Records Corp" variation

 

Collectables – an introduction

At some point in the late-1980s to mid-1990s, as is well known and documented, Compact Discs began to quickly replace vinyl and had clearly taken over the market forcing most major record companies to stop manufacturing vinyl records. And Capitol Records, who by this time, had closed their Los Angeles and Winchester pressing plants, and had converted their Jacksonville plant to Compact Discs, was now depending on outside companies, to produce new Vinyl Records, but only by “Special Order”.  

And as the vinyl market vanished, it began getting harder and harder to find vinyl records. One company saw this as an opportunity, and in the late 1980s, starting licensing and issuing many records, by many artists from many labels. This company was the Collectables Records Corp, which first began doing business as Nina’s Collectable Records, by starting a mail order catalogue for out of print and hard to find Vinyl records. Their endeavour met with huge success, and today, they’ve become the largest independent seller of reissue 7” Vinyl Records in the world. (they're on the web at www.oldies.com)

And like many of those other small labels, they began issuing the three well known Hite Morgan produced Beach Boys’ tracks. Those three are of course, “Surfin’”, “Surfin’ Safari” and “Surfer Girl”, (the latter two being the earlier pre-Capitol recordings). (Note: As a second track is needed for a single, “Laugh Laugh” by the Beau Brummels, became the A-side of one release, with “Surfin’” being the B-side.)

These early Beach Boys releases, which appeared in about 1985 or 1986, are commonly found on a Black Label, with the Logo which sometimes appears in either Yellow, Orange or Dark Orange. Yet, we have found an earlier copy of “Surfer Girl“ b/w “Surfin‘ Safari“ on one of the earlier Pink Collectables labels from about 1982. We believe an issue of “Surfin’” exists on this same Pink Label, even though it’s not surfaced. As for the B-side? Could be “Laugh, Laugh“ as well, but we‘re only speculating. If you do have it, we would ask you contact us at our email address, to let us know. So, the Pink Label appeared in about 1982, and was soon replaced by the Black Collectables Label in about 1985 or 1986.  

Moving on into the early 1990s, Collectables would begin negotiating with Capitol Records to issue some of the Capitol Beach Boys songs. By 1992 they issued 7 new singles, and paired up songs, which hadn’t previously been together on a 7” Record. (See 6002, 6003, 6035, 6036, 6037, 6038 and 6039 below). These first issues were contracted by CEMA Special Markets, and when they first appeared, were probably issued on the Dark Turquoise Label. Only when stock ran out, and reprints were done, were they issued on the more common Light Blue Label, which is still in use today. (We’ve been able to find BOTH Dark Turquoise and Light Blue variations in all of these early releases, so far, except for 6002--which doesn’t appear to exist for some reason). These first issues also had the curvy CEMA logo on the right side of the label (with the words SPECIAL MARKETS in very small block letters underneath), with an EMI Serial Number listed below it, as well. (We use the Collectables Serial number, which is on the left side, as it’s easier to identify and these first 7 have the serial number followed either by an “A“ (for the A-side) or with a “B“ (for the B-side). Those first issued in 1995 do not have it on any of the variations.). And on the bottom edge of the label, the address given started with “Collectable Records Corp”. The last detail to note is the date notation just under the group’s name. These early issues all appear to have it written as: “(P) 1992 CEMA Special Markets“--meaning with the “P” in a circle, and the words “Special Markets” in “mixed” case lettering.  

These first 7 singles became extremely popular and by 1995, Collectables again negotiated with Capitol Records and 11 new pairings soon appeared, again, putting Beach Boys’ songs together, which hadn’t shared a common 7” record before. (See 6279, 6280, 6281, 6282, 6283, 6284, 6285, 6286, 6287, 6288, and 6307 (why this last one is out of sequence? It’s anyone’s guess!!) (Also note: 6287 is the original pairing of “Little Saint Nick” b/w “The Lord’s Prayer”--can’t really pair those with anything other than another Christmas or Religious song--right?) And like those which first came out in 1992, the label continued to have the CEMA notation on the right side (with the EMI Serial Number listed below it), and the address on the bottom edge, continued to start with “Collectables Records Corp” as before. But the date notation was updated and appeared as (P) 1995 CEMA SPECIAL MARKETS--meaning again with the “P” in a circle, but now, with the “Special Markets” words all in “capitol” letters. And it also appears, these new 11 were only pressed on the Light Blue Label. But we do expect, sooner or later, for one of them to surface with a Dark Turquoise label!!

Eventually, with the popularity of these issues, reprints would be done again and again, and finally, in the late 1990s, Collectable Records Corp, would start pressing their own records in their own factory, rather than have them contracted out by Capitol-EMI. Thus, the notation on the right side of the label, soon changed from the “CEMA Special Markets” Logo, previously mentioned, to a new notation, to indicate the songs were now licensed from Capital-EMI Records. The new notation on the Right side of the label now read, “Under License from EMI-Capitol Music Special Markets” and kept the EMI Serial Number underneath it.  With this new “right side” notation now being used, it appears some older labels, which still said “Collectable Music Corp” on the bottom, continued to also be used. But the interesting thing to note, is at times, the date notation stayed the same, with the same lettering, but in some cases, now only the year appeared (ie (P) 1992) and in other cases, the date notation was now completely missing. We’ve only found a handful, with the “new” right side notation, and the bottom address, starting with “Collectable Music Corp”.

And why do we note this? As they continued to be reprinted, the records continued to show different variations. Now, all of the re-issues have the “Under License from EMI-Capitol Music Special Markets” notation on the right side, with the EMI-Serial Number underneath, but now, the bottom edge address reads, “Manufactured by Collectable Music Corp” with the address, since they’re now pressing their own records. And to take it a step further, the date notations have appeared in several variations, from having no date listed, to just showing the year, to showing the year and CEMA Special Markets wording, and now an additional variation on one issue which shows the date notation as “(P)1992-EMI-Capitol Music Special Markets” which had not been used before. Crazy or what?

For us to now speculate on how many “possible” combinations and variations could exist, is a little extreme, but we do believe, as time goes on, we will find more and more of these releases, with new variation combinations, which we haven’t posted yet. And we look forward to finding them, and sharing them.

 

So... let’s summarize:

 

Early Pressing (about 1982) on PINK label found for just ONE Beach Boys release--with Black ink on a Pink Background, which was soon replaced (in about 1984-85) with a BLACK label, with the same Logo, now appearing in either Yellow, Orange or Dark Orange.

 

Then in 1992, a new Label appeared in Dark Turquoise, which soon was replaced by a Light Blue label--and then continued in 1995, on the Light Blue label, which is still currently used. Here are specifics for the different variations:

 

1st Variation: Printed on Dark Turquoise or Light Blue Labels

- CEMA Logo on the RIGHT side of the label (EMI Serial # Underneath)

- Collectables Serial Number appears on LEFT side (1992 issues have A or B after, 1995 doesn’t)

- Bottom edge address notation starts with “Collectable Records Corp”

- Date notation is either  

 

2nd Variation: Printed on Light Blue Labels

- “Under License”..etc on the RIGHT side (EMI Serial # Underneath)

- Collectables Serial Number appears on LEFT side (1992 issues have A or B after, 1995 doesn’t)

- Bottom edge address notation starts with “Collectable Records Corp”

- Date notation is now:    

 

and the current issues:

 

3rd Variation: Printed on Light Blue Labels

- “Under License”... etc on the RIGHT side (EMI Serial # Underneath)

- Collectables Serial Number appears on LEFT side (1992 issues have A or B after, 1995 doesn’t)

- Bottom edge notation has “Manufactured by Collectable Records Corp”

- Date notation is now:   

 

So, like some of the STARLINE Labels on other parts of this website, there are a lot of variations and combinations which exist, and many more which we hope to be seen.  Happy Collecting!!