From the MCRFB news archives: 1963
JFK Albums in Demand for pre-Christmas Holidays 1963
By RENT GREVANTT
NEW YORK — Albums memorializing the late President John F. Kennedy are having a heavy impact on the pre-Christmas record album market place. At week’s end, manufacturers were claiming virtually around-the-clock pressing activity “trying to keep up with orders.” This condition was in marked contrast to that obtaining in connection with various single records containing material related to the recent death of the President.
Three of the fastest-moving of the Kennedy albums are out on budget (99-cent) lines and these appear to be getting the heaviest retail action at the moment. These are available through Premier Albums. Pickwick International and Ambassador (Diplomat label). Twentieth Century-Fox has an album out at $3.98 and a new firm Documentaries Unlimited also released a full price set, though it’s understood the latter is now selling at $1.98 at some locations. Decca Records is also in the race with the sound track to the BBC-TV memorial show, “That Was The Week That Was,” and claims strong action.
Premier got out first and was actually shipping five days after the event, according to the firm’s president, Phil Landwehr. He said that currently, 16 pressing plants are turning out the LP’s, which he indicated had now been shipped in quantities approaching 1,000,000.
Benefit LP
Premier and WMCA have agreed to turn over their royalties to the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation for Mental Retardation. He added that arrangements are being made to bring out a full-price ($3.98) companion to the current 99-cent item, which will contain the news coverage of the Dallas tragedy by a different New York station.
A spokesman for Ambassador records , what has a 99-cent Diplomat label LP containing a number of Kennedy speeches and comments, declined to reveal actual sales figures. “It’s just fantastic and that’s all they’ll let me say right now,” he commented.
Close to 1,000,000 copies of the Pickwick-produced LP have been shipped in the first six days of its release, according to the firm’s president, Cy Leslie. He said that shipments are going out from four depots now and nine pressing plants are in currently in mass-production action.
“We didn’t get into this thing until last week, because we didn’t want to see anybody get into it.” But when others did, we felt we had to go,” said Leslie. “We’re replenishing supplies at the rate about 150,000 a day. There is one difficulty, however. Many dealers are now going into a sort of panic or shock that they won’t be able to get a supply. So some of them are duplicating or even tripling orders — the same orders. In other words, when one order is filled, they cancel the others, so you can have a certain inflation factor.”
Solid Action
At 20th Century-Fox, which has issued a $3.98 list LP with numerous of the Kennedy speeches, label head Norman Weiser, said: “We’ve shipped 315,000 with no guarantees and no allocations. We’ve received a great response from Schirmer’s in New York and the whole Sears chain has come through nicely.”
Weiser said he understood the Handleman racking operation alone has accounted for 75,000 orders through its wholly owned ARC distributorship in Detroit.
Decca, which grabbed the the original TV sound track to the BBC-TV, “That Was The Week That Was,” memorializing Kennedy, also reports strong demand for its $4.98 list album. Decca, like most other labels with a Kennedy package, is turning a good portion of its proceeds over to charity, got a big column break from Dorothy Kilgallen, Monday, December 9.
Since that time, the company’s New York branch in Woodside, Queens, has been running orders all over the city by station wagon, while other major orders are being flown around the country. A spokesman estimated a possible sale of up to 250,000 albums by the first of the year.
Meanwhile, the activities on singles of the song “In The Summer Of His Years,” appear to be uncertain due to lack of any full-scale radio support for any of the disks. Versions now available are by Connie Stevens, MGM; Milicent Martin, ABC-Paramount; Toni Arden, Decca; Kate Smith, RCA Victor; Mahalia Jackson, Columbia, and Hettie London, Palace Records.
Late in the week, two other memorial singles appeared. One of these was by the Briarwood Singers, a folk-based vocal group on the United Artists label, who offered “He Was A Friend Of Mine.” At the same time, British actor-singer Tony Newley wrote and recorded his own tribute to the late-President Kennedy on his A Capella label. END.
From the MCRFB news archives: 1963
JFK RECORD URGE ON RISE
NEW YORK — The consumer demand for documentary material featuring the voice of the late-President John F. Kennedy indicated in last week’s Billboard seems to be intensifying.
The 20th Century-Fox label, which has an album culled from its Movietone News affiliate, “John F. Kennedy — The Presidential Years,” has received strong reactions to its package. The album contains actual news reel sound tracks of the inaugural address by the late President and other prominent speeches.
The label has done little to promote the album, but produced it for educational and historical purposes. Outside of initial calls to distributors (to let them know the Kennedy album was available) no follow-through or hype calls have been made., but the label has been inundated with high demand for the disk. END.
(Above two articles appeared in Billboard; December 21, 1963).
