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Feb 12, 2016

Collecting log: Unusual label error for My Hometown US 7" single

The seventh and last single cut from BORN IN THE USA in 1985 finally features the live version of Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town on a regular 7" disc (flip side) long after its promotional release to radio stations in the mid 1970s.
Unable to update blog these days because here comes a busy season towards the end of this fiscal year (March). In the meantime, early this month, I just found this US regular 7" single of My Hometown / Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town (live) (Columbia 38-05728) on eBay, and after a while thinking, bought it via "Buy It Now" option. At the first glimpse of a small photo on the auction page, I somehow recognized that there was something wrong with this vinyl disc, but just couldn't figure out what was actually wrong. Moreover, the seller did not mention anything about the error in the item description (he/she may have regarded it as just a defective copy, not as a collectors' item). So, I almost passed up this otherwise widely circulated stock copy of a mediocre collectible.

The normal copy (left) has the hand-etched matrix inscription "RL" [signature of Mastering Engineer
Robert (Bob) Ludwig] just next to a "MASTERDISK" stamp on Side 1 while the defective one (right)
does not, indicating that the latter disc is a second or later pressing.
How could this happen? I know little and have never thought about the manufacturing process of record labels. From this example, however, it is apparent that the printing process consists of two steps, the first being sunburst-background coloring and then typing various specific information including artist name, song title, catalog number, barcodes and so on (and this error occurred at the first step). Although it is not so unusual to come across LP and single records with typo, misprint or blank labels, I have never seen before this type of faulty production.


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5 comments:

  1. wbhist5/12/19, 4:16 AM

    That misaligned label at right gives a glimpse as to how 45 label sheets were laid out. For 3.5" trim labels as on styrene 45's, the bleed was designated 3.75" and such was also how they were centered on a sheet. I don't know if Pantone Warm Red or Magenta was used in conjunction with Pantone 123 to get that "sunburst" appearance on the label. If that right side pic is any indication, probably the latter.

    Meanwhile, at that point, label sheet backdrops (on which label copy would be printed) generally came from Keystone Printed Specialties Co., Inc. of Scranton, PA. The light tint outside the label area was usually 20% halftone, regardless of color.

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    1. manattop5/13/19, 10:07 AM

      Hi wbhist, thank you so much for your insight and info, which I never thought of as I am totally not familiar with these things. Very interesting!

      Delete
  2. Anonymous5/23/22, 7:49 AM

    Have you ever seen a Born in the USA LP with the same label (side1) on both sides? Canadian Pressing 1984

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    Replies
    1. manattop5/23/22, 12:16 PM

      No, I haven't. That's an interesting finding. There must have been such error discs in circulation for each album. For example, I own an early U.S. copy of DARKNESS (Scranton pressing) carrying the SIDE2 label on both sides. I also have a mislabeled Mexican TUNNEL LP with the SIDE 1 label on SIDE2 and vice versa, and so on. Although many collectors disregard defective items, it's funny to encounter and see such error printings during hunting and collecting!

      Delete
  3. Susan7/20/22, 2:42 PM

    The paper labels were in stacks. Somebody had to separate the sides and load them into the pressing machines, to plop on the top & bottom of the blob of melted vinyl (the size of a quarter-pounder). It's very easy to make this error. Then the stampers come down and press the record and it gets trimmed and slid onto a spindle.

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