Fortune (detroit) Labels Question

SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
edited January 2008 in Strut Central
YoI know Fortune releases can be hard to date, because they kept pressing records and releasing them in the OG sleevesthrough the 60's, 70's into the 80's ... my question is,does anyone know when a light blue (LP) label would be from?Basically, I came across a white whale on this label, and wantto purchase badly, but don't want to drop real $$$ on a 70'sre-press, even though the re-press of this LP is almost as rareas the OG ... BSN mentions purple and yellow labels, but notblue ... the vinyl was *kinda* heavy but not super thick, and asthis was a 1963 release, I am skeptical - still, the 70's pressesof Nolan Diablo records that I have are on *really* thin vinyl andhave crappy blurry purple labels ... any ideas?

  Comments


  • SoulhawkSoulhawk 3,197 Posts
    they often just used whatever colored labels they had sitting around, making it hard to figure out which came first etc.

    what lp are you eye-ing?

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    they often just used whatever colored labels they had sitting around, making it hard to figure out which came first etc.

    i have two fortune records with blue labels - the 45 is an OG from the fifties, the lp is an '80s repressing, so itd likely be best to go by how thick the vinyl is, or some other signifier like font design

  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts

    what lp are you eye-ing?

    Nathaniel Mayer, "Going Back To..."

    I have sweated this album for YEARS.

    I may buy it no matter what, but it's not
    in the bargain bin, so I'd like to know
    what pressing I'm getting, if I can ...

  • SoulhawkSoulhawk 3,197 Posts

    what lp are you eye-ing?

    Nathaniel Mayer, "Going Back To..."

    I have sweated this album for YEARS.

    I may buy it no matter what, but it's not
    in the bargain bin, so I'd like to know
    what pressing I'm getting, if I can ...

    did you sniff it?

    whats it smell like?


  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts


    did you sniff it?

    whats it smell like?


    Like it was pressed between 1963 and 1980


  • SoulhawkSoulhawk 3,197 Posts
    as long as the vinyl doesn't feel like 70s dynaflex it's probably real enough

    you really never see the nathaniel lps, he may have been a little too raw for those doo wopper guys - though they liked the diablos really well & that why all the represses on their 2 lps.


  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    as long as the vinyl doesn't feel like 70s dynaflex it's probably real enough

    you really never see the nathaniel lps,

    He only had one Fortune album to begin with.

    he may have been a little too raw for those doo wopper guys - though they liked the diablos really well & that why all the represses on their 2 lps.

    ...plus all those later posthumous collections.

    I remember in the eighties when Fortune started cranking out newer reissues of older recordings (like the Andre Williams Jail Bait LP). The only problem was, in most places those albums were retailing for $10. That was a lot of money by 1986 dollars - most LP's back then for $8.99 at the most. One record store owner I talked to at the time said he wasn't buying any more for the store because of this.

    Hate to sound like Grandpa Vinyl, but that was the good thing about that period - here it was the MTV era, but even at that late date there'd always be some fairly inactive 1950's label like Fortune or Dooto who were still in business at the old address and still had their classic wax in print for the asking. The times had passed them by, but you could still get a Nolan Strong LP if you knew where to look. Sure, it fucked things up for the collectors who wanted OG and OG only, but hey, most small labels never intentionally made a collector's item, they wanted to sell what they had just as bad as the majors.

  • SoulhawkSoulhawk 3,197 Posts
    He only had one Fortune album to begin with.

    wrong

    LP-8013 NATHANIEL MAYER and the TWILIGHTS VILLAGE OF LOVE 1963
    LP-8014 NATHANIEL MAYER and the TWILIGHTS (GOING BACK TO THE) VILLAGE OF LOVE 1963

  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    He only had one Fortune album to begin with.

    wrong

    LP-8013 NATHANIEL MAYER and the TWILIGHTS VILLAGE OF LOVE 1963
    LP-8014 NATHANIEL MAYER and the TWILIGHTS (GOING BACK TO THE) VILLAGE OF LOVE 1963

    Yeah, I was gonna say - there are at least catalog numbers for
    2 different albums ... I've never seen the first, but I have to
    assume it exists ... I'd never seen EITHER until today, that's why
    I'm so psyched ... and curious ...

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    He only had one Fortune album to begin with.

    wrong

    LP-8013 NATHANIEL MAYER and the TWILIGHTS VILLAGE OF LOVE 1963
    LP-8014 NATHANIEL MAYER and the TWILIGHTS (GOING BACK TO THE) VILLAGE OF LOVE 1963

    Yeah, I was gonna say - there are at least catalog numbers for
    2 different albums ...

    But those are two consecutive numbers for albums with similar titles that came out that same year...I'm not saying anybody's wrong, but given the circumstances, I wonder if they just retitled the thing and put it out again with a new number? 'Cause that looks pretty shady.

  • SoulhawkSoulhawk 3,197 Posts
    they're different records - he actually even has a song called 'Going back to the village of love' - pretty blatant as far as strike-while-the-iron-is-hot cash-ins go

  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    I went back for it. I loaded up on store trade
    credit, so it was much easier to take. It definitely
    seems too thin to be a 1963 OG, although one of
    the only references I could find to the subject
    online had some encouraging news (too bad the link
    to the forum discussion is dead):

    Note: Some of the Fortune LP's were reissued in the 1970's. According to a discussion on The Record Collectors Guild webring http://www.recordcollectorsguild.org/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&p=267880), the original has the "deep groove" outer ring. Price guides list reissues as being on thinner vinyl but actually there is little difference in vinyl thickness between the original and reissues.[/b]

    So that's pretty encouraging, especially since I have a couple of
    the 70's Nolan Strong's and they are MUCH shittier pressings than
    this. The cover is definitely OG, the label has a deep groove, and
    the pressing is quality.





    Best of ALL, the sound quality is really high! I mean, it's a
    Fortune record, so of course the recording quality is still
    absurd, with the levels going up and down and one mic for the whole
    room, etc - but the sound quality of the pressing DESTROYS those
    Diablo re-pops, and even sounds much better than the CD I have of
    all this material!

    My best guess is that it's a second press, circa 1966, maybe released
    when "I Want Love and Affection" was making some noise ... it would be
    great if someone had a confirmed OG to compare. Regardless, I am psyched
    to have this LP - a real sweet addition to the collection ... I keep
    looking over at the cover ...


  • luckluck 4,077 Posts
    I was gonna say (but I just saw this thread) ... the deep groove, for a lot of labels, is a sure tell-tale sign of a pre- -what- 1967 pressing? Cadet was the same way with, say, the first issue of Afro-Harping, and we all know about Blue Note. Thumbs up, I'd say. No way that it's a 70s issue.

    The 45s are more scatter-shot. I have a tealish-labeled pressing of Eddie Kirk's "The Grunt" that's an OG. and several pink-labeled Strong/Diablos numbers that I considered OG, as well.
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