Contemporary Catalog Numbers

I find it helpful to use catalog numbers as shorthand, but we need to be exact when doing so. A single title may have several catalog numbers associated with it, each corresponding to a specific type of delivery. So we need to use the correct numbers when talking about each format.

Contemporary Records and Good Time Jazz catalog numbers always had prefixes:

Prefixes:
C = mono (Contemporary ≤ 1959)
L = mono (GTJ ≤ 1959)
M = mono (both ≥ 1959)
S = stereo.

And we’re going to be using the term delivery to refer to the entire package delivered to market:

a delivery = a unique version of a record + packaging that is distinguishable from other versions through the use of specific identifiers.

Dissecting the number format

Let’s start in the middle and work outwards. Between 1959 and 1966, Contemporary used hybrid numbering covering mono and stereo variants of a title. For example, the title Looking Ahead! (1959) was assigned M3562 (mono) and S7562 (stereo).

Looking Ahead! was part of Contemporary’s “Modern Jazz Series” (35xx/75xx), but the label had several series, and when you combine all the shingles under Lester Koenig’s umbrella, you get:

  • Contemporary Modern Jazz Series (mono 3500 / stereo 7500 — continued to 3600/7600)

  • Contemporary Popular aka General Series (mono 5000/stereo 9000)

  • Contemporary Composers Series (mono 6000/stereo 8000)

  • Contemporary Classical Series (mono 6500/stereo 8500)

  • Contemporary “John Koenig” Series (stereo S14000)

  • Good Time Jazz Traditional Jazz Series (mono 12000/stereo 10000)

  • Society for Forgotten Music (mono 1000/stereo 2000)

  • California Records (mono 1500/stereo 2500 in theory)

  • Stereo Records (stereo S7000)

So let’s go back to our example, Looking Ahead!

Here’s where you’ll find the catalog numbers:

So we understand the differences between these numbers, and how they’re related. But when talking about the title in general alongside a discussion of specific versions (or deliveries) of it, we need our shorthand to distinguish between these where we can.

So I’ll use a more general catalog number to talk about the title from above. This will be the mono catalog number but without the letter prefix. Like this:

  • M3562 = the mono LP deliveries of “Looking Ahead!”

  • S7562 = the stereo LP deliveries of “Looking Ahead!”

  • 3562 = Cecil Taylor: “Looking Ahead!” (the title in general)

After 1966, Contemporary stopped releasing new titles in mono, the last being M3616 Here and Now. For anything after that, I’ll refer to them as below:

  • S7630 = the stereo LP deliveries of “The Way It Was!”

  • 7630 = Art Pepper: “The Way It Was!” (the title in general)

Ok, got it? We’re good. You understand. Now let’s go backwards in time and fuck it all up.

The Stereo Records problem

Stereo recordings made between 1956 and 1959 create a lot of confusion.

Until 1958, despite stereo recordings being put to tape at 8481 Melrose Place, mono was still the only consumer LP format. At the time, Contemporary (mono) LP deliveries held C35xx catalog numbers. For example, My Fair Lady, C3527.

From 1958 to 1959, stereo versions of some of those 1956-59 titles were released under the Stereo Records shingle with S70yy catalog numbers. (I’m using different xx and yy variables because they are not the same. Maths.)

So if you found yourself in late 1958, you had the choice of:

  • C3527 = the mono delivery of “My Fair Lady”

  • S7002 = the Stereo Records stereo delivery of “My Fair Lady”

Okay. This becomes difficult when, years later, Stereo Records titles were phased off the sublabel and given Contemporary Stereo S75xx numbering, the xx corresponding to the final two digits of the mono catalog number.

For mono and stereo versions of the title to then co-exist in the marketplace, the prefix for the mono release would also change (along with other design elements) from C- to M-, taking on the new M35xx numbering.

So, in looking backwards from the perspective of now, we need to keep track of several catalog numbers:

  • C3527 = Contemporary mono deliveries of “My Fair Lady”

  • S7010 = Stereo Records stereo deliveries of “My Fair Lady”

  • M3527 = (later) Contemporary mono deliveries of “My Fair Lady”

  • S7527 = (later) Contemporary stereo deliveries of “My Fair Lady”

And, once again, if we want to talk about the title in general:

  • 3527 = Shelly Manne & His Friends: “My Fair Lady” (the title in general)

This gets worse.

Ingest the above and then realize that each Stereo Records title was phased out of the sublabel at a different point in time.

3527 made the switch pretty early, 1960 or so. But some titles (like 3532 Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section) were phased off of Stereo Records much later in the 1960s or even the early 1970s such that the mono versions were never forced to take on the M- prefix at all. Others (like 3535 The Poll Winners or 3530 Way Out West) had their mono numbers changed from the C- to M- prefix even while the stereo delivery continued under Stereo Records numbering, only to make a staggered transition to Contemporary Stereo later.

Stay with me.

Consider, additionally, that a change in catalog number made to the jacket might occur before or after the same change on the labels. On a simple level, it might just be a question of which material needed to be reprinted first. But there is also the strange example of 3559 Bells are Ringing, the title caught between C- and M- mono numbering schemes. Its first jacket, which sports old C3559, was clearly designed/printed prior to its labels which read M3559.

Enough weeds. The one thing I need you take away from this is that a catalog number stated WITHOUT a letter prefix (eg. 3530) refers to a title in general, but WITH a prefix (eg. M3530 or S7017 or S7530, etc) refers to a specific delivery (or deliveries) of a title.

Thus:

[digits] = title in general.
[letter prefix][digits] = specific delivery or deliveries of that title.