Brunswick Catalog Series

Brunswick Records: A Discography of Recordings, 1916-1931, compiled by Ross Laird.

The first Brunswick series were vertical recordings sold only in Canada between 1917 and 1919. The known range of this series was 5000-5293. These were the only vertical recordings produced by Brunswick. When the new lateral Brunswicks were launched on the American market in at the beginning of 1920 another 5000 series was produced (presumably on the basis that the earlier vertical 5000 series discs were never available in the U.S.). There is no connection between the two Brunswick 5000 series (and no masters are common to both series).

The following table lists all known lateral catalog series:

Table 3a:

Brunswick Catalog Series

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 * Single-sided

Table 3b:

Melotone Catalog Series

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Table 3c:

Vocalion Catalog Series

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For further details see the complete numerical listings in Volume 4. The complete numerical listings provide specific master numbers for each issue as far as is known (and this information is better than 90% complete). Some couplings which were never actually released are also detailed, but this data is less complete. It seems to have been standard practice for Brunswick to assign catalog numbers to each coupling before the recordings had even been made. In some cases no satisfactory recording was forthcoming and the assigned release was never issued (these are marked “CBR” for “cancelled before release” in the numericals). There were also cases of a catalog number being re­ assigned to other masters, and there were certainly a variety of reasons for some assigned catalog numbers not being released. Where no information is provided in the numerical listings (and where that catalog number is designated “+”) this means that there is no information available on what was originally intended to be released under that number. However, it is certain that there would have been some assignation made and previously unknown test pressings or information from other sources not known to the compiler may fill in some of these gaps in the future.

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Brunswick Records: A Discography of Recordings, 1916-1931  (4 vols). Compiled by Ross Laird. Reprinted by permission.