The BLUE PAGES

© David Diehl 1999
Updated 10/1/2001

ROYALE 1800/18000 series 10" LP's

These 10-inch LP's were produced by Eli Oberstein's Record Corporation of America from late 1953 through at least 1956. The catalog consisted of re-releases of Allegro material and pirated tapes from German radio along with masters from the old 78 RPM Sonora, Majestic and Musicraft labels. The Tops label, including masters recorded by the old Black and White label was acquired around 1955 and there was also a scattering of jazz material obtained from Savoy and the German Climax label. The American Federation of Musicians refused to sign a contract with Oberstein, whose new releases used instrumental backups recorded in Europe to back American performers.

The only label substitutions found in this Royale series are radio station specials for WBAL and WWDC. The list is complete through 18177 but most issues are culled from album covers. The oldest cover goes to 1825 and is undated. The next extends to 1875 with a copyright date of 1954 and the subsequent jacket covering up to 18115 is also 1954. 1955 takes us to release 18145. The penultimate list advances to 18172 and the finale adds Christmas items numbered up to 18179, both copyright 1956. Track listings and especially numbers found in the runouts of the discs themselves are still needed to identify re-pressings of earlier releases on other labels or in other series so please rummage around in your junk piles and forward information to ddiehlusa@netscape.net.

ROYALE 1800 series