From William Brown:
- Re. "Memories of El Monte": The first three labels of the stock version, and the "Advance Release" copy, bore label copy typesetting by Bert-Co Press of Los Angeles, CA. Can you advise if any of those copies have a stamped "H" in the deadwax, or if not, what insignia would be on the deadwax? Over the years, within the issue of this single, Original Sound 45's were pressed by Capitol's Los Angeles plant (which had a star in the deadwax pre-1964, and a six-star asterisk post-'64) and RCA's Hollywood pressing plant (they of the stamped "H" in the deadwax). The later pressings - the grey label stock copy and the promo with red type on a white label - were pressed circa 1970-71 by Columbia Records' Santa Maria, CA plant. "RE" would most likely be "remix" or "reissue." The Santa Maria pressings look like the lacquers were mastered by Columbia's Hollywood, CA studios.
- As noted above, the other OS singles with F-1 lacquer numbers and stars in the deadwax indicate the following: a) lacquers mastered by Capitol's Hollywood studios, and b) pressings by Capitol's Los Angeles plant. It should be noted that PB in the prefix (PB-2626/PB-2627 on "Tijuana"/"Grunion Run," PB-2628/2629 on "Mr. Clean"/"Jessie Lee,") indicated 1963.
- On "Tijuana"/"Grunion Run," Versions 3 and 4 appeared to have been pressed by RCA's Rockaway, NJ plant - check to see if there's an "R" in the deadwax. If there's an "I," it'd be Indianapolis. The fonts, however, seem more indicative of Rockaway. All other U.S. pressings have Bert-Co label copy typesetting.
("Tijuan"/"Grunion Run") Version 2 was pressed by RCA's Indianapolis, IN plant. There is a fundamental difference between Indianapolis and the Rockaway, NJ (Versions 3 and 4) pressings, in terms of their label copy, even though both used Varityper fonts. I am very familiar with how Rockaway did label copy type vs. Indianapolis. Bert-Co Press in those days did label copy type for both the RCA Hollywood plant and Capitol's L.A. plant. One difference is in the edges. RCA Hollywood pressings had the same type of outer record edge as on RCA Rockaway and RCA Indianapolis, while there was a curved edge on the outer end of Capitol L.A. pressings. RCA Indianapolis pressings generally had a machine-stamped steel-beam "I" at the 12 o'clock position in the deadwax. If an "H" was in the deadwax, it must've been a case of Indianapolis getting metal parts from Hollywood.
Hope this all helps.
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