It shouldn't exist, but I have it.

I decided to repeat this interesting item from the old forums:

I have a set of records which theoretically should not exist.

Back in the 1930s and 1940s, record companies actually offered their multi-record sets in three different sequences:

Manual sequence, for those with single players.

Drop-automaitc sequence, for those with drop-type record changers. These changers do not reverse the order of the stack as they go through it.

Slide-automatic sequence, for those with Capehart and throwoff record changers. These changers DO reverse the order of the stack as they go through it.

The slide-automatic changer disappeared very quickly after World War II began, because this kind of changer broke the records made of substitute materials during the war. People who had them usually disconnected the change mechanism.

So the slide-automatic sequence also disappeared very quickly. By the time the LP and 45 appeared on the market, there were no players or records offered in slide-automatic sequence.

A couple of multispeed players appeared in the mid to late 1950s or early 1960s which used slide-automatic sequence (probably unintentional, due to the mistake of not noticing that the changer reversed the stack until it was too late to change it). They were the Fisher Lincoln 70 and the Thorens TD-224.

So how come I have a set of 45 rpm records issued in slide-automatic sequence? Even more puzzling is the fact that none of the changers listed above which could use this sequence were yet in production when this record set came out.

The set is:

"I Love"
Monty Kelly and his Orchestra
Essex Records ES-EXP-111

To play the songs in the same order as on the 10'' LP version (and as listed on the jacket), the records must be played in slide-automatic order. This means reversing the order of the records by hand as you turn the stack over.

Even weirder is that the recording catalog numbers on the labels have you playing the second sides of the discs first, but still in slide-automatic order.

The 78 version of the same album was in manual sequence.

Something tells me someone wasn't thinking at the time they made this.

There is another multiple record album in my collection which has the side numbers labeled in the wrong order.

I have Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds (Columbia 35290), with the following properties.

- The records themselves are recorded in drop-automatic sequence, and play in the correct order when played in drop sequence.

- The musical passages are labeled in the correct order on the labels of all of the sides.

- The side numbers are labeled in slide-automatic order. "Side 1" has "Side 3" on the back of it, and "Side 2" has "Side 4" on the back of it. But if you try to play the sides in the labeled side order (slide-automatic order), the music plays in the wrong order.

Side 3 and Side 4 were given each other's side numbers.

So if you load Side 1 and Side 2 on the drop changer in the correct order, and then flip the stack when they finish, it plays the records correctly. If you attempt to play the records in the order the sides are labeled, the end of the piece plays before the part with the red weed, the parson, and meeting the artillaryman again.

The booklet has the musical contents paired with the order the sides should really be played in (but many people didn't get the booklet with used records).

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It reminds me of the 16 mm copy of the film "Earth vs the Flying Saucers", which our local independent TV station used to have, and which they always played in the wrong order, because two of the reels were labeled wrong. The film made no sense when played in that order.

I have another record album in a weird sequence. It is "Thank God it's Friday." It has 5 sides. The 6th side is a blank groove that takes several minutes to play. 4 of the sides are played in manual sequence first, and then the 5th side is played.

I figured out two possible reasons for the Essex record:

1. It might have been made with a jukebox in mind. The Wurlitzer jukeboxes made back then will play all sides of a multi-disc 45 album (if all are selected)in slide order.

2. Ristaucrat made a 45 changer that plays the records in slide order.