The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I admit it --- I'm lost and confused!!!

I'm trying to arrange my HOW collection in consecutive order by release date. Is there anything available for free on the internet giving a simple list in this or any other order that makes sense? I've searched "Hit Of The Week Discography" and various other things, but can't find what I'm looking for. Also, unfortunately, the link James posted here on July 23, 2015 no longer works (so I can't see what that was).

I believe HOW catalog numbers start out as just numbers (like: 1156), but then at some point in production a confusing mix of numbers, letters, and sometimes hyphens is used (like: E-2-3 ; K5 ; M3-4 ; MM-4-5 ; M-5-A-1 ; etc.). I thought I remembered seeing somewhere that these numbers and letters stood for various weeks, months, and years(?).

Please help if you can. What order do you use (if any) for your HOW collection?

Thanks,
Bob

And while we're at it...please help me with a brain teaser, a conundrum that has puzzled humankind since the early 1930s:

I have a stack of Hit of the Week records on the table. I pick one up, and say to the collector standing next to me, "Hey, look at this neat Hit of the Week!"

He says, "You sure have a lot of those. But why?"

Do I say...

1) "Because I like Hits of the Week!"

2) "Because I like Hit of the Weeks!"

3) "Leave my house!"

PeterF wrote:And while we're at it...please help me with a brain teaser, a conundrum that has puzzled humankind since the early 1930s:

I have a stack of Hit of the Week records on the table. I pick one up, and say to the collector standing next to me, "Hey, look at this neat Hit of the Week!"

He says, "You sure have a lot of those. But why?"

Do I say...

1) "Because I like Hits of the Week!"

2) "Because I like Hit of the Weeks!"

3) "Leave my house!"

"Because I like them! Leave my house!"

Pathé Logical wrote:I admit it --- I'm lost and confused!!!

I'm trying to arrange my HOW collection in consecutive order by release date. Is there anything available for free on the internet giving a simple list in this or any other order that makes sense? I've searched "Hit Of The Week Discography" and various other things, but can't find what I'm looking for. Also, unfortunately, the link James posted here on July 23, 2015 no longer works (so I can't see what that was).

I believe HOW catalog numbers start out as just numbers (like: 1156), but then at some point in production a confusing mix of numbers, letters, and sometimes hyphens is used (like: E-2-3 ; K5 ; M3-4 ; MM-4-5 ; M-5-A-1 ; etc.). I thought I remembered seeing somewhere that these numbers and letters stood for various weeks, months, and years(?).

Please help if you can. What order do you use (if any) for your HOW collection?

Thanks,
Bob

I'm with you, Bob, I would also like a simple way to catalog my collection that would make sense. Like you I try to put them in consecutive order.......So I guess I'm not much help!

Iowa Dale

Sounds like the old Allan Sherman song:

Once I had a secret code,
Where A was B, and B was G.
G was K, and K was J;
And J was M, and M was P.
V was X, and X was V,
And U was I, and I was U.
87 stood for Z,
And 2 for T, and T for 2.
O was 12, and Q was 17;
I still don't know what those numbers mean.
That is how we won the war;
My secret code's no secret anymore.
H was 9, and S was 33;
Oh, how that confused the enemy!
Then a recent survey showed
That I don't understand my secret code.

From what I found out (also after having acquired dozens of them in one lot) the numbers precede the lettered ones, and they came out at a rate somewhat more than one per week, at least earlier on.

1929: 1019-1031
1930: 1031-1110
1931 (January-September): 1111-1162

After this, they switched to a letter for the month (A = January to M = December, skipping over presumably I)
October 1931: K1 to K5
November 1931: L1 to L4
December 1931: M1 to M5/A1

And in 1932, they added one more confusing thing - now each record has two numbers, for two consecutive weeks.
January 1932: A1-2 to A5-B1
...
June 1932: F1-2 to F4-5. As far as I know, that was the end, on June 22, 1932. I have that particular record and there's no special announcement or marking that it is the last one, but then again, why would there be?