Unusual Jack Hylton Record?
Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2023 12:11 pm
Hello everyone. My first post! I have been interested in old gramophones since I was a small child and have a modest collection of gramophones, phonographs and records and a lot of questions to ask about them. But to start with, I'm not sure if this will interest anyone, but I have a couple of 78's which are 'Advance Copy Not for Sale', issued by the Gramophone Co. Ltd. One is Jack Hylton's 'Just a Kiss', the other is Hylton's 'Shake a Little Shoulder', both from 1926. Both have grooves on the reverse, unlabelled side on which faint voices can be occasionally heard but nothing else. It is impossible to decipher the words. But more interesting is that 'Just a Kiss' has the matrix number Bb-9210, take 2. According to Brian Rust, only take 1 was issued commercially, so this second take seems to be a bit of a rarity. I don't have a copy of take 1 so can't compare the two takes, although I would be surprised if there were any obvious differences as there is no improvisation in the performance. My copy of 'Shake a Little Shoulder' is Bb-9211, take 2, and Rust says both 1 and 2 were eventually issued. Unfortunately, both tracks are rather dull and don't rank among Hylton's best recordings. Any comments welcome!