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----- Original Message ----- From: "D. Blake Werts" <[log in to unmask]> > The scenario: I've got a "few" Long Plays (LPs) and I would love to be able > to ascertain an approximate "release date" for each as I am populating my > collection database. The approximations do not need to be of high > precision--a range of 3 to 4 months would suffice. Barring knowledge of the > existence of an "Almost Complete 78 RPM Record Dating Guide" for LPs, I'm > somewhat at a loss as to how I might be able to find such information. AFAIK, there is no such animal...with the exception of owning, or being able to access, a complete backfile of Schwann's listings. However, most LP's will show a copyright year on the jacket (occasionally on the label as well). Since many LP's stayed in catalogs for years (or decades) one would have to search Schwann for the first appearance of each one. To further confuse things, record companies tended to change their numbering systems regularly...so that old items still catalogued would acquire brand new catalog numbers (and, occasionally, cover art as well). However, my first edition of the Guide was handwritten data in a school notebook...which I typed by hand on my trusty Underwood Number 5 machine, taking the results to Print Three to be copied (one sided) and stapled into "books" (well, sort of)...no digital devices were used! So, creating an equivalent work for LP records should be an easier (at the very least less laborious...!) task. All you need is about a gazillion or so different copies of the Schwann volumes... Steven C. Barr