The relationship of pre-1982 WEA catalog numbers to barcode numbers

In the "Making sense of 45 label catalog numbers" thread, MCT1 brought up some interesting points about the relationship between pre-1982 Warner Music catalog items and the barcode numbers to which they were assigned:

It so happens that several years ago I researched these "reassigned" barcode numbers, and made a few observations.

A certain block of numbers was reserved in each of WEA's catalog numbering series (20000, 60000, 80000, and 90000) for barcodes newly assigned to pre-1982, pre-barcode titles still in print. These titles were arranged within each series in ascending order of catalog number:

Warner Bros: Barcode nos. 27017 to 27459 correspond with catalog nos. 1001 (Frank Sinatra's Ring-a-Ding Ding!) to 6466 (T-Rex's Electric Warrior).

Elektra/Asylum: 60509 to 60691 correspond with 103 (Eagles' Hotel California) to 90004 (Heavy Metal soundtrack).

Atlantic: 81300 to 81598 correspond with 100 (Yes' Yessongs) to 29999 (Foreigner's Head Games).

Atco and associated labels: 90302 to 90441 correspond with 200 (Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti) to 76018 (The Best of England Dan & John Ford Coley).

Warner Bros. is indeed an interesting case in that the label was placing barcodes on new LP releases at least as far back as 1980 (in advance of other labels), and therefore not all pre-1982 catalog items needed to be assigned new "27xxx" barcode numbers. The earliest title I know of to contain its actual catalog number within the barcode is actually Bootsy Collins' Ahh, the Name is Bootsy Baby (which has a catalog number as far back as 2972), but otherwise the earliest examples I know of are in the late 3200 series. From there through the 3400s, it seems that titles either preserved their catalog numbers in the barcode or were assigned new "27xxx" barcode numbers on a case-by-case basis. By the 3500s it seems that titles preserved their catalog numbers in the barcode on a fairly regular basis, but there are still a few exceptions even then.

The entire chart of numbers I compiled may be viewed here.

Obviously, there are many breaks in the catalog numbers of these "reassigned" titles around out-of-print titles, different pre-1982 numbering series, and so on. Interestingly, there are a few breaks in the "new" barcode numbers as well. After the Frank Sinatra releases, the Warner Bros. barcode numbering seemed to skip straight from 27053 to the 27150s; something that seems more attributable to a clerical error than anything else.

Does anyone have any additional comments on why things were the way they were? Enjoy!

 

Oh my god.

And I say that with all due respect.

 

Crazy S***, huh?

 

Well, that pretty much blows the doors off of what I had posted in the other thread. I wasn't sure if anyone else had even noticed those "secret" catalog numbers in the bar codes. It never occured to me that they were in strict numerical order -- it seems counterintuitive to mash together different numbering schemes from different time periods like that.

Even if you're not into catalog numbers and bar codes, Andrew's work is an interesting document of which older WEA titles were still in print in the mid '80s, before the CD reissue explosion (though I actually wonder if all of these were really in print at the time, or if some were just reserved for possible future reissues, or perhaps technically "in print" because they were still in inventory, but not likely to be produced again moving forward). I also like the way Andrew has tracked which were later reissued under new numbers as remasters.

Based on the range of numbers Atlantic used, these were likely assigned around 1985 or 1986. It looks like the oldest-numbered album still in print in Atlantic's main pop series was The Best of Solomon Burke (catalog number 8109, originally released in 1965). Aretha Franklin's I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You was the oldest-numbered non-compilation album (Led Zeppelin's self-titled debut was second). On the Atco side of the house, Buffalo Springfield's self-titled debut appears to take the crown. I'm struck that very little of the material that Atlantic inherited from Stax/Volt seems to have been in print (unless it was available on post-1982 compilations, or licensed to someone else).

They couldn't have bent the rules a little and given Head Games 81599? I guess by this time Foreigner no longer had the clout to get those catalog numbers ending in "99"....

The latter appears to be the only remaining Big Tree title in Atlantic's catalog.

 

Yes, I am a numerically-oriented nut. (Didn't help me out in calculus, though. )

Incidentally, later on they did issue Unusual Heat as 82299 and The Very Best...and Beyond as 89999. For the latter, they must have anticipated it far in advance and started the 1982 single series at 89998. (Inside Information was 81808, which seems like it might have been something other than a coincidence; but that's where the regular numbering series was at the time anyway.)

 

I notice that the LP "27xxx" numbers were used also in the barcodes of the CD reissues of the same Frank Sinatra albums between 1986 and 1991. For example, the 1989 CD issue of Swing Along With Me (original LP no. 1002) carried catalog no. 1002-2 and UPC barcode 0 7599-27018-2 2.

I can't say if any of these LPs were ever issued with barcodes, but these are the CD barcode numbers for a few titles missing from your list of Frank Sinatra albums which had CD counterparts before 1992:

Orig. No. / UPC No. / Title

1003 / 27019 / I Remember Tommy...
1004 / 27020 / Sinatra & Strings
1005 / 27021 / Sinatra and Swingin' Brass
2300 / 27477 / Trilogy

(Two original FS LPs—#1006/Sings Great Songs From Great Britain and #1031/Watertown—were not issued on CD until after 1991, and they had UPC barcodes in the "9362-4xxxx" range.)

 

WEA was doing this with the early cd releases as well, not just lp and cassette. I was a manager of a full catalog record store in LA at that time. This was before anything was computerized at our level, so all the sales had to be manually written down. Especially on the cd longboxes, the kids (staff) were getting into the habit of going for the barcode number always. Which was fine, except for the WEA catalog releases. When we re-ordered we needed the official pre-existing catalog number. I ended up having to keep WEA catalogs at home when I would do the ordering, because I needed to cross-reference *frequently*.

Kudos for the extensive history of this. I had completely forgotten until I read the post.

 

They might not have reserved 89999 for all those years. Whatever had it originally would have been long out of print by the time The Very Best...and Beyond was released. Beyond that, the "reset" of the single catalog numbers at 87999 in 1990 may have ended any presumption that an 89xxx number had to be a single.

A quick google search suggests that there was in fact a 45 assigned 89999 in 1982, "Mystery Girl" by The Dukes. I'm not familiar with the song. It apparently scraped the lower reaches of Cashbox's top 100 but did not chart in Billboard.

I doubt that there is any significance to Inside Information's 81808. I would also wonder if Unusual Heat's 82299 could be just a coincidence (based on past practice, you'd think they would have given it 82999, especially as Foreigner already had 80999 and 81999). But someone still obviously remembered this "tradition" at the time The Very Best...and Beyond was released, so who knows? I'm a little surprised that they actually gave it that number, with the trend towards having a limited number of streamlined and standardized catalog numbering systems.

Did these have the original catalog numbers on the disc and packaging (1006 and 1031), or the 4xxxx numbers?

If the latter, I guess they had to use "current" catalog numbers for the UPC codes rather then numbers in the range originally set aside for older titles, since they may not have left room to expand in the original block of numbers. I was thinking about this when I commented that Andrew's list was an "interesting document of which older WEA titles were still in print in the mid '80s, before the CD reissue explosion". With the interest in reissues brought about by the introduction of the CD format, I figured that WEA probably went on to reissue some additional older titles that hadn't been in print in 1985. I was wondering how they handled UPC numbers for them.

Interesting story -- I have to wonder why they didn't just change the catalog numbers to match the bar codes (as some other labels did). That all sounds unnecessarily complicated.

I don't think there's any doubt that WEA used a common bar code numbering system on all formats. If there was any deviation, it was that vinyl LPs of older titles may have been slow to get the codes (if they got them at all before going out of print).

Incidentally, WEA apparently assigned bar code numbers to older reissue singles as well (e.g., Atlantic Oldies Series, Warner Bros. Back To Back Hits, Elektra Spun Gold), just as they did with older albums. As with the LPs, I doubt they added bar codes to every vinyl 45, but some titles were also issued on cassette or CD in the early '90s with bar codes on the packaging. I have three such Led Zeppelin titles:

"Immigrant Song"/"Hey, Hey What Can I Do" -- cassette and CD -- bar code number 84909

"Fool In The Rain"/"Hot Dog" -- cassette -- bar code number 84906

"Trampled Underfoot"/"Black Country Woman" -- cassette -- bar code number 84905

All three cassettes are in the same generic black and white Swan Song Records slipcase with a 1990 copyright date on the back. The artist and song names are printed on the spine. The front has a large sticker which identifies the artist and songs, and also has the bar code (why all of this couldn't be printed directly on the cover, I don't know, since the song titles are printed directly on the spine). All three cassettes are show as being on Swan Song on both the cassette shell and the slipcase, even though 45s of "Immigrant Song"/"Hey, Hey What Can I Do" were always on Atlantic. Note that the bar code numbers are in the Atlantic 80000 series, not the "Atlantic Associated" 90000 series. My recollection is that WEA marketed cassette and CD versions of its reissue series under the "Backtrax" name, but that name does not appear anywhere on these releases.

The CD of "Immigrant Song"/"Hey, Hey What Can I Do" is in a generic die-cut "Backtrax" cover, with the label side of the CD made to look like a red and black label Atlantic 45. The bar code is printed right on the label side of the CD, not on the sleeve. There is a 1992 copyright date in the rim print. My recollection is that this packaging was typical for those reissue singles released as Backtrax CD singles; their label sides generally resembled a "classic" 45 label from the specific record company in question, with all releases using the same label even if was not correct for the time period in which a given song was originally released (e.g., the label used for Warner Bros. was based on the '70s "palm tree" labels, even for songs that were originally released in other time periods).

 

No, in the case of those particular titles, the original catalog numbers did not appear anywhere on the CD or inserts. Catalog nos. were of the form 9 4xxxx-2 while UPC nos. were 0 9362-4xxxx-2 x. WRT Warner/Reprise Sinatra CDs, this practice appears to have begun in April 1993, when #42519 (Great Songs From Great Britain) was first issued in the US on CD. (The original LP, #1006, had been a UK-only release back in 1963.)

Side Note: Later foreign pressings of many of the Sinatra CDs use catalog and (identical) barcode numbers which match the US UPC numbers. For example, the Made-in-Germany Moonlight Sinatra has printed catalog no. 7599-27036-2; the original LP and US CD #1018 does not appear on the German CD or package.​

Also that month (April 1993), #45267 (I Remember Tommy) was issued on CD for a second time with a NEW catalog/UPC no. and a bonus track which did not appear on the original LP (#1003) or first (November 1991) CD (UPC #27019).

The other title I mentioned, #45689 (Watertown, originally LP #1031) appeared in August 1994. That one was probably Sinatra's lowest-selling LP ever (despite it being a musical masterpiece), which is why the CD issue was likely delayed so long. No trace of the original catalog no. on the CD package.

The last original Sinatra LP, L.A. Is My Lady (#25145 from 1984) was not issued on CD in the US until October 1997 (although Brazil and Japan CD releases came much earlier). It retained its original catalog no., but that was on Warner's (Quincy Jones) Qwest label, not Reprise, so it was somewhat different numerically than all the rest. (However, the UPC no. was of the 07599- series like the pre-1993 Sinatra Reprise CDs.)

There are still a few original Sinatra (or partly Sinatra) Reprise LPs which have never been reissued on CD.