The New York Twelve – 1930

Here’s a recording from a Depression-era Hit of the Week record.  These were single-sided, resin-coated paperboard discs that, unlike conventional records, were sold at drugstores, magazine counters, and newsstands.

Hit of the Week was an attempt by the Durium Products Corporation (named after the synthetic resin on the records’ playing surface) to market records to a cash-strapped public at a time when sales were in free-fall, and labels were either merging or going out of business.

The company based its business model on the magazine industry, with weekly one-time production runs featuring currently popular songs.  The records were distributed through the same channels as magazines, and a new issue appeared every Thursday.  At 15 cents, they were the least expensive records on the market.

The company opened subsidiaries in the UK and several European countries, which issued paperboard records under either the Durium or Sefono labels.

In terms of the number of copies sold, Hit of the Week vastly exceeded the output of any other American record label.   But it was never able to reach the average volume of one million copies per week that the company projected would be necessary to sustain profitability, and it quickly ran into financial difficulty.

After falling into receivership, the label was reorganized under new ownership, which tried to revive its prospects by renegotiating royalty rates with music publishers, extending the records’ playing time to a full five minutes, and raising the price to 20 cents.

Unfortunately, with the economy sinking deeper into the Depression, the attempt was unsuccessful, and the last Hit of the Week issue in the United States appeared on newsstands on April 23, 1932.

The company’s British and several of its European subsidiaries outlasted their U.S. parent label, in some cases issuing paperboard records until 1935.  In fact, the Durium label in Italy successfully transformed itself into a conventional record label that survived until 1989.

“You’re Driving Me Crazy” is a Walter Donaldson composition that has endured as a standard, having been recorded by countless artists over the decades.

This Hit of the Week issue, recorded in December 1930, appeared at newsstands on January 29, 1931.  The New York Twelve was a recording pseudonym used on a handful of issues by different bands.  In this instance, it is Harry Reser’s band.

During the same session at which this recording was made, the band also recorded “Sweet Jenny Lee,” which appeared on newsstands the following week, credited as Reser’s Radio Band.  That recording of “Sweet Jenny Lee” was added to Radio Dismuke’s playlist a few weeks ago.