Customer Reviews

American Premium Record Guide, 1900-1965: Identification & Value Guide to 78s, 45s, & LPs

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book starts with a contradictory disclaimer that says essentially:"We do but we dont, we will but we wont, we have but we havent etc..." This book contains a sampling of artists, not all artists. It claims some International content but I have yet to find it. Its only redeeming quality is the excellent label references and pictures that can date your records to the year (this too is incomplete though). I bought the book simply to confirm the date and artists other titles(basic collector info). This book is useless for that purpose unless you share the specific tastes of the author.

If you collect records by well-known artists or mainstream recordings from the 1960s-1990s,
this probably isn't the guide for you.

But, if you have 78s or obscure labels or titles, this is a great
addition to your record guides. When I was collecting more
intensely a few years back, I found that I ended up using about 6 different guides,
and subscribed to Goldmine magazine, a tabloid out of Iola, Wisconsin. Out of all of these guides together,
I could usually find out what I wanted to know about the records I was collecting.

When it came to 78s, though, this was the book that I always turned to for
information. I didn't always agree with what I saw listed as the value ( of course, I thought my records were worth more. Just look at all the guides till you find a price you like! ) but there
is a lot of good info here. It's worth looking at just to see the record labels
in the front of the book. I found that I could search through stacks of records while hunting armed with the knowledge of what were labels to zero in on for Blues, Jazz and the like, and if I could get the records
cheaply enough, it was often worth the gamble to buy them and listen to unfamiliar artists once I got home.

If you just want a price guide for mainstream music, there are better guides, like:
Jerry Osborne's Official Price Guide to Records,
Goldmine has good guides on 45s and records in general, and if you collect Doo-Wop try "Doo-Wop, the forgotten third of Rock 'n Roll" by Dr. Anthony J. Gribin & Dr. Matthew M. Schiff, and Warman's has guides just on Elvis and the Beatles (two separate books.)

The Official Price Guide to Records has 13 pages on the Beatles compared to a handful of entries in les Docks' book. But, on the other hand, I found a price for a 45 by the 1950s R&B group, the "Go-boys," featuring Dudley Callicutt, in Les' book and nothing in the other guides.

It's all a matter of what you're looking for. And if you have an artist's name, there's an index in the back.

This book has a lot of holes and should be considered a supplemental guide to the more thorough price guides out there like Rockin' Records. What I really enjoy about this book is how it indirectly communicates to the masses how small the percentage of 78's out there have any value in the marketplace.

Typical flea-market hunters will come across large assortments of 78's over years of hunting but will find very little of any value. They will open up this guide and look up their records and not find them or find that they have little to no value. It's refreshing to have a guide that will humble the amateur collector and not give them false hopes about the values of their records. Selling 78's in most markets is next to impossible. Most dealers are relegated to selling them online, which is not a profitable venture unless the records are established collectables. This book helps delineate such records.

It's hardly worth looking through the 45/EP/LP section with the other guides out there. The separation by genre is kind of unnecessary in my opinion. Also, it's true this book has little to say about international records. Russian and Chinese records are collectible but they are beyond the scope of this book. I can't really evaluate the high-end prices in this guide because I'm undereducated on the subject. Use auction results to help.

I would only recommend buying this guide to those who have access to either a real large quality 78 collection (hot jazz, pre-war blues, rockabilly perhaps) or a desire to understand the patterns of 78 values. You will NOT turn your grandma's collection or your garage sale find into cash using this guide (99 times out of 100). Consider this a supplemental guide for 78's only.

If you have discovered a pile of old 78 rpm records of your grandparents and would like to know their value this book is probably NOT the right book for you. As the author indicates, most of the 78 rpm records are without any value for serious collectors. In this book you'll find names of artists that you have never known... Yes believe me: Your Bing Crosby "White Christmas" is not a rare item. It's quite common. Enjoy such a record as a vintage item but not as a collectible record. This is what the author says at the beginning. So once again: Don't buy this book in order to learn the value of your Dinah Shore, John McCormack, Frank Sinatra records..

I cannot judge the values in the blues / rockabilly / country part of the book because I don't listen to such music. The values in the jazz part are in my opinion too low. Example: A rare Gennett in E condition (the book indicates the value of records in E) is very very hard to find and therefore the value is much higher than in the book. I have always paid more for a rare record than the value indicated in the book.

However, the guide gives you an idea of the value of a rare record and this makes the book a must for any serious collector.

As the other reviews noted, organizing the listings by musical genre instead of artist or record label was really dumb. If that weren't bad enough, the author also makes the mistake of assuming that all or most of his readers should be "knowledgeable collectors", and for that reason, common records are not included at all.
I picked up the first record from my stack, a yellow label MGM, by Billy Eckstine. What genre is he or she? Don't know. After looking through all sections, I never found this record or artist listed. Is it common or rare? I still don't know, and this book helped not at all.
From the introduction: "Following are brief explanations of terms and symbols used by collectors and dealers. Some are forthright and succinct. Others, attempting to define the various styles and idioms of music, are somewhat amorphous, if not downright evasive."....wasn't this supposed to be an informative 'Record Guide'?
Also from the introduction: "Those seeking information about hit or 'charted' records should consult other references". This reviewer agrees.

I have been collecting 78 rpm records for about 38 years.
I became aware of this book when I was given a copy (the 2nd edition) as a gift many years ago.Since then I have bought each new edition as they have come out.
I have not come across another guide for the collector of 78 rpm records which compares with this one.
It doesn't cover every 78 ever issued.It would have to be huge (and expensive).Left out mostly are the common 'pop' discs of the 40's and 50's.
Great label pictorial sections.
Another very nice feature is that all names used by one artist or group are listed at the beginning of that entry.
My only complaint is a lack of an index.(Earlier editions had one.)This is helpful since many artists appear in more than one section.Also,sometimes you might not be sure which section an artist might be in.(Such as Blues vs Jazz)
I highly recommend this book.
Thank you!

les docks has been the sole responsible book writer for pre war blues and jazz for a long long time.
his books are facinating.
his prices have always been absurdly LOW which he addresses in all honesty in the prelude pages.
his scans are fantastic! truly one of the best books you can own to start looking for rare records.
what it lacks and there probably good reason,is information about unknown records.but you can still see them pictured and hes finally admitting robert johnsons records are worth more than 50 dollars each! keep rockin les and id love to see the shellack shack someday!

Fine reference but horribly organized. The author has chosen to structure the book by genre of music and not by artist. In doing so, a particular artist may be found in several different parts of the book depending on what particular record you're looking for. Not only is this cumbersome, it's fairly subjective based on the author's definitions - e.g. is this Rockabilly or country? Is this Blues or Rhythm and Blues? The author admits in the Organization of This Book section that; "The inclusion of a given artist in a particular section is often a matter of arbitrary choice." Additionally, if you have an artist that you're not familiar with, say the Bang Boys for instance...where do you look? Jazz & Big Band? Blues? Country? Rock& Roll?, etc. It is a frustrating experience. To add insult to injury, there is no index to the book (which was the saving grace in the 5th Ed..)

The label references are very good and the actual valuations are beneficial and fairly representative of the marketplace. If the book were re-organized for easier browsing, it would be indispensable.....as it is, it's so-so.

this book will help you to know what your record might be worth. there is far more not in it than in it though. If your looking for ways or places to sell your records this will not help you.

I was looking for a guide to older classical LPs, so this wasn't really what I was looking for.