RCA's label for the 'Children's Records' market. The material on RCA Bluebird consisted of a mixture of stories and nursery rhymes. It originated in Australia - the series was issued in 1968-69 there and ran to fifty EPs as opposed to the U.K.'s twenty. The dates on the British issues are the same as those on their Australian counterparts, but they were released later: 'Record Retailer' of the 29th of November 1969 reported that the first batch of ten had been released on the 28th of that month. The article says that some of the material would be recorded in the UK, but in the event this seems not to have been the case. The possibility of future releases coming out at two-monthly intervals was also mentioned, but they emerged as another batch of ten - a later issue of 'RR' gives a date of the 14th of March 1970 for them. The retail price for the first batch was 5s 11d. Those ten EPs were numbered in the BB-000s, but the initial '0' got the chop before the second collection came out. The date on the BB-000s was 1968, but that must refer to when the Australian issues were released; ditto the '1969' on the BB-00s. Sales must have been disappointing, for a note in 'RR' for the 14th of November 1970 says that all Bluebird EPs were to be deleted on the 1st of December after being on catalogue for only a year.
Copyright 2016 Robert Lyons.