The 78rpm Home Page - General Discographies

The Jazz Discography is available online or via CD-ROM!

This is the monumental work by Tom Lord. Anyone who is the least bit interested in knowing recording dates, personnel, which record companies and catalog numbers issued it, takes, material that was recorded but not issued, etc., NEEDS this! This work/tool is fully indexed and searchable and covers jazz releases on 78, 45, LP and CD. Over 51,152 leaders, over 247,298 recording sessions, over 1,423,691 musician entries and over 1,620,501 tune entries plus the online version is updated almost daily. Every field in the database can be searched individually or in groups with a selection dialog box.
Catalog your record collection with a couple of mouse clicks per session using the online version! Search and sort your collection, just like the full database! Go back and forth between your own collection and the full database for comparison. If you do not need to use the cataloging system it can be used to create a Want List of recordings you are looking to get. Either your Catalog or Want List will be neatly summarized and can be sorted by 6 different criteria, including Leader and Record Company. Subscribe today or give a 12 month subscription as a gift. For the collector who has everything to the collector who wants to save time to the collector who wants to know who is playing on recordings.

...Online

The Jazz Discography - by Tom Lord - The jazz listing reference!
Mainspring Press offers free discography downloads from John Bolig, Dick Spottswood, Allan Sutton, William R. Bryant, George Blacker, Brian Rust, The Record Research Associates & others.

International Record Company,
RCA Victor Program Transcriptions,
Victor Film and Theater Records,
Champion Records Identification Guide,
Star Records,
Historic Masters,
Victor Monthly Supplements (1904),
Sonora vertical-cut records,
National Music Lovers and New Phonic,
Phono-Cut,
Ragtime on Records (1894-1950),
Keen-o-Phone / Rex / Imperial,
Victor blue/green/purple (1910-1926),
U-S Everlasting Cylinders (1910-1913),
Indestructable Cylinders (1907-1921),
Ajax (US),
Columbia / Graphophone Grand / Busy Bee cylinders (1896-1909),
Vocalion 14000 series,
Columbia ethnic series,
JAZZ AND RAGTIME RECORDS (1897–1942) by Brian Rust,
OKeh vertical-cut

The Online Discographical Project has hundreds of thousands of 78 listings by label.
The LOC (Library of Congress) has a their entire collection of 78s listed on their SONIC tool online.
UCSB posted the Victor Red Seal Discography, available as a single PDF download
University of Wisconsin has their discography of the New York Recording Laboratories of Port Washington, Wisconsin: Paramount, Broadway, Famous, and Puritan.
Jazz Record Label Listings Project and history, mostly post-WWII, plus the BRIAN project (share discographies created with the Brian application.)

...In Book Form

American Dance Band Discography 1917-1942 (2 volumes) - by Brian Rust - Arlington House Publishers
Blues and Gospel Records 1902-1942 - 3rd Edition (a new edition is imminent)- by RMW Dixon & J Godrich (1982)
British Dance Bands on Record 1911-1945 - by Brian Rust and Sandy Forbes - Storyville, 1989(?)
British Music Hall Discography - by Brian Rust
Canadian Jazz Discography (1916-1980) - by J. Litchfield (1994?)
Collector's Guide To Victor Records - by , in collaboration with William R. Moran and Kurt R. Nauck III - Monarch Record Enterprises, Dallas, 1992). Read our review. He also has one for COLUMBIA!
Complete Entertainment Discography 1942 - by Brian Rust. Arlington House Publishers
Ethnic Music on Records 1942 - by Richard K. Spottswood - 7 vols. University of Illinois Press at Urbana
Jazz Discographies (19 volumes - 2 Modern, 12 Swing, 5 Progressive - thru 1980) - by Walter Bruyninckx
Jazz Records 1942-1980 (2 volumes) - by Jorgen Grunnet Jepsen
Jazz Records 1942-1980 (11 volumes and counting for the revision to the above) - by Erik Raben and Ole J. Nielsen - 1995/6
Joyce Discographies! Available here, here and here (One discog per artist) from Joyce Record Club Publications Division of the Metolius Music Company, Box 25802, Portland, OR. 97298. Telephone and FAX: 503-292-2281.
Moanin' Low - a listing of all female popular vocal recordings made 1920-1933 - by Ross Laird. Greenwood Press, 1997
New Hot Discography (Latest edition is 1948 - 3rd printing) - by Charles Delaunay - Criterion Music Corp, Publisher, 1963
New Orleans, The Revival - by Tom Stagg and Charlie Crump - Bashall Caves Publication, 1973
World's Encycopedia of Recorded Music (reasonably complete listing of ALL electric classical issues worldwide 1925-1955) - Greenwood Press
The Orchestra on Record, 1896-1926: An Encyclopedia of Orchestral Recordings Made by the Acoustical Process by Claude Graveley Arnold, C.S.B. - Greenwood Press, 1997
Almost Complete 78 RPM Record Dating Guide (II) (Mostly pre-1943) - by Steven C. Barr - Yesterday Once Again Pub., 1992
The American 45 and 78 Rpm Record Dating Guide, 1940-1959 - by William R. Daniels - Greenwood Publishing Group, 1985
Popular American Recording Pioneers: 1895-1925 by Frank Hoffmann and Tim Gracyk - Haworth Press, 2000
Date About all Those English Seventy-eights - by Eddie Shaw - published by the author, 1995
American Record Label Directory and Dating Guide (Post 1940) - by G. Gart (1994?)
American Premium Record Guide (1900-1965 values, 78,45,LP) - by Les R. Docks - 6th Ed. - Books Americana, 2001
Complete Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4 volumes of lists) - by Roger D. Kinkle - Arlington House Pub., 1974)

Some information courtesy of the late Howard F Rasch, Colin Bray, and Philippe Varlet

This list is by no means exhaustive. Additions/corrections welcomed.
Gary Herzenstiel