Century Records

Aitch1001

Columbia Class
Joined
Nov 19, 2020
I was a member of a band called Canticle and (somehow) had a single released on Century Records in 1970. The song was Dylans "Like a Rolling Stone" and the single number was 36685. We were from near London in the UK though, somehow, it was thought we were from London, Ontario. What I'm trying to find out is approximately how many (or so few) copies of the record were sold. Any help would be grately received as I'm trying to put together a history of the band for my curious grandchildren.
 
Hi Aitch1001 - I can only tell you that Century Custom records were generally pressed in very small quantities. All examples I know of are hard to find and collectible if the music is at least decent. I'm sure that the total quantity pressed for the Canticle would be less than 1,000 (probably much less). That's a guess, but a confident one.
The singing is very good. Is that you? :smyle:
 
I would think there must have been more that 1000 pressed as they keep turning up on eBay. Between my family and friends we must have bought 10....we never received any from the record company. No, I'm not the singer, he was pretty good. We were a folk group who entertained by way of fun songs and laughter, how we got to make this single is a mystery. It was even released at the same time in Canada on the RCA Victor label!
 

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speaking of Century, i think it would be high time to do a Century forum comp.

with the Secret Society sub-group, i was hoping we could use this as some kind of outlet for such things. of course we have been spoiled with mark's orlyn comp, but i think it would be super interesting to have such label comps.

for example:

Century comp
Raynard comp
Phalanx comp
...
 
I can understand the RCA release in Canada, that kind of licensing was not unusual. But how did your single end up on Century?

Century wasn't a company that licensed records from other labels. It was a custom-pressing option for mostly amateur groups, high school bands, churches, etc.

I could see if Canticle toured the US a manager might have some copies pressed up to sell at shows, but otherwise it's bizarre.
 
Somebody involved with the recording submitted a tape to Century and had some copies pressed. That's the way it went with the vanity labels.
The Century records I have don't specifically state so, but RPC releases (and a number of other vanities) have a disclaimer statement that the release was from tapes provided by the customer.
A classic Century example is the Things To Come LP that was released 10 years after its recording by one of the band members thinking he could cash in on fellow member Russ Kunkel's fame as a side man then. No one else knew about the record.