Crisanto, why are you obsessing about this? Companies have many internal references and codes that are not intended to be interpreted by the public and are probably meaningless after their original use. What do you hope to learn by digging up those numbers?
If it’s on an acetate, that’s a one-copy record made by a recording lathe for any number of reasons, often to send limited advance copies to anyone they wish. They were not intended to have a long-term use; an acetate begins to degrade after a few months.
Well. Looks like that code is stamped in all Dick James Music products (=both acetates and sheet music), so I was just trying to find if it could mean the company registration number…
I apologize if I have done an incorrect behaviour…
Registration for what? You won’t find anything on a record relating to the song copyright. Besides, of what use is that information to you? How is that going to help you with the original key?
If you want to know what it means, why not contact Dick James Music?
Well. Dick James Music was acquired by Polygram in the eighties, and Polygram was acquired by Universal after that (=I emailef to Universal, indeed, but no reply so far…)
The information is useful for me because I could trace the origins of the code for those Dick James / Northern Songs sheet music and acetates.
Of course, this doesn’t have much to do with musical keys so, if you think my last posts are wrongly placed on this thread, I won’t hesitate in stopping my discussion here…
Now, now, Crisanto, nobody’s scolding you except yourself!
I just can’t figure out what you will learn with those codes. Why do you want to “trace the origin”? The origin of what? The song? The record? The arrangement? Unless you’re an archivist who must know everything there is to know about a catalog no matter how trivial, why spend the time and what do you hope to accomplish?
Well. I have done much archival research due to my profession. I assure you!!
A code in an item I’m interested in, can’t mean nothing, or can put some light on it.
If all those Dick James Music items (=both sheet music and acetates) have the code TEM 1687/8, then it has to have a meaning (=perhaps the company registered number in the UK??). That’s all…
It apparently refers to the recording sheet used to document what was recorded during a session. The numbers starting with “E” refer to tape reels. I just picked up my copy of The Beatles Recording Sessions and coincidentally it opened right to a page displaying a recording sheet for a June 22, 1964 4-track to stereo mixing session, and “And I Love Her” was the first song shown. On this sheet, the tape reel number is E53123, corrected from E53122. The reel E53121 was undoubtedly used for the mono mix done earlier the same day.
When Dick James changed their address to 71-75 New Oxford Street (from 4th May 1964), the phone numbers “1610/1035” were added to the previously used “1687/8”.
