Cadence Singles/EP Discography
Cadence started releasing singles in early 1953, with Julius LaRosa's "Anywhere I Wander." Archie
Bleyer, the owner of the record label, used LaRosa's birth date (January 2, 1930) as the record number
(1230) for his first issue. For almost the first year, all the Cadence singles were by LaRosa, and Bleyer
even used the same series to put out a couple of Julius LaRosa's EPs. When it finally came time to
release a non-Julius LaRosa single in October, 1953, Bleyer started a new series with 1420, and issued
"Foolish Waltz"/"Inca Dance" by harmonica virtuoso John Sebastian, whose son would found the Lovin'
Spoonful a dozen years later.
The 1320 series became the main series for singles, and the 1420 series was only used sporadically for three singles over the next three years. In fact, by the time the 1320 series had reached 1420, the earlier issues were forgotten or ignored, and new singles with those numbers were issued.
Bleyer later started a separate series for EP issues, the CEP-100 series, which lasted from 1957 to 1961. The extended play 45 rpm (EP) was popular only from about 1955 to about 1961, and in some ways was a passing fad, replaced by Jukebox 33 "little LPs" in the early 1960s. Cadence issued at least three of these jukebox 33s, but apparently passed up another of the late '50s-early '60s fads, the 45 rpm stereo single. They did issue a few stereo 33 singles, however.
As far as stereo recordings were concerned, there was no single date that Cadence switched to stereo recordings, primarily because Bleyer recorded in a variety of studios in several cities, each with its own equipment capabilities. We have tried to indicate with an asterisk (*) those single sides that have been issued elsewhere -- mostly on LPs -- in true stereo. For a listing of where these songs have appeared in stereo, please see the Cadence Album Discography.
The first Cadence singles label was a red-orange with black print, with "Cadence..." at the top. This label
started with the first single, 1230, but by 1232, Bleyer had designed a new maroon label (see below).
Not one to waste money, the label blank for the first label was used occasionally even after the
maroon label was designed, and is known to have been used at least as late as the early pressings of
"Hernando's Hideaway" on Cadence 1241. Early promotional versions of this first label (at right, above)
were on white labels with black print.
One commonly-asked question is, "Who was that singing with Andy Williams on I Like Your Kind of
Love? [Cadence 1323]. The label says that Andy's girlfriend is played by Peggy Powers, but I've
never heard of her before or since. What's up with that?"
