Looking at Warhol’s cover for the EP Latin Rhythms by the Boston Pops always makes me happy. The drawing of the Mariachi musicians with so-called ‘sprite faces’, and the design are so beautiful and funny. This cover was only released as a 7″, in the period where  RCA and Columbia records were fighting a fierce battle of new speeds and formats for records (7″ – 45 rpm by RCA, vs. 12″ – 33 1/3 rpm by Columbia). A battle which can  probably be compared with VHS vs Betamax video tapes, or Apple vs Microsoft.

All four tracks were previously released on 78rpm records. Recordings were made in the 1930’ies.

Originally the EP with these particular 4 tunes had a different catalogue number: WEPR 25. Vinyl was translucent red.  This record is listed in Billboard, Oct. 25, 1952. This issue of Billboard, a newspaper for music professionals and retailers, by the way has a great 30-pages special about the new RCA Victor 45rpm Extended Play format which was heavily pushed in 1952. You can download it here.

Later the catalogue numbers of all ‘Red Seal’ classical EP’s changed from WEPR to ERA. In the Billboard issue of Jan 24, 1953 the Latin Rhythms record ERA 25 is listed. The same generic cover as the WEPR issue was printed in various colours. Vinyl was either red or black.

The version with the Andy Warhol cover was issued in Fall or Winter 1953. The purchase order from RCA to Warhol, kept in the Archives of the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, is dated August 3, 1953. So usually the actual release would have been a few months later than this date.

I have two copies of the Warhol picture cover, and I have noticed a small difference: one copy has the text  ‘A HIGH FIDELITY RECORDING’ printed in silver beneath the RCA Victor logo, the other copy doesn’t. Friend and fellow collector Richard Forrest sent me a picture of his copy, which does have the ‘High Fidelity’ line, but printed in green.