Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the
pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead
wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep
with the record.
— Paul, Vinyl Curator
Helen Merrill
Helen Merrill
1955 · EmArcy MG-36006 · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM
Pressing details
| Label | EmArcy |
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| Catalogue number | MG-36006 |
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| Year | 1955 |
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| Mono / Stereo | Mono |
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| Country | US |
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| Format | LP |
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| Speed | 33 1/3 RPM |
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| Genre | Jazz - Vocal Jazz |
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| Producer | Bob Shad |
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| Conductor | Quincy Jones |
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| Musicians | Helen Merrill (vocals), Clifford Brown (trumpet), Danny Banks (flute), Jimmy Jones (piano), Barry Galbraith (guitar), Osie Johnson (drums), Bobby Donaldson (drums), Milton (Milt) Hinton (bass), Oscar Pettiford (bass & cello) |
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Matrix / Runout
Side A: YMG 36006A MF2 A1
Side B: YMG 36006B MF1 A1
Condition
- Cover
- NM-
- Vinyl
- NM
Variant chronology
1955 - EmArcy blue drummer-logo label, large logo, silver rim, deep groove, YMG matrix prefix <- this copy
1956-57 - Same drummer label design, later stamper generations (repress)
1958 - Mercury EmArcy Jazz reissue label
1971-1997 - Japanese Mercury/EmArcy reissues (various numbers) - no documented sale found
2019-2022 - Analogue Productions APJ 127 / CAPJ 127 SA audiophile reissue
This Pressing
1st pressing (mono, 1955) - EmArcy blue drummer-logo label, deep groove, silver rim, YMG matrix prefix.
The Album
Recorded over two sessions in late December 1954 at Fine Sound Studios in New York, this debut studio album introduced vocalist Helen Merrill to the jazz world in the company of trumpet prodigy Clifford Brown, with arrangements and conducting by a young Quincy Jones making one of his earliest marks on record. Merrill's hushed, breathy, deeply intimate delivery set her apart from the more forceful jazz singers of her era, and this quiet, spacious date became the ideal showcase for her phrasing, particularly on the ballads "Don't Explain" and "What's New." Brown, only months from his death in a 1956 car accident, plays with the lyrical warmth and melodic invention that made him one of the defining trumpet voices of hard bop, his obbligato lines behind Merrill's vocals treated as equal partners in the conversation rather than mere accompaniment. The album occupies a pivotal place in Merrill's career as the record that established her reputation as a singer's singer, prized for restraint and intonation rather than pop crossover appeal. Within the vocal jazz canon it is often cited alongside the era's finest ballad records for its unhurried intimacy and its integration of top-tier instrumental soloists into a vocal date. Critical reception over the decades has been consistently glowing, with the chemistry between Merrill and Brown frequently singled out as one of the great vocalist-instrumentalist pairings in jazz history, securing the album's lasting stature as an essential and influential title.
Tracklist
Side 1
1. Don't Explain
2. You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To
3. What's New
4. Falling in Love with Love
Side 2
1. Yesterdays
2. Born to Be Blue
3. 'S Wonderful
The Label
This copy carries the blue EmArcy label with the large silver drummer-and-record logo at the top of the label and a silver-toned rim reading LONG PLAYING HIGH FIDELITY, on a deep-groove pressing - the label design EmArcy used only in its earliest window before the logo was shrunk and the silver rim dropped later in the decade. The matrix on both sides begins with the YMG prefix, the mark of the true first mono stamper family for this title, as opposed to the plain MG-prefixed runouts of later repressings. This combination of label art, deep groove and matrix prefix places the copy at the top of the pressing hierarchy for this catalogue number, ahead of the mid-to-late-1950s Mercury EmArcy Jazz label reissues and all subsequent Japanese and audiophile editions.
Fidelity
This is an all-analog first-generation cut, mastered directly from the original session tapes at the dawn of EmArcy's high-fidelity era; the deep-groove pressing and YMG matrix place it ahead of every later stamper and reissue of this title. Collectors on the forums consistently rate the original EmArcy pressings of this session as sonically superior to the later Mercury/Philips reissues and the Japanese Trio pressings, prizing the warmth and immediacy of the vocal and trumpet on this early stamper generation. A 200g audiophile reissue mastered from the analog tapes is well regarded for quiet, clean surfaces and improved bass extension but is generally viewed by purists as a fine modern alternative rather than a replacement for a good first pressing. Within the album's fidelity hierarchy, this deep-groove YMG first pressing sits at the top, ahead of later 1950s/60s Mercury reissues, 1970s-90s Japanese pressings, and CD editions, with only the modern audiophile LP as a serious competitor for those unconcerned with owning an original.
Notes
1955 EmArcy MG-36006 mono - true first pressing. The blue drummer label with the larger logo, silver rim text, and deep groove are the hallmarks of the earliest variant, and the YMG-prefixed matrix (YMG 36006A MF2 A1 / YMG 36006B MF1 A1) places this copy in the first-issue stamper family. The blue-printed back cover and absence of any later Mercury or Japanese reissue markers further support this as the original US release.
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