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

Jennifer Warnes

Famous Blue Raincoat

1986 · Cypress Records 1C6 61111 (661-111-1) · Stereo · US (Columbia Records Pressing Plant, Carrollton, GA - plant code 57 on the labels) · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Cypress Records
Catalogue number	1C6 61111 (661-111-1)
Year	1986
Mono / Stereo	Stereo
Country	US (Columbia Records Pressing Plant, Carrollton, GA - plant code 57 on the labels)
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Pop/Rock - Vocal (Leonard Cohen songbook)
Producer	C. Roscoe Beck, Jennifer Warnes
Composer	Leonard Cohen (co-written with Jennifer Warnes and Bill Elliot on “Song of Bernadette”; with John Lissauer on “Came So Far for Beauty”)
Musicians	David Lindley (lap steel guitar), Fred Tackett (guitar), William “Smitty” Smith (Hammond organ), Bill Ginn (piano, electric piano, percussion), Russell Ferrante (synthesizer, courtesy of MCA Records), Jorge Calderon (bass), Vinnie Colaiuta (drums), Roscoe Beck (string bass, fretless bass), Michael Landau (guitar), Steve Forman (percussion), Bill Payne (synthesizers), Van Dyke Parks (synthesizer, accordion, arrangement), Gary Chang (synthesizers), Jeremy Lubbock (string arrangement), Sid Page (first violin), Barbara Porter (violin), Novi Novog (viola), Larry Corbett (cello), Richard Feves (bass), Stevie Ray Vaughan (guitar, courtesy of Epic Records), Jennifer Warnes (lead and harmony vocals); backing singers Bobby King, Terry Evans, Willie Greene Jr., David Lasley, Greg Prestopino, Sharon Robinson, Arnold McCuller, Kal David, Josef Powell, Tim Stone, George Bail.

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  661111-1-A C1 D G1 B3
Side B:  661111-1-B C1 E G1 A4

Condition

Cover: EX
Vinyl: EX

Variant chronology

1986 - US Cypress Records 661 111-1, standard stereo LP
1986 - US Cypress Records 661 111-1 / 1C6 61111, CRC club edition  <- this copy
1986 - US Cypress Records YD 0100
1986 - Canada Attic LAT 1227
1986 - Canada Attic LAT 1227 / LATC 1227, club edition
1986 - Scandinavia Sonet SLP-3106
1986 - Japan Cypress ALI-28023, promo
1987 - Japan Cypress 32XB-123, reissue
1987 - Europe RCA PL90048 / 206 418
1987 - Canada Attic CAT-1227, reissue

This Pressing

1986 Cypress Records club edition (stereo) - 1C6 61111/661-111-1 labels marked CRC, pressed at Columbia's Carrollton, GA plant alongside the standard retail stereo LP.

The Album

Famous Blue Raincoat grew out of Jennifer Warnes's long friendship and musical partnership with Leonard Cohen, whom she had backed as a singer since the mid-1970s, and it arrived as a full-album tribute built entirely from his songbook. Produced with her longtime collaborator C. Roscoe Beck, the sessions drew on a deep bench of Los Angeles studio musicians and arrangers, giving Cohen's often spare originals lush, meticulously layered pop-jazz settings. The record reframed Cohen for a wider audience at a moment when his own recording career had gone quiet, introducing many listeners to songs like the title track and Bird on a Wire in dramatically reworked form. It marked a career peak for Warnes, who had previously been known chiefly for pop hits and film themes, establishing her as a serious interpretive vocalist and song curator. Critically the album was widely praised for its sensitivity to Cohen's lyrics and its sophisticated production, and it is frequently cited as the recording that revived broader interest in his catalogue. It remains a benchmark covers album in the singer-songwriter and audiophile vocal-pop canon, admired as much for its sound as for its song selection.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. First We Take Manhattan
2. Bird On A Wire
3. Famous Blue Raincoat
4. Joan Of Arc

Side 2

1. Ain't No Cure For Love
2. Coming Back To You
3. Song Of Bernadette
4. A Singer Must Die
5. Came So Far For Beauty

The Label

Both labels carry a pink ground with a single black tree silhouette across the upper and left field and grey print, the CYPRESS RECORDS wordmark at the bottom, the catalogue numbers 1C6 61111 and 661-111-1, and the letters CRC printed beside the matrix line on each side - the club-edition marking that distinguishes this pressing from the plain-number retail stereo LP of the same year. Cypress Records operated 1986-91 and distributed through PolyGram; the ℗ 1986 line on the label is the earliest the record itself can date from. No deep groove is present on either label, a feature of this mid-1980s pressing design. The CRC marking and the 1C6-prefixed catalogue number place this copy in the record-club issue tier of the 1986 US release, pressed alongside but distinct from the standard trade stereo LP.

Fidelity

The album was mastered by Bernie Grundman from the original mixes, giving the record a clean, detailed cut regardless of pressing tier. This particular copy, however, is a Columbia Record Club stamper (CRC) rather than the standard retail stamper, and club pressings of this era are generally regarded by collectors as a notch below the ordinary trade pressing in surface quality and consistency. Collectors largely rate the original 1986 Cypress stereo LP as a strong-sounding pop production, with later audiophile reissues on 180g vinyl prized for quieter surfaces and a more refined cut; this club copy sits below both the standard original pressing and those audiophile reissues in the fidelity hierarchy.

Notes

This copy's labels carry the 1C6 61111 catalogue prefix and the CRC mark beside the matrix line on both sides, identifying it as the 1986 US club-edition stereo pressing rather than the plain-number retail LP. The runout codes (ending B3 on side 1 and A4/E on side 2) are distinct from the standard trade pressing's runout, from a separate stamper run for the club issue. It was pressed at the Columbia Records plant in Carrollton, Georgia (plant code 57) and distributed through PolyGram. The ℗ 1986 copyright line on the label is the earliest date the record itself can carry.

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