Al Goodman And His Orchestra

Al Goodman was a conductor that recorded a number of records for RCA Victor in the middle to late 1940s and possibly into the 1950s. Most of his 78 rpm records were issued as "albums" which looked like books and generally consisted of multiple singles. The albums had a "K" prefix, whereas popular was "P".

With the introduction of the 45 rpm record by RCA Victor in March of 1949 RCA Victor reissued thousands of it's 78 rpm records in the new format. Al Goodman's records were reissued as 45 box sets with a prefix of "WK" on blue vinyl. When RCA Victor introduced the 45 rpm record it "color coded" the vinyl which didn't catch. For example, country western was green, rhythm and blues was orangish red, classical was bright red and popular was black.

In 1943 Victor introduced its two digit prefixes for record numbers as it was running out of numbers by its old numbering system. The "52" prefix was almost exclusively for Al Goodman 45 rpm records except two original cast Broadway shows and one box set for Russ Case.

Below is a list of known Al Goodman's 45 box sets.

WK 1 The Red Mill WK 5 Selections From "Blossom Time" WK 6 Sweethearts WK 8 The Student Prince WK 12 The Desert Song WK 15 Rose Marie WK 16 The New Moon WK 17 Selections from The Vagabond King WK 18 Roger & Hammerstein's South Pacific WK 19 Miss Liberty WK 20 Selections from Roberta WK 21 The Chocolate Soldier WK 22 Naughty Marietta WK 23 Mikado WK 24 HMS Pinafore WK 26 Jerome Kern Melodies WK 27 Guys and Dolls WK 29 Strauss Waltzes

Many of the missing early numbers were issued as 78 rpm "K" series but RCA did not choose to reissue them with the advent of the 45 rpm record. --Global Dog Productions 03:30, 9 October 2006 (UTC)