CBS Great Performances

The CBS Great Performances (Critically Acclaimed Recordings Of The Basic Repertoire) series was a budget re-issue series released by CBS Records. Reissued by Sony Classical on CD with same name. A total of 100 reissues were released in the US between 1981 and 1983 on vinyl (MY 3xxxx catalogue numbers) and cassette (MYT 3xxxx catalogue numbers). The recordings were also released under the "Great Performances" banner several years later on compact disc (MYK 3xxxx catalogue numbers), from 1985. Although the catalogue numbers are sequential within smaller blocks, they do not stretch sequentially over the whole of the series, but break down as follows: [u]Series Numbers : Catalogue Number Range[/u] • Numbers 1-15 : MY[x] 36714 - MY[x] 36728 • Numbers 16-25 : MY[x] 37217 - MY[x] 37226 • Numbers 26-35 : MY[x] 37233 - MY[x] 37242 • Numbers 36-45 : MY[x] 37254 - MY[x] 37263 • Numbers 46-66 : MY[x] 37759 - MY[x] 37779 • Numbers 67-75 : MY[x] 37804 - MY[x] 37812 • Numbers 76-95 : MY[x] 38468 - MY[x] 38487 • Numbers 95-100 : MY[x] 38523 - MY[x] 38527 Previous release information was always provided at the top of the back of the uniform buff jackets on the LPs, and in various locations on the cassette inserts. The original recordings date to anywhere between the mid-1950s to the late 1970s. The vinyl LPs were each numbered, this number appeared on the upper left of the jacket front, and in most cases on the spine (in early releases, the number doesn't always appear on the spine - between numbers 1 to 15, only numbers 1, 3, and 7 are numbered on the spine). The numbering also appeared on the cassette releases and the later CD versions. The LP label generally bore the "Great Performances" banner heading as well, although a few unexplained variants have been found (see numbers 40 and 41, where variants with a dark green mid-to-late 1970s CBS label have been found, instead of the manilla folder-colored series-specific labels which are generally known). The original inner sleeves for the issues from 1981 and 1982 were plain white plastic-lined generic windowed sleeves. Most releases from 1983 appear to have originally had advertisement inner sleeves, plain white paper with printed images and text, which depicted simulated covers for the first twenty-five records on the front, and listed the remaining seventy-five on the back. These sleeves also included a clippable "Proof-of-Purchase" corner, and bore a copyright date of 1983. Each jacket boasted of "New Improved Sound! Re-mixed and re-mastered from original tapes, using the Dolby System - greater dynamic range and higher signal-to-noise ratio". The cover design for each release is attributed to Henrietta Condak (sometimes with an added credit to Peter A. Alfieri). Uniform red rectangular hype stickers were applied to the plastic outer wrap of the LPs of some of the later issues, with the motto: "Latest Release in the CBS Great Performances Series". Although some specific recordings were also released outside the US and Canada, it is unclear whether or not the series was comprehensively released in other markets (e.g.; Argentina, Yugoslavia, the Netherlands). More information is needed to determine this definitively.