Greetings, I hope this is the correct forum for my question:

This record was pat of a bulk purchase from a Brooklyn, NY record shop that went out of business in the '80s, which featured a cool collection of soul and reggae 45 singles that I've been selling on eBay in recent years. This particular title is unsellable, but I'm really curious as to its provenance as a former record shop person! Sound quality is just OK and the singer sounds like a very young LeRoy Smart, not the wonderful voice you'll hear on YouTube or Spotify or the streamer of your choice. Shazam worked really hard (coughed & sputtered) to identified the singer & title, in fact I was surprised at the legitimate result, thus spiking my curiosity. Typical rough edges for Jamaican pressings of that era with absolutely no identification front or back, on any of the 50 examples that were included in the sale. Maybe it was pressed in Brooklyn? Among the 3,000 plus 45s I picked up and frankly forgot about while in storage, this was the most bizarre title, if you can call it that since it does not have a printed title. Please help me figure out who pressed this record and why? How was it marketed and was this a typical ploy to get around licensing issues!? Thanks for any help me sleuth this out, a non-spectacular find but a challenge nonetheless. Cheers!

 

Sorry but what are your questions specifically ? Is it about 'blank' or Pre-Release Jamaican music labels specifically or in general  ? Or about that Leroy Smart record only ? But then what 'title' is it ?

Thanks so much for your reply, I accidentally left out the title: "It's Impossible" by LeRoy Smart, but my question is a general one because I do not understand the blank label or pre-release (without a label/artist/title) concept. Or is it some kind of bootleg where the buyer writes in the artist and title to get around anti-bootleg laws? Was/is this type of record release normal? And why would 50+ copies end up in a Brooklyn record shop in the '70 or '80s?

OK blank labels are referred to as test-presses. Initially these aim to check quality standards, pre-releases with logo labels but no printed credits and infos aim to consider further releases or not.

In the Jamaica of the sixties and seventies the discos dee-jay reaction with the crowd enthusiasm or not dictated such further releases as much as air-play (that likely followed the discos one).

In Jamaica the production of tunes was utterly prolific (for such a small island considering....) and so many were pressed on such 'blank' labels or basic 'pre-relases' pre-printed labels at first for that.

Then later I guess more and more were pressed up purely as such for lazy, economic, and errors (numerous at these pressing plants) reasons but also at one time because it became a sort of 'hype'.

Giving some customers the feeling to be part of the "chosen few" holding something more 'elusive' only given to mythical dee-jays. This phenomenon became more and more trendy by the late sixties.

Some of those blanks got released with full-on labels but many didn't. Some with alternative flips, rare, rarer or not. Even few NY or Miam Jamaican based labels had some such 'blank' releases of their own...

Finally there is the prolific label's issue who know the back-side effect of giving their all their new releases all with the same labels to dee-jays that can't seriously only play few tunes from a same label in a row.

Anything at all in the dead wax?

It is this track presumably? released in 1978 on a UK Burning Sounds LP.

track would have been laid down in Jamaica originally I guess.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3Ysl71yphU

Another version appears on a Mixing Lab 7" , but this wouldn't have been released until the 90s, judging by the label design on other Mixing Lab singles:

https://www.discogs.com/release/4977063-Leroy-Smart-Its-Impossible

 

Many reggae singles did get US presses/ releases on labels such as Germain. So this could have been  a white label from one of them?

 

 

 

 

Thanks to both of you for your helpful comments above, I like a good mystery and this one is still not completely solved. The blank label/test pressing format for local DJ hype makes a lot of sense, but none of the Leroy's recordings available via streaming sound quite like the vocals on the 45 single in question. I love that the community has answered my question! I did list this on eBay with provenance unknown basically! Something about a reggae beat I find so soothing... yet dynamic... Cheers!

This is around on a white label. Could this Dennis Brown cut be the version you have?

 

Edited February 17, 20241 yr by Dukeofburgundy