RCA Camden

RCA Camden was a budget label of RCA Victor created in 1953 to reissue classical recordings from earlier 78-RPM Red Seal releases. Initially under just "Camden", in 1955 "RCA" was added to the label name. The label was named for Camden, New Jersey, the location of the RCA Victor plant and headquarters at the time.

For any releases before 1955 or without RCA in the logo, please use Camden.

Releases from 1974 to 1978, issued by Pickwick under license are not to be tagged here.

RCA Camden initially reissued classical 78-RPM monophonic recordings from the label 458022 and RCA Victor catalogs on LP's as well as 45's. These included the finest performances of some of the major conductors and leading symphony orchestras of the previous decades: Arturo Toscanini; Eugene Ormandy; Serge Koussevitzky; Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops; Leopold Stokowski and the RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra. But the reissues typically did not identify the conductors and soon began to use pseudonymous names for the orchestras to avoid competing with new RCA Victor Red Seal releases by the same orchestras. After the creation of the RCA Victrola reissue label, RCA Camden ceased reissuing classical titles.

The RCA Camden catalog later reissued many pop, jazz, country, early rock, and children's recordings. It was also the home of RCA Victor producer Ethel Gabriel's Living Strings and Living Voices after the Living Stereo era.

In 1973, RCA licensed Camden releases to be reissued by Pickwick International. Pickwick releases included many Elvis Presley soundtrack recordings and pre-stardom Dolly Parton compilations between 1974 and 1978. At the same time, RCA also issued some new releases on the Camden label; RCA ended it's arrangement with Pickwick in 1978, primarily to regain the rights to the Elvis Presley titles, which had become enormous sellers after his sudden death in 1977.
RCA continued using the Camden name for some CD reissues until the 1990s; It is still used for certain budget CD reissues from the UK, Canada and Australia.

US Catalog LP prefixes: Catalog number prefixes are CAL for mono and CAS (or CDS) for stereo releases. In 1973, the prefix changes to ACL1 with ACL2 for double albums.

Argentina
The label is introduced in Argentine circa 1964, with prefixes CAL for mono and CAS starting on CAL-2900

UK
The label is introduced in the UK in 1958, with prefixes CDN for mono starting at CDN-101, manufactured by Decca.

Pickwick Repressings (1974-78): Pickwick reissues of RCA Camden albums were on the standard Pickwick label with the original catalog numbers (CAS or ACL/ADL minus the "1" or "2"). The upper perimeter print reads Made from masters of RCA Corporation. All rights reserved. with PICKWICK in boldface letters and BY ARRANGEMENT WITH RCA RECORDS under it, both in white. The bottom of the label had CAMDEN while the bottom perimeter print read Trademark CAMDEN Used With Permission of RCA Corporation in white with Printed In USA in the silver print used on the rest of the label

The vinylbeat link below provides four examples of US Camden labels: Red, hot pink, medium-blue inside purple margins, and light green sunburst into blue above and grey below. Beige Canadian labels and a light blue variant introduced in 1969 are not yet included in the vinylbeat.
UK labels with RCA Camden have 'Camden' in differing sizes, the larger size measures 3.75cm and the smaller size measures 2.8cm.
As there are often several versions of the same release it is important to describe the labels in detail, and include images if possible.

RCA Camden Orchestra Pseudonyms

In order to avoid competing with new recordings of leading orchestras, RCA Camden reissues of earlier recordings by these same orchestras adopted pseudonyms, including:

artist 289522 = AKA Thames Symphony Orchestra
artist 406285 = AKA artist 1964926
artist 395913 = AKA artist 3050276
artist 406281 = AKA artist 3477577
artist 838447 = AKA Star Symphony Orchestra
artist 2576208 = AKA artist 3985595
artist 269254 = AKA artist 3586063
artist 262940 = AKA Jewel Symphony Orchestra
artist 883641 = AKA artist 5411688
artist 915941 = AKA artist 2890059
artist 27519 = AKA artist 924178
artist 703271 = AKA "Seine Symphony Orchestra" on RCA Camden reissues
artist 432780 = AKA The Cosmopolitan Orchestra (2)
artist 317584 = AKA artist 3586073
artist 834226 = AKA artist 3075521 or Savoy Symphony Orchestra
artist 872098 = AKA Dominion Symphony Orchestra
Wiener Philharmoniker on Victor Red Seal as "Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra" = AKA "Danube Symphony Orchestra" on RCA Camden reissues
artist 834227 = AKA artist 4012067
artist 855421 = AKA artist 1416995
artist 1009447 = AKA The Regent Symphony Orchestra AKA Golden Symphony Orchestra

The RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra was a New York City pick-up orchestra drawn from members of the NBC Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.