another flip

Sat Jul 2 07:00:44 UTC 2011

To quote the great Snagglepuss, Victor, ca.1959:

"You turn my record over! Like, on the _flip_ side!"

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

On Fri, Jul 1, 2011 at 2:48 AM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â another flip
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Flip n.2 6. 1960 --> 1947
> Flip-side (under Flip n.2) 1949 --> 1947
> Album 6. 1957 --> 1954 ?
>
>
> Under OED flip n.2
>
> 6. Abbrev. of flip side n. at Compounds.
>> 1960 Â  Â Melody Maker 31 Dec. 6/1 Â  The same can be said of the flip, also
>> featured in the film.
>
>
> I have not done an extensive search, but this one actually predates the OED
> citation for "flip-side":
>
>
> Â flip side n. the reverse, or less important, side of a gramophone record;
>> alsotransf.
>> 1949 Â  Â Down Beat 11 Mar. 14 Â  The flip side (South) will be a shade slow=
> er
>> but with the same general routine.
>
>
> Take a look at the 1940s Billboard. It's full of references of what bands d=
> o
> "for the flip".
>
> http://goo.gl/n6nCX
> Billboard Nov 1, 1947. p. 34
>>
>> Count Basie (Victor 20-2529)
>> Brand New Wagon--FT; VC.
>> Futile Frustration--FT.
>> ... For the flip, the band ensemble gives evidence of its closely knit bo=
> dy
>> and power-packed blowing for "Futile Frustration," an instrumental jazz
>> overture show piece rather than a riff opus for the hop and holler coteri=
> e.
>> ...
>> Sunny Williams Trio--(Super Discs 1030)
>> Reverse the Charges--FT; VC.
>> The Boogie Man--FT; VC.
>> ...
>> For the flip, it's the conventional rhythm torch in "Reverse the Charges,=
> "
>> with Williams making a romantic play in his piping. ...
>
>
> There are at least 4 more such passages in the same issue. October 11, 1947
> issue has more.
>
> Here's the question--what came first, the flip or the flip-side? Before you
> answer, consider that "the flip" might have been already in use for the
> bottom of the inning, for the second game of a double-header, etc.
>
> But... Catalog records (not just GB and WorldCat) suggest that this book is
> from 1943:
>
> http://goo.gl/DPqUa
> Experiences in journalism: a text for student writers and school editors. B=
> y
> John Emmett Mulligan. 1943
> p. 218
>
>> Eddie Fisher can't miss a hit with "He's My Friend" and the flip side
>> "Green Years." Eddie also has a wonderful new album "May I Sing To You."
>> Don't miss it!
>
>
> There is a small problem. OED has album n.1 6. only dating back to 1957:
>
> 6. A long-playing gramophone record or a set of such records.
>> 1957 Â  Â Gramophone Apr. 427/2 Â  That he was too little appreciated in his
>> lifetime makes this memorial album (another record is to follow) even
>> more=E2=80=A5important.
>
>
> And there were no "long-playing" records in 1943. Perhaps the scanned
> material if from a later edition of Mulligan's text. Sure enough, Green
> Years reached #8 in the charts and [He's] My Friend #15 in ... 1954. Good
> news--it still antedates "album". Bad news--it's not 1943.
>
> So we'll have to settle for both "flip" and "flip side" appearing in the
> same year (officially, at least, according to GB):
>
> http://goo.gl/32MKR
> The Billboard. July 26, 1947. p. 27 [full page ad for Mercury Records]
>
>> It's HARRY COOL at his best
>> 'Ragtime Cowboy Joe'
>> Flip Side
>> 'Who Takes Care of the Caretakers Daughter' [sic]
>> MERCURY POPULAR 3066
>
>
> The same issue has a bunch of "flips" (p. 31 is the first, but there are
> several more hits):
>
> p. 31
> The Billboard Music Popularity Charts. Record Possibilities.
>
>> I Have But One Heart. Frank Sinatra with Axel Stordahl Ork. Columbia 3755=
> 4
>> A plaintive Italian love song that looks to catch on because of Sinatra a=
> nd
>> Damone diskings. ... Damone's flip is "Ivy."
>
> Record Reviews
>
>> Charlie Spivak (Victor 20-2319)
>
> ... Tommy Mercer's balladeering and a bit of his own trumpet tones to carry
>> the side. For the flip, Spivak tackles a spiritual in "Throwin' Rocks," b=
> ut
>> doesn't know what to do with it. ...
>
>
> p. 134
>
>> Â Margaret Whiting (Capitol 2438)
>> ... Frank de Vol's ork creates the romantic scene here as well as for the
>> ballad flip. ...
>> James Wakely (Capitol Americana 40016)
>> ... Flip is a typical sagebrush ballad that sings the praises of the
>> outdoors. ...
>> Wingy Manone (Capitol B442)
>> ... Flip holds a watered down brand of blues with neither words nor melod=
> y
>> deserving the elaborate ork setting.
>
>
> The verb "flip" is also used here several times... I am sure earlier issue
> have similar references, but GB does not show any more copies. So, for the
> moment, it's 1947 for both "flip" 6. and "flip-side". It is possible that
> the noun flip developed from the verb flip, then overspecified in flip-side=
> .
> Or, possibly, flip-side showed up first and was then shortened to flip, as
> OED lemma suggests. There is more digging to be done on this subject.
>
> VS-)
>
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