C.B.S./Sony issued a set of 5 double album LPs and I have numbers of
three as follows:
SOPB 55024/5 World's Greatest blues singer
SOPB 55026/7 Any Woman's Blues
SOPB 55031/2 Empty Bed Blues
the numbers are record numbers not set number.   I don't have the latter.

I need numbers for the following:
            The Empress
            Nobody's Blues But Mine
The numbers that I have given above suggest that the missing ones are
likely in the same sequence except that there is a gap of 3 between
55027 and 55031 so it is possible that one or more of my figures are
wrong.   If either of the two missing numbers come up the same as
those that I have listd please check my listing to see which is wrong.

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Request for Question Clarification by markj-ga on 26 Jan 2005 17:18 PST

lofty --

I own four of the five 2-LP reissues that you list in your question. 
They were all released on the Columbia label in or around 1974, which
is before Sony acquired CBS/Columbia Records in 1988.  The catalog
numbers of my four LP sets are entirely different from the numbers you
cite.

After doing a little research, I strongly suspect that catalog numbers
with the "SOPB" prefix were applied by Sony only to later pressings of
these LPs that were distributed outside the USA.  Indeed, a Google
search for online references to "sopb" and "Sony" returns hundreds of
"hits" on European and Japanese websites:

://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLB%2CGGLB%3A1969-53%2CGGLB%3Aen&q=Sony+sopb


This leads me to believe that it is possible that the two LPs that you
haven't found "SOPB"-prefixed catalog numbers for may never have been
distributed by Sony in the international market. ( Admittedly, that is
a guess, but it is curious that I have found the few online references
to the numbers you have only on non-USA websites.)

As I said above, I have at hand the Columbia catalog numbers for four
of the Bessie Smith reissues, and I can also provide you with the
equivalent catalog number of the fifth one from an online source. 
Would that meet your needs?

markj-ga

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Clarification of Question by lofty-ga on 27 Jan 2005 10:52 PST

I have details of all the US, England and Continental issues of the
set of 5 double album LPs.   CBS/Sony issued Bessie Smith items years
after the original issues and clearly it was the intention to reissue
all 5 in this particular series.   I suspect that they did as (a)
there would be no reason not to, and (b) the numbering sequence of the
Sonys strongly suggest the missing numbers.   I don't wish to acquire
anything, I need the Sony information for research purposes.