by Stephen M.H. Braitman

Song publishers realized early that every home with a piano in the parlor also contained a potential customer. Before radio and records, music was performed in the home. By the 1880s, with the popularity of minstrel shows and vaudeville, an increasing number of songs were introduced to a welcoming public. Tin Pan Alley and other songwriting mills churned out novelty tunes, ballads, ethnic parodies and topical songs at an astonishing rate. It’s been estimated that between 1900 and 1910, there were 25,000 songs — with sheet music — being published annually.

For collectors, there’s an almost infinite well to draw upon. Although the heyday of sheet-music production was before World War II and before records became the preferred method of listening to music, there has been constant publication of sheet music up to the present day.

Everyone from Bruce Springsteen to The Sex Pistols has had sheet music published. In fact, sheet music for the body of rock since Elvis Presley is prodigious, though not catalogued to the degree that vinyl has been. Only specialty areas, such as The Beatles, have seen serious attempts to chart the sheet-music landscape, so to speak.

The Basics

Sheet music is actually a portfolio, generally one large folded sheet of four pages, sometimes with additional single sheets inside, depending on the length of the song. Most pop songs are four or six pages. Anything bound, with more than one song, is a songbook, not sheet music.

Specialist Sandy Marrone has collected for more than 35 years. Her take on the typical sheet-music collector is that their focus is on topic — commonly collected subjects include children, racial stereotypes, ladies/fashion, celebrities/performers, food, caricatures/cartoons, romance and soldiers/war. “The song,” she says, “is the least important aspect of their interest. The song’s topic is of equal importance to the composer or performer in the realm of what is most collectible. Image comes last as it relates to topical collecting.”

Ironically, some of the most artistic images on classic sheet music belong to sheets that are relatively common. Many famous songs, such as “Stardust” and “Over The Rainbow,” sold hundreds of thousands of copies. They look fantastic, but they’re not highly valued. “Interest and value rests mostly on rarity, of course,” says Marrone.

This shouldn’t deter anyone from starting to collect sheet music. The primary rule, of course, is to collect what delights you. The best way to start would be to buy a whole bunch at once and sift through it to find what you’re really interested in. eBay is quite good for beginners, since a lot of old and good sheet music is offered in bulk. You can end up with fifty or more pieces in one winning bid and spend less than $100 sometimes.

Or buy boxes at flea markets, suggests Marrone. You can also find sheet music listed on craigslist or advertised locally. “Mainly,” cautions Marrone, “you should not pay much, because what looks good to you may be the most common music around!” The more you see, the more you’ll know what’s around, what’s common and what’s something you should grab quick!

Remember, it should be fun. Investment potential comes later, with effort and education. “I like to see people find some offbeat categories that connect somehow to their lives,” says Marrone. “A person who works in finance could gather money-related music, having to do with that subject as well as the aspects of being rich, poor, etc.” (Note: The sheet music to “Money” by The Beatles is worth $50.)

A Look at Some Values

Here is Marrone’s list of the five most valuable sheet-music pieces — each could easily bring four-figure prices:

• Francis Scott Key/John Stafford Smith, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The very first edition is worth a huge sum.
• George Gershwin, “Rhapsody In Blue.” The cover is variations of red and blue, not the “grey flannel” edition, which many perceive as the first edition.
• Irving Berlin, “Marie From Sunny Italy.” Berlin’s first song was published in 1907.
• J.H. Kalbfleisch, “Live Oak Polka.” An early (1860) baseball sheet with a superb horizontal color illustration on its cover.
• Scott Joplin, “The Original Maple Leaf Rag.” The rare one depicts two black couples out for a stroll — the edition picturing a maple leaf is common and not worth much.
• Marrone also mentions that collectors of rock sheet music have pushed up prices for rockabilly, doo-wop, ’50s black groups, classic rock, Motown and black girl groups. “Especially desirable from the ’60s are The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and one-hit wonders such as The Seeds.”
• “Have Mercy Baby” by The Dominoes is one of the most sought-after rock sheets and has sold well into four figures.

Paul Riseman is one of the few national dealers who holds sheet-music auctions on a regular basis. Check his Web site (www.riseman.com) to see how much variety there is in the world of sheet music. His auctions attract hard-core collectors as well as beginners, and there are great bargains to be had for both pre-rock and 1950s and ’60s sheet music. Here are some notable rock results from his August auction:

• Bobby Vee, “Take Good Care Of My Baby,” $60.50
• Buddy Holly, “Peggy Sue,” $22
• Elvis Presley, “Welcome To My World,” $45.93
• Jack Scott, “Goodbye Baby,” $10
• The Rip Chords, “Three Window Coupe,” $27.52
• The Turtles, “You Know What I Mean,” $11

By contrast, here are some recent eBay results:

• Davy Jones & The Kingbees (David Bowie’s first group), “Liza Jane,” $260
• Pink Floyd, “Arnold Layne (the first Pink Floyd single),” $250
• The Beatles, “Love Me Do” (the first Beatles sheet music), $255 and $125
• The Fairies, “Get Yourself Home” $265 — this is rare freakbeat from 1965; the vinyl single is worth twice this amount.
• Duane Eddy, “40 Miles of Bad Road,” $25
• Martha & The Vandellas, “I’m Ready For Love,” $51
• The Bobbettes, “Mr. Lee,” $57
• The Supremes, a lot of eight different pieces of sheet music, $81

Of course, in the world of rock, sheet music is still a brave new world.

Stephen M.H. Braitman is a music appraiser (www.MusicAppraisals.com), writer, collector, and fan.

References
Sandy Marrone, smusandy@aol.com, phone: (856) 829-6104
Paul Riseman, riseman@riseman.com, www.riseman.com, phone: (217) 787-2634
Beatles Sheet Music Reference and Price Guide: www.rarebeatles.com/sheetmu/sheetmu.htm
“Perfessor” Bill Edwards Guide to Ragtime and Old-Time Piano Sheet Music Cover Art History: www.perfessorbill.com/ragtime9.shtml
The Library of Congress Historic American Sheet Music Collection: memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/ncdhtml/
Sheet Music Collections Online: www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/su/cja/sheetmusic.html
Sheet Music Plus (new sheet music): www.sheetmusicplus.com/

Click here to check out the latest price guides from Goldmine

On the heels of its first successful sports and entertainment sale in June, Collect.com Auctions has announced its first forays into the world of antiques and music memorabilia.

The recently formed auction house, owned by Krause Publications (publishers of Goldmine), started out with a sale primarily focused on sports, but the sale also included music and memorabilia items, including a lot of four autographed Chuck Berry records which sold for $585 and a drum head signed by the members of AC/DC — Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Brian Johnson, Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd — which went for $117. (Prices include a buyer’s premium of 17 percent.)

“We were very happy with the quality of consignments we secured for our debut auction,” said Steve Bloedow, director of Collect.com Auctions.  “We reach more than 100,000 collectors through our publications, Web sites and e-mail newsletters and we continue to reach new buyers every day.”

 The company’s second auction, which will run Aug. 10-27, also includes more than a dozen lots of collectible vinyl and music memorabilia, including guitars signed by Chuck Berry, B.B. King and Michael Jackson; a 1964 set of O-Pee-Chee trading cards depicting The Beatles; and roadies jackets from tours with Jackson, Elton John and Prince.

Consigner interest in music and memorabilia items has been high enough that Collect.com has added a music and music memorabilia auction to its schedule for November, following closely after its antiques and collectibles auction scheduled to run Oct. 19 through Nov. 5. The consignment deadline for the music auction is Sept. 23.

For more information about past or upcoming sales or about consigning items with Collect.com Auctions, call 888-463-3063 or visit www.collect.com/auctions.

Van Der Graaf Generator, wrote the editors of the “New Musical Express Book Of Rock” in 1975, “failed to make much of an impression on [the] British public. However they managed to accrue a small, but dedicated cult following for their heavy, doomy music.”

It was not much of an epitaph for what that same small cult following would have declared was one of the most ambitious, adventurous and, above all, challenging rock bands of the early 1970s. But VDGG had broken up a full three years earlier, and anybody still mourning the group’s demise was at least left with frontman Peter Hammill’s dogged pursuit of similar musical ends.

In fact, what was then his most recent album, 1975’s Nadir’s Big Chance, included a reprise of the very first song the band ever released, the 1968 single “People You Were Going To,” in whose lyrics could be found a virtual template for every critic’s own perception of the group:

“The people in the downstairs flat
are no longer there now because they left
the gas tap on, they’re all dead.
So you’ve no-one left to talk to….”

And that was the band’s first single. By the time they reached the end, four years and four albums later, they had more or less set to music every conceivable method of extinguishing life, hope and existence that you could dream of. The final words of the final track of that final album were “all things are apart.” Weeks later, the group split up.

They would return. No sooner had the “Book of Rock” gone to press than the group was back with a new LP and a blistering rebirth that threw up another four albums (plus a live souvenir). More recently, in 2005, Van Der Graaf regenerated again, and with two new studio albums already behind them (and a third on the way), the band is currently preparing for their first American concerts since a New York date in October 1976 — which, in turn, was the band’s first U.S. concert ever. At the time of writing, only one date, at Nearfest on June 19, has been confirmed. But Peter Hammill assures fans that “the plan is to do a few more shows while we’re over there. I suspect they may be East Coast/Canada only, but we’ll see what emerges in due course …”

For anybody seeking an introduction to Van Der Graaf Generator, a host of compilations have been released over the decades, both on vinyl and CD. Most simply concentrate on the band’s best-known material. But there’s a few that go beyond, with the first, 1972’s budget-priced 68-71, rounding up several single-only sides that were already fetching high prices among collectors. Repeat Performance, later in the decade, amplified that same exercise; Time Vaults in 1984 scraped up various outtakes and doodles recorded during the group’s 1972-1975 hiatus, while the entire career was exquisitely profiled on the four-CD The Box in 2000. But still there were omissions, from these and every other set, beginning with that first VDGG single.

Neither “People You Were Going To” nor its flip, “Firebrand,” would ever appear on album, and it would be 1997 before they even made it onto CD. Neither did the band members mourn their unavailability; Hammill was most definitely not speaking as a collector when he warned, in 1995, that the single “is emphatically not worth the £250 it’s been reported to be going for.” 

As an artefact, it’s fascinating. But as a musical experience, it could be a different band — or, as a review in Melody Maker put it, “here is the group people say are going to replace the Beatles, Stones, BeeGees … at the top. Mind you, the person wh

NUMBER    TITLE (A Side/B Side)    YEAR    NM

45s
Mercury
72979, Necromancer/Afterwards, 1969, $20.00

Albums
ABC Dunhill
DS 50097, H to He Who Am the Only One, 1971, $15.00

Charisma
CAS-1051, Pawn Hearts, 1971, $15.00

Mercury
SRM-1-1069, Godbluff, 1975, $12.00
SRM-1-1096, Still Life, 1976, $12.00
SRM-1-1116, World Record, 1976, $12.00
SR-61238, The Aerosol Grey Machine, 1969, $100.00

Probe
CPLP-4515, The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other, 1970, $30.00

PVC
9901 [(2)], Vital, 1979, $15.00

Turn to the “Goldmine Standard Catalog of American Records, 1950-1975, 6th Edition” for complete vinyl values and identification guide for Bob Dylan and thousands of other artists. This edition contains 150,000 listings for 45s, 7-inch extended-play singles and 12-inch albums from pop, rock, country, soul, rhythm and blues, and virtually all other genres of music produced between 1950 and 1975. This easy-to-use guide is arranged alphabetically by artist, and includes: