A Marching LP Album That Did Not Sell Many Copies

You never know what you’ll find at a flea market. Someone at the Stormville, NY Yard Sale in September had Marches Of The Israel Defense Forces. I took a picture of the LP but somehow deleted it. The photo below is from eBay.

Whatever possessed Columbia Records to release this?

Did this album sell even 100 copies?

So the only other thing to contemplate is what does the music sound like?

Here is a typical ditty that got a lot of airplay in Tel Aviv and probably nowhere else, The march is called Our Platoon Marches At Night.

On the other hand over 2,000 people have viewed this on youtube. So it must have some appeal.

Besides Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance which is played at every graduation ceremony and music composed by John Philip Sousa (1854-1932), has any march song recording sold well? There does not appear to be any publication which contains a list of sales of the best selling marching albums.

As the most popular march composer it may come as a surprise that Sousa despised any recorded music.

Speaking before a congressional joint session of the Committee on Patents in 1906, Sousa said, “These talking machines are going to ruin the artistic development of music in this country. When I was a boy – I was born in this town –  in front of every house in the summer evenings, you would find young people together singing the songs of the day or old songs. Today you hear these infernal machines going night and day. [Laughter]  We will not have a vocal cord left. [Laughter] The vocal cords will be eliminated by a process of evolution, as was the tail of man when he came from the ape The vocal cords will go because no one will have a chance to sing, the phonograph supplying a mechanical imitation of the voice, accompaniment, and effort.”

Sousa’s band did record music, on the aforementioned Columbia records, but Sousa would not conduct the band. If you don’t think you’re familiar with Sousa’s music, I’ll bet you are.