As outlined in Jimmy Stewart on the Air, The Big Sound included a series of 12-inch, 33 1/3 RPM records which radio stations could use to help promote their programs and specialties. By using this service, a station would have access to top movie and TV actors and sports figures that they normally would not be able to deal with on their own.
In our book, we couldn’t establish a date for the release of these albums, but now we can say that they were in use in 1960. This is because of a two-page ad found in the February 29, 1960, edition of Broadcasting magazine. The first page of the ad lists the radio stations which were The Big Sound subscribers:
The second page listed the celebrities who had recorded messages for the records. Stewart’s name can be seen on the left side of the page, eight rows from the bottom.
Stewart appeared on several discs in the series. This time we’ll take a look at the Baseball Coverage Promos (SB-1-R).
Each of the celebrities had a track on both sides of the recording. Side 1 was a fully produced track with music and sound effects. Side 2 was just the vocal track without any production.
Jimmy Stewart – Produced Track
Jimmy Stewart – Vocal Track Only
