Eddie Carroll’s “Gone From Me” b/w “Rules of Love” was originally released on Fernwood Records out of Memphis, Tennessee at the end of 1960. It was picked up by Guyden Records and released first on its Caldwell (Caldwell 406) subsidiary on December 20, 1960. In a highly unusual switch, two days later, on December 22, 1960, it came out on Guyden (Guyden 2046). There is no indication why the change was made. In those days, companies had various labels to spread their releases among different distributors. Each market had its own regional distributors, some with more than others. Philadelphia, where Jamie and Guyden were based, had more than most, probably because Dick Clark’s American Bandstand made it the center of the music industry in the late 1950s and beginning of the 1960s.
Other markets may have had fewer distributors but labels found ways to spread their music around. The reason was to create competition and make the distributors work harder. In those days the distributors, in return for the exclusive right to distribute the music in that market, promoted it as well. So labels were expecting constant reports on the success the promotion men (as most of them were) in getting radio play for the records. Dividing the releases and distribution also provided some financial comfort. In an era of under-capitalized small businesses, having only one distributor was too much like putting all your eggs in one basket. How the releases got distributed among the labels was more art than science. Caldwell had only 15 releases. What they all had in common was being bought masters, rather than music produced in house in Philadelphia.
