The CBS Records EZ Cue Library

[Mr]

for Stilhtoe.

US label under Columbia Special Products - who also produced sound effects under "The CBS Sound Library".
Listing sourced from images of the LPs themselves.
XTV/XSV (mono/stereo) matrix codes from labels where I have been able to decipher those - these fit into CBS/Columbia's overall numbering system, and could help pinpoint dates. I will take a look at this later on.
Composers are mostly American or US-based, but some German, French and Belgian composers appear as well. (Licensed?)


EZQ 101
EZQ 102
EZQ 103 - Drama - Documentaries - Fred Steiner/David Buttolph/Lyn(?) Murray/Richard(?) Shores (XTV 133111/XTV 133112)
EZQ 104
EZQ 105 - Comedy - Backgrounds & Bridges - Wilbur Hatch/von Suppé arr. Wilbur Hatch/Bobby Guteska/D. Hildinger/von Suppé arr. Fred Steiner/Lucien Moraweck/D. Elliott/B. Green/Rene Garriguenc/William Lava (XTV 133115/XTV 133116)
EZQ 106
EZQ 107 - Dramatic & Anthology Main Titles - Fred Steiner/David Buttolph/Richard(?) Shores/Wilbur Hatch/Frank Denning (Frank Damico)/Lyn(?) Murray/La Salle(?) (XTV 133119/XTV 133120)
EZQ 108 - ????/Ethnic: Spain (Flamenco Guitar) - ????/Wm. Gomez (????/XTV 133122)
EZQ 109
EZQ 110 - Western Backgrounds - J. Moross (XTV 133125/XTV 133126)
EZQ 111
EZQ 112
EZQ 113 - Dramatic - Dark Backgrounds/Dramatic - Dark Bridges & Strings - Eugene Cines/Rene Garriguenc/Lucien Moraweck/D. Ray/N. Scott/Wm. Barnett/Fred Steiner (XTV 133131/XTV 133132)
EZQ 114 - City Backgrounds/???? - Richard(?) Shores/Wilbur Hatch/Frank Denning (Frank Damico)/???? (XTV 133133/????)
EZQ 115 - Comedy - Main Titles & Bridges/???? - D. Hildinger/Wilbur Hatch/Rene Garriguenc/???? (XTV 133135/????)
EZQ 116 - Dramatic - Dark Backgrounds - Fred Steiner/Wm. Barnett/Nathan Van Cleave/Bernard Herrmann/L. Rosenman/Rene Garriguenc (XTV 133137/XTV 133138)
EZQ 117 - Western Backgrounds/???? - Fred Steiner/Jerry Goldsmith/???? (XTV 133139/????)
EZQ 118 - Western Backgrounds/???? - Jerry Goldsmith/J. Moross/???? (XTV 133141/????)
EZQ 119
EZQ 120
EZQ 121 - Comedy - Farce/???? - Fred Steiner/???? (XTV 133147/????)
EZQ 122
EZQ 123 - Fantasy - Fred Steiner (XTV 133151/XTV 133152)
EZQ 124 - Motion - Metropolitan, Chase - ????/Bernard Herrmann/Fred Steiner/William Lava/Rene Garricueng/Bobby Guteska (????/XTV 133154)
EZQ 125 - Fantasy/???? - Jerry Goldsmith/???? (XTV 133155/????)
EZQ 126 - Space - Fantasy - Fred Steiner/Jerry Goldsmith (XTV 133157/XTV 133158)
EZQ 127 - Dramatic Bridges/???? - Nathan Van Cleave/Wm. Barnett/???? (XTV 133159/????)
EZQ 128 - Dramatic Punctuations/???? - Fred Steiner/???? (????/????)
EZQ 129 - Descriptive - Pastoral, Landscapes/???? - ???? (????/????)
EZQ 130
EZQ 131
EZQ 132
EZQ 133
EZQ 134 - ????/Bugle Calls & Military Backgrounds - ????/No composer listed/Fred Steiner/H. Kay/Robert(?) Drasnin/Faustin Jeanjean/Marcel Jeanjean (????/XTV 133174)
EZQ 135
EZQ 136 - Harpsichord Solos - P.D./???? - No composer listed/???? (????/????)
EZQ 137
EZQ 138
EZQ 139 - Western Backgrounds (Featuring Harmonica, Guitar & Banjo)/Western Backgrounds (Featuring Harmonica & Guitar) - Jerry Goldsmith/Tommy Reilly/Trad. (no arr.)/Tommy(?) Morgan/Robert(?) Drasnin (XTV 133183/XTV 133184)
EZQ 140 - Romantic Materials/???? - Fred Steiner/???? (????/????)
EZQ 141 - Romantic Materials - Trevor Duncan (Leonard Trebilco)/Fred Steiner/Lucien Moraweck/Bernard Herrmann/Lyn(?) Murray (????/XTV 133188)
EZQ 142
EZQ 143 - Asiatic Indian & Chinese Backgrounds/???? - Jerry Goldsmith/Leon Klatzkin/???? (XTV 133191/????)
EZQ 144 - City Backgrounds - B. Green/Rene Garriguenc/D. Elliott/Wilbur Hatch/Fred Steiner/Wm. Barnett/Nathan Van Cleave (XTV 133193/XTV 133194)
EZQ 145 - ????/Dramatic Backgrounds (Plaintive, Melancholy, Lonely) - ????/Eugene Cines/N. Scott/Fred Steiner/Nathan Van Cleave (????/XTV 133196)
EZQ 146 - Fantasy/???? - Fred Steiner/???? (XTV 133197/????)
EZQ 147 - Western Backgrounds/???? - Fred Steiner/Lucien Moraweck (XTV 133199/????)
EZQ 148 - Western Backgrounds - E. Gold/H. Kay/Fred Steiner/William Lava/Rene Garriguenc (????/XTV 133202)
EZQ 149 - Dramatic - Suspense - Rene Garriguenc/H. Kay/Fred Steiner/Nathan Van Cleave/Lucien Moraweck/William Barnett/Leon Klatzkin/Tommy(?) Morgan/Bernard Herrmann (XTV 133203/XTV 133204)
EZQ 150 - Romantic Materials - H. Kay/Eugene Cines/Rene Garriguenc/Nathan Van Cleave/David Buttolph/Bernard Herrmann/Fred Steiner/William Lava/N. Scott/L. Rosenman/Wm. Barnett (XTV 133205/XTV 133206)
EZQ 151 - Space - Fantasy - M. Constant/???? (XTV 133207/????)
EZQ 152 - Dramatic - Suspense/???? - Jerry Goldsmith/???? (XTV 133209/????)
EZQ 153
EZQ 154 - Fantasy/Fantasy - Space - Fred Steiner/Wilfred Josephs/Jerry Goldsmith (XTV 133213/XTV 133214)
EZQ 155
EZQ 156 - Dance Band/Concert Waltzes - K. Hopkins/Johnny Dankworth/A. North/Strauss (no arr.)/Tchaikovsky (no arr.) (????/XTV 134050)
EZQ 157
EZQ 158
EZQ 159
EZQ 160 -
EZQ 161 -
EZQ 162 -
EZQ 163 -
EZQ 164 -
EZQ 165 - Crime Backgrounds/???? - Peter Thomas/???? (XTV 134192/????)
EZQ 166 - ????/Industrial and Machines - ????/Gerhard Trede/Conny Schumann/Erich Ferstl (????/XTV 134226)
EZQ 167 - ????/Electronical Music - ????/Gerhard Trede/Konrad Elfers/Conny Schumann (????/XTV 134240)
EZQ 168 -
EZQ 169 -
EZQ 170 -
EZQ 171 - Jazz/???? - Karl Barthel(?)/Ernst-August Quelle/Konrad Elfers/???? (????/????)
EZQ 172 - Jazz/???? - Rolf Kühn/Joachim Kühn/Gerhard Trede/???? (????/????)
EZQ 173 - Jazz/Bossa Nova - Cha-Cha/Rhumba - Gerhard Trede/Ernst-August Quelle/Martin Böttcher/Henning Flut (Gerd Luft)/Erich Ferstl/Peter Thomas (????/????)
EZQ 174 - Dance - Latin & Twenties/Rock 'n' Roll - Peter Schirmann/Gerhard Trede/Martin Böttcher (XTV 134331/XTV 134332)
EZQ 175 -
EZQ 176 -
EZQ 177 -
EZQ 178 -
EZQ 179 -
EZQ 180 - Rock Soul 20 Second Spots - W. Lam/Hitchin (????)/P. Marja (Fernand Janssens)/S. Bradford/P. Tubbs/S. Lam/A. Shore (XSV 14811/XSV 14812)
EZQ 181
EZQ 182 - ????/Rock Soul 60 Second Spots - ????/William Albimoor (Willy de Moor)/Henry Wyn/Luc Hensill (Luc Gillet)/Christopher Lühr/H. Karr/N. Dubey/A. Shore (????/XSV 148116)

EZQ 1563 - ????/Electronic - ????/Mike Vickers (????/XSV ????)

CSM 928 - "Golden Minutes": City Background/???? - No composer listed/Jean-Claude Pelletier/A. Pop (possibly André Popp?)/Friedel Berlipp/Bert Kaempfert/Gerhard Trede/???? (XTV 147717/????)
CSM 929
CSM 930 - "Golden Minutes": Rock & Roll/Space-Fantasy - No composer listed/André Brasseur/Simille(?)/Shore(?)/J. Albin/G. van de Meerschalf/Gerhard Trede/K. Street/R. Dekers/Pat Prilly (Jean-Marcel Leroy)/Samuel Solomon (Sam Piedel) (XTV 147721/XTV 147722)

[apmnut]

Any idea where the balderdash about this label having about 400 albums in its catalogue come from?

[Mr]

400 sounds like a massive overestimate. I would guess someone made it up? That's often the case.

[Upgrade]

I was trying to work out the Columbia matrix numbering system mentioned. Though it seems to somehow be more complicated that RCA Victor's.

The XTV/XSV matrix numbers for the CBS EZ Cue library vary from 133000 to 148000.

A couple of sites seem to refer to the Library of Congress entry of Columbia Records Paperwork Collection.

loc.gov/rr/record/ColumbiaRecordsPaperwork.pdf

Unfortunately the XTV entries roughly go from:

11000 to 29000 for 1949-1959

60000 to 81000 for 1959-1962

92000-94000 for 1964

XSV entries go from 27000 to 60000 for 1958.

This is still an order of magnitude away from the XTV numbers used in the CBS Cues.

Perhaps there's other paperwork on Columbia Records after 1964.

Oddly, the higher XTV numbers seem to be bookended by very rare test pressings.

XTV-122402 is a Velvet Underground pressing dated to April 25, 1966.

XTV-221567 is a Bob Dylan pressing dated to 1967.

If the CBS EZ Cue matrix numbers are from XTV 133000 to 148000, they could theoretically all be pressed around 1967.


I'm trying to find more examples of these higher XTV numbers on discogs.

This one is XTV 109237 pressed by Columbia, but no date.

discogs.com/Otto-Luening-Igor-Stravinsky-Arcangelo-Corelli-Juan-Del-Encina-Modest-Mussorgsky-Franz-Schubert-Joha/release/14467237

Though the Silver Burdett Records label seems to just use the Columbia matrix numbers as their catalog numbers.

discogs.com/label/122504-Silver-Burdett-Records

This one is XTV 134347 made in 1968

discogs.com/Unknown-Artist-Around-The-Far-East-In-Song/release/9039325

This is XTV 124685, a Vanguard Record, but apparently pressed by Columbia in 1967.

discogs.com/Country-Joe-And-The-Fish-I-Feel-Like-Im-Fixin-To-Die/release/2366342

The Vanguard VRS 9000 releases may be useful here.

discogs.com/label/1058-Vanguard?genre=All&limit=50&page=84

This is XTV 124955 from 1968.

discogs.com/Buddy-Guy-A-Man-The-Blues/release/10993669


This is XSV 143702, a Reader's Digest box set from 1969.

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Merry-Christmas/release/2177619

Unfortunately, the Reader's Digest box sets aren't as well documented on discogs as most entries don't put in the matrix numbers.


At best, I can only really narrow down the CBS EZ Cue XTV numbers 133000 to 148000 to 1967-1968.

[Mr]

Thanks for taking the lead on this! 67-68 sounds a bit narrow, I think - based on the recordings themselves I'd guess maybe 1961 (or earlier) through 67/68.
The (known) cues sourced from here that appeared on TransWorld were dated 1962-1965.

[Upgrade]

I also noticed that EZQ 144 - City Backgrounds has two tracks called "Transition for Perry Mason" and "Perry Mason Chase Montage". I have to dig out the old box set to hear if the cues are used on Perry Mason.

CBS aired Perry Mason from 1957-1966. The XTV numbers imply the records were pressed in the 1967-1968 if it's consistent with Columbia Records XTV releases.

If the Perry Mason cues are from 1957, it's a little unusual to have them named after the show already. Or they could have been pressed as records in 1967 the year after the show went off the air.

This paper notes the sheet music and cues for shows like Perry Mason at the time at CBS. It appears there was an older Reel system in use before they were later reorganized and repressed with the EZ Cue Classification. What doesn't help is that EZ Cue was also issued as tape reels too.

filmscorerundowns.net/other/cbs-cue-system.pdf