The invention of the long playing record gave an enormous boost to what later would be called "the music industry". Existing magazines started to flourish and new magazines were launched because of the proliferation of the new, black, vinyl disc.

Although in the first years many music buffs continued to listen to 78 RPM shellac discs, the Lp (which was invented by Columbia, USA, and presented for the first time in 1948) was quickly conquering the world and for the convenience of "the consumer" all sorts of catalogs were published which listed the records that were available on the market. In the US "Schwann Long Playing Record Catalog" and "The Longplayer", and in the UK "The Gramophone Long Playing Record Catalogue" were published on a regular basis. In no time these publications were considered to be the world's most important reference catalogs in the field.

In 1955 Warren DeMotte compiled "The Long Playing Record Guide" and he asked Leopold Stokowski to write the preface. Stokowski, who saw the uniqueness of DeMotte's project, agreed, although he did not know De Motte before (and they never met afterwards).

Although various guides and catalogs had been published before, with listings and comments (as Irving Kolodin had done), DeMotte's guide was really unique and the first of its kind. It was not a duplication of Schwann, The Longplayer or The Gramophone catalogs. The Long Playing Record Guide listed the available recordings of compositions of practically each and every composer and Demotte evaluated the interpretations of the musicians and in many cases mentioned the technical quality of the discs. The reason for the publication is obvious.
Read the first sentences of the introduction that Warren De Motte wrote to his THE LONG PLAYING RECORD GUIDE:

"Since the advent, in 1948, of the long playing phonograph record, the record collector has been faced by an embarrassment of riches. Due to the use of the tape recorder and the LP process, resulting in the reasonably low recording costs, dozens of record companies have come into existence, and many of them issue records at an amazing rate. In only a few years a thick catalogue of recordings has been built up, with countless duplications that manage to confuse  the collector, the dealer, and the recording companies alike."

At the time "The Long Playing Record Guide" served thousands and thousands of music lovers in making their ecisions on what recorded performance on Lp to buy, or it would at least tell them about the qualities of the records they already had on the shelf.

Warren DeMotte has been active in home audio development as associate editor of a major hi-fi magazine, record reviewer on several magazines, producer of a network Good Music program, and author of a monthly magazine feature entitled Warren DeMotte's MUSIQUIZ. His analytical articles on home playing equipment are authorative and his components comparison-charts have set an industry standard.(From the cover of The LP/STEREO RECORD GUIDE & TAPE REVIEW

As a very young kid I came across this guide just before the introduction of the stereo record and I have searched for many recordings and have read the many evaluations and criticisms written by DeMotte.What makes "The Long Playing Record Guide" so interesting, is that DeMotte assesses the quality of each recording and compresses his opinion in a single phrase (or sometimes two) and marks the best available performance with an arrow.
Some people would argue that one cannot do justice to the efforts of musicians and recording engineers by allotting just a few words to their product and add a discriminating arrow to the product of a fellow musician. But every time one reads DeMotte's judgment on a recording owned, one cannot doubt his expertise and above all his sincerity.

The interesting aspect of DeMotte's painstaking exercise is that the result is equally valuable today as it was in 1955, the year in which the first edition was published.
Especially for collectors of old mono recordings it is a "mer à boire". If you come across this valuable item do not hesitate to buy it, be it the first or the more complete second edition (which listed additional releases which were too late for insertion in the first issue).

On my pages (especially on THE REMINGTON SITE) I shall - with gratitude - from time to time cite a characterization of this or that recording as it was given by Warren DeMotte.

The Long Playing Record Guide by Warren DeMotte
Dell Publishing Inc., New York, 1955
A second, updated edition almost immediately followed. It included listings which could not have been included when preparing the first edition, especially listings of Deutsche Grammophon recordings released by American Decca.

In the early nineteen sixties Warren DeMotte compiled The LP/Stereo Record Guide & Tape Review: Formerly The Long Playing Record Guide (Argyle Publishing Corp. 1962), again with a Foreword by Leopold Stkowski. This is also an invaluable reference book for the serious classical record and tape collector.

R.A. Bruil - December 1998, and updated since.