European Card Sleeves
Date: 26.07.2010 Author: Kamil
European Card Sleeves
| Card sleeve is a format of single which was marketed in Europe by Warner Music France. "This Used To Be My Playground" [9362-40510-9] (1992) became the first European single released as a card sleeve. If you look at CD you can easily find "Made in France by MPO" (A). Also, since "Bad Girl" [9362 40812-9] (1993) CDs were signed by "SACEM" logo (B) on the CD label: (A)  (B)  All card sleeves, untill "Secret" [9362 41785-9] (1994), were released with MPO or MPO and SACEM. CDs were described in detail and their origin was clear and understandable. The complete package of French card sleeves (click cover for details):         Problems appeared when "Take A Bow" [9362 41874-9] was released in 1994. For the first time there was no "Made in France" on the CD, but appeared "Made in Germany" and also (it’s very important) SACEM logo was still present!  What is SACEM? Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musique (SACEM) is the organisation of French authors, composers and musical publishers. SACEM logo should persuade about French origin, but what about "Made in Germany"? All these information together mean that CDs were produced in Germany for French market! CDs should have been sold in France, but we have no information if CDs could also be sold in Germany - it's possible, but unlikely. Anyway, "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" [9362-43832-9] (with alternative cover) is the final German card sleeve made only for French market. These are the titles Made in Germany with SACEM logo (click cover for details):      "Bedtime Story" [9362 41977-9] and "Human Nature" [9362 43535-9] were released with "Made in Germany", but this time SACEM logo was not appeared. Also, as a curiosity we would like to add that "Bedtime Story" has misprinted tracklist - there are 2 tracks, but CD plays 5 tracks (click cover for details):   "Bye Bye Baby", "One More Chance" and "Another Suitcase In Another Hall" were not released in Europe as the card sleeves. "Frozen" [5439 17244-9] was released as the first card sleeve Made in Germany but not only for the French stores (SACEM logo disappeared). It was special time in history of European card sleeves. Warner Bros. completely reorganized and assigned new series of catalog numbers for card sleves with prefix "5439" (go to article "History of German catalog numbers based on CD singles pressings"). Since "Frozen" [5439 17244-9] (1998) to "Miles Away" [5439 19909-2] (2008) card sleeves were Made in Germany for all European market. Sometimes they were marked by info-stickers characteristic for the coutry in which they were sold, especially France. In Madonna Discography database we kept classification resulting from the presence of info-sticker. Below you find all 15 card-sleeve singles released by Warner Music Germany between 1998 and 2005 (click cover for details):                In 2005 there was another change. Since "Hung Up", after 11 years of break, card sleeve again began to produce in France! However, production in Germany was not stopped and both were released in Europe but French CDs were limited only to domestic market. Singles Made in France had SNA logo close to CD-hole [A], [B]. SNA is a company which produces CDs in France. But unexpectedly, the last card sleeve single to date - "Celebration" [5439 19853-7] - was produced by MPO [C] (with SACEM logo on CD) , which was responsible for the first French card sleeves: [A]  [B] [C] French and German card sleeves usually had no differences. However, there were occasional exceptions. Sometimes French pressings give us some surprises. For example, "Hung Up" as the first French single after break was released as a 2 CDs set: 2-tracks "Hung Up" [5439 15896-2] (the same as German pressing) and exclusive French-only 3-tracks "Hung Up" [9362 42886-2]. Also there can appear differences in layouts of back cover as for German "Give It 2 Me" [5439 19925-6] and French "Give It 2 Me" [5439 19925-6], and differences in CD layouts as for German "4 Minutes" [5439 19939-4] [A] and French "4 Minutes" [5439 19939-4] [B]: [A]  [B] German card sleeves (2005-2008) (click cover for details):        French card sleeves (2005-2009) (click cover for details):  |
European Card Sleeves (summary):
| France | Germany | |
| This Used To Be My Playground | MPO | no released |
| Erotica | ||
| Deeper And Deeper | ||
| Bad Girl | MPO/SACEM | |
| Fever | ||
| Rain | ||
| Bye Bye Baby | no released | |
| I'll Remember | MPO/SACEM | no released |
| Secret | ||
| Take A Bow | Made in Germany / SACEM | |
| Bedtime Story | no released | Made in Germany |
| Human Nature | ||
| You'll See | Made in Germany / SACEM | |
| Oh Father | no released | |
| One More Chance | ||
| Love Don't Live Here Anymore | Made in Germany / SACEM | |
| You Must Love Me | ||
| Don't Cry For Me Argentina | ||
| Another Suitcase In Another Hall | no released | |
| Frozen | no released | Made in Germany |
| Ray Of Light | ||
| Drowned World / Substitute For Love | ||
| The Power Of Good-Bye | ||
| Nothing Really Matters | ||
| Beautiful Stranger | ||
| American Pie | ||
| Music | ||
| Don't Tell Me | ||
| What It Feels Like For A Girl | ||
| Die Another Day | ||
| American Life | ||
| Hollywood | ||
| Nothing Fails | ||
| Love Profusion | ||
| Hung Up *2 | SNA | |
| Hung Up *3 | no released | |
| Sorry | Made in Germany | |
| Get Together | ||
| Jump | no released | |
| 4 Minutes | SNA | |
| Give It 2 Me | ||
| Miles Away | no released | |
| Celebration | SNA | no released |
| Celebration feat. Akon | MPO / SACEM | |
| Revolver | no released | |
* Since "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" (1996) to "Love Profusion" (2003) card sleeves which were released by Warner Music Germany for French market were marked by French info stickers.
© 2010, by Kamil Kaznowski and Maciej Stańczak
