In March 1926 the Victor company were the first to bring electrical recording to Argentina. Although their rivals Odeon were not able to follow suit until November this did not give Victor a competitive advantage: both parties had an interest in not advertising the new technology because – if it was really so much better than acoustic recording – who would buy the stocks of old acoustic discs? Victor and Odeon came to a gentleman’s agreement, and no announcements were made. Accordingly, Victor made no changes to their numbering system, continuing with the same matrix numbers, and there was no way of telling if the disc had been recorded acoustically or electrically. Once Odeon went electric in November, Victor’s discs would bear the monogram VE: Victor Electrical.

The first electrical recording was matrix BAVE (Buenos Aires Victor Electrical) 753 and this was given to Rosita Quiroga. It sold over 14,000 copies. By way of contrast, Agustín Magaldi would sell between 5,000 and 16,000 copies, Carabelli’s Jazz Band 7000 copies, and De Caro 1,500. Quiroga’s third disc, Mocosita c/w Horas tristes, sold 26,000 copies.

date	matrix	artist	title	genre	disc
1st March	BAVE 753-2	Rosita Quiroga	La musa mistonga	tango	79632-B
1st March	BAVE 754-2	Rosita Quiroga	Beba	tango	79632-A
	BAVE 755-1	Ramón Franco	Todo por la raza	monólogo	79633
	BAVE 756-1	Salutación del Mayor Zanni al Comandante Franco		monólogo	79633
	BAVE 757-2	Carabelli Jazz Band	Ingenuamente	fox trot	79634-A
	BAVE 758-1	Carabelli Jazz Band	Gitana de ojos moros	paso doble	79635-A
	BAVE 759-2	Carabelli Jazz Band	Comandante Franco	paso doble	79634-B
7th April	BAVE 760-1	Rosita Quiroga	Como luces de bengala	tango	79638-B
7th April	BAVE 761-1	Rosita Quiroga	Son grupos	tango	79638-A
	BAVE 762-2	Rosita Quiroga / Juan Velich	El amor a golpes	escena cómica	79639-A
	BAVE 763-2	Compañía Victor de Comedias	Pum… Garibaldi	escena cómica	79639-B
8th April	BAVE 764-2	Rosita Quiroga	Mocosita	tango	79641-A
8th April	BAVE 765-2	Rosita Quiroga	Horas tristes	tango	79641-B
	BAVE 766-3	Carabelli Jazz Band	Voronoff	fox trot	79635-B
	BAVE 767-1	Trío Los Nativos	El crucifijo	tango	79640-B
	BAVE 768-1	Trío Los Nativos	La china Hilaria	ranchera	79640-A
12th April	BAVE 769-2	Julio De Caro	Mary	tango	79636-A
12th April	BAVE 769-2	Julio De Caro	Feliz viaje	tango	79636-B
12th April	BAVE 771-2	Julio De Caro	Mis desvelos	Tango	79637-A
12th April	BAVE 772-1	Julio De Caro	Quince abriles	vals	79637-B
14th April	BAVE 773-1	Agustín Magaldi	¿Dónde estás?	shimmy	79642-B
14th April	BAVE 774-2	Agustín Magaldi	Hilos de plata	tango	79643-A
	BAVE 775-2	dúo Magaldi-Noda	Lirio azul	vals	79642-A
	BAVE 776-1	dúo Magaldi-Noda	Sauces del Chorrillo	tango	79643-B

And who is this Comandante Franco guy? If you think he sounds like a military type, you would be right: this is General Franco’s younger brother Ramón Franco. He made history in January 1926 by flying a Dornier flying-boat named Plus Ultra (!) from Spain to Buenos Aires, a distance of just over 10,000km. The flying time was nearly 60 hours.