Cova Cavaliers

If there is an object valued on the level of the Ark of the Covenant by record collecting fiends it might be releases on the Q.R.S. outfit which existed briefly in New York City in the late '20s. While collectors who actually listen to music prize the label's fine solo piano Earl Hines sides, the song "How Long Must I Wait For You? by the Cova Cavaliers was catalog item number one, thus promoting it to the most valuable of all. The Cova Recording company of Manhattan released the Q.R.S. catalog, a grand total of four records. The identity of the Cova Cavaliers has yet to be determined; it was some kind of a house band for a house that was never built. Speaking of which, Rome was not built in a day but this label's entire schedule of releases took place in the course of one 24 hour period. A serious study of the philosophy of record collecting usually brings up the subject of these sides and the mysterious Cova Cavaliers in order to create a simple definition of what makes a record rare: very few people own copies and nobody new is going to be finding any, either. A film company wound up buying this label in 1929 but when it went bankrupt the receiver smashed all of the remaining stock of records. Thus the title "How Long Must I Wait For You?" becomes a bittersweet poke at collectors who know in the case of the Cova Cavaliers, the wait will be forever. The song itself had originally been published in 1922 by the Triangle company, one of producer and label owner Joe Davis' primary publishing outfit. The large proportion of titles sourced from this publisher have led to speculation that Davis himself had some involvement with the label. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide