Many Internet cites claim that "Bawdy Songs an Backroom Ballads Vol. 1" appeared in 1949.

That is incorrect. The album (Audio Fidelity AFLP 1906) was released in 1955. The final volume (8) appeared in 1962.

The cause of the confusion is that Chesterfield records (not Audio Fidelity) released a ten-inch album by Brand called "Backroom Ballads" (CMS-101) in 1949.

The songs were:

Maid of Amsterdam
Tom Bolynn
Early One Morn
The Fireship
Ramblin' Wretch
Red Light Saloon
Sunday School
Old King Cole.

I've not heard the album, so I can't identify "Early One Morn." "Sunday School" was formerly known as "The Darky Sunday School."

Brand's recording of "The Fireship" preceded the even more bowdlerized hit version "The Roving Kind" by at least a few months and perhaps more than a year. The "Roving Kind" was copyrighted by Hollis Music on Nov. 24, 1950.

Though most of Brand's bawdy songs songs were considerably rewritten and toned down for the general public, Brand has written that he never copyrighted them. Who could make money off of bawdy songs in 1950s?