Smash Hits ’72
Maybe this cover was partially inspired by this legendary, and now long defunct, aftershave. Interestingly, only two years later everybody was kung fu fighting. And it was a little bit frightening.
Label: MFP 50048
Tijuana Sound of Living Brass
Sleeve Notes:
Presenting Mr. Arranger, Ray Martin, and the Living Brass in another exciting north/south, pop/traditional musical adventure through the world of sound. The colors are red and gold, muted sometimes by the oranges of twilight There’s a Kind of Hush (All Over the World) or injected with hot, bright canary – Carmen gone pop. It’s a daring mix….Zabadak, for example, is an African tune which adapts easily to a Mexican mood. Lady of Spain is traditional black lace. London Mod Petula Clark gave us The Other Man’s Grass Is Always Greener. Ray Martin created the wonderful Fiesta en Acapulco just for this album. The adventure goes on, but let the Living Brass carry you up and over – from the conventional into the realm of the alive, exciting sound of brass tuned to sunshine arrangements.
Label: Camden CDS 1104
Million Sellers
Another example of the “covers” budget albums so prolific during the seventies and early eighties. The sound was inevitably disappointing if you had a clear and fixed memory of how the actual records sounded. Or do you disagree? Let us know your thoughts!
Sleeve Notes:
Here is a great selection of pop numbers which share a unique distinction: Each song sold a million records throughout the world. Every record fan knows and admires the world smash hit by The Beatles: HEY JUDE and Tom Jones’ superb vocal performance on GREEN GREEN GRASS OF HOME. Millions of pop followers acclaimed the nostalgic and beautiful song MY SWEET LORD composed and made famous by George Harrison. You just cannot forget the immortal hits: CECILIA, MAMIE BLUE, the ‘big beat’ of YELLOW RIVER, KNOCK THREE TIMES, and CHIRPY, CHIRPY, CHEEP CHEEP. Yes, pop lovers, this truly wonderful collection of “MILLION SELLERS” masterly performed by WINDMILL’S own artists and top ‘session men’ is a ‘must’ for every party.
B. WRIGLY
Label: Windmill Records WMD 139
Alan Moorhouse and his Bond Street Brigade
Sleeve Notes:
If you have never before heard Alan Moorhouse and his Bond Street Brigade then you have really been missing something! Most of the tunes on this album are very well known, but it\’s unlikely that you have ever heard such thrilling arrangements and performances as these. Just listen to the excitement and originality of this band.
Alan Moorhouse himself knows bands inside out. He has been in the music business most of his life, starting off as a trumpet player. He then developed his skills as a music arranger and as such has worked with many famous artists, including Joe Loss. He is also a songwriter of some distinction, having co-written “Boom Bang-A- Bang”, the hit with which Lulu triumphed in the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest. And of course Alan also makes records with the Bond Street Brigade! This one certainly has something for everyone. Each side opens with a stirring item – Side One with “The Liberty Bell” and Side Two with the famous “Radetzky March”. There are two songs which were smash hits for Middle of the Road – “Chirpy Chirpy, Cheep Cheep” and “Tweedle Dee Tweedle Dum”. You will also hear the theme music from one of those tough Italian westerns which starred Clint Eastwood – “Hang ’em high”, some of Alan Moorhouse’s own compositions, plus “Yellow River” and lots more!
Whatever your taste in music you should enjoy the superb stereo sound of Alan Moorhouse and his Bond Street Brigade, specially recorded for Music for Pleasure.
Label: MFP 5268
Pye Chartbusters Vol. 3
Sleeve Notes:
Take a long and careful look at the titles on this latest Chartbusters and then sit back and reflect where you saw them before. If the titles ring a bell in the memory then it’s because the place you’ve seen them is in today’s (yes today’s) pop charts and you’ve also heard them played endlessly on radio.
And because they’re today’s hits, today’s songs and the most popular by virtue of their record sales they’re obvious targets for the Chartbusters team. Leader of the team is producer Tony Palmer who has that unenviable task of peering into the crystal ball of pop in order to come up with an amazingly accurate reflection of the chart hits. And that, let nobody kid you, is no easy task. Then once he’s selected them Tony chooses with the same care the artists and musicians who will perform them and each must be capable of giving to a chart hit the kind of chart performance treatment that got it there in the first place.
The rest of the production of the Chartbusters item rests with the technicians and once they’ve completed their task YOU have a rather unique kind of record album. An album that is filled with today’s sounds, performed with gusto and enthusiasm by young musicians and singers whose names you don’t need to know and yet who Possess great musical ability.
So if we at Pye Records boast that this is the very best Chartbusters album we’ve produced we mean it. Until the next one, that is!
Label: Pye PCB15002
Hot Hits Vol. 13
Hot Hits Vol. 10
Tom McClure – Tribute to Jim Reeves
Sleeve Notes:
Jim Reeves did more than any other artiste to extend the appeal of Country music far beyond the confines of Nashville. It began with a haunting ballad called Four walls, recorded in 1957. Till then, Jim had been on the pure Country kick. With Four walls, he broke the barrier into pop, and sold a million. Two more million-sellers followed – He’ll have to go and Adios amigo. In between the million-sellers, Jim Reeves was recording a string of wonderful, easy-going ballads like Welcome to my world, I won’t forget you and I’m getting better. On the 31st July, 1964, he met an untimely death in a ‘plane crash. But the songs he made famous live on, and here Tom McClure and Ray Merrell have re-created 12 of his biggest hits, superbly performed in the warm, relaxed and intimate style of the maestro, and recorded in brilliant stereo for your enjoyment.
BILL WELLINGS
Label: MFP 5259
12 Tops – Today’s Pop Hits Vol. 02
One of our more risqué covers and a fine example of the cover’s importance in compensating for the unremittingly poor versions inside of the “pop hits” of the day. The model on this cover is Ingrid Steeger who also appeared on similar covers some of which were more revealing than this one. How many copies were bought solely for the pleasure of its very attractive cover model? That’s kind of a rhetorical question we will never know the answer to.
A look at the back cover will reveal the name DL Miller as Recording Director. David Miller was a prolific releaser of records in the budget genre and his name appears on hundreds of records from the sixties and seventies. He set up the Stereo Gold Award label examples of which feature prominently in our archives. For more on Mr Miller read his Wikipedia entry here.
Sleeve Notes:
Here are the very latest chart hits – sung and played in the same arrangements as the original versions – Enjoy on this one record TODAY’S TWELVE TOPS
Label: Stereo Gold Award MER 358
Top of the Pops Vol. 28
Sleeve Notes:
HEY THERE, GOOD LOOKING …… this album is the finest gift you can give to any pop friend, relation, wife, husband, girl friend, boy friend, or whoever – for birthdays, for anniversaries – or just because.
Every issue of Hallmark “TOP OF THE POPS” sells in hundreds of thousands throughout the world and the reason is simple. We do our very best to supply the finest pop music at a price within the reach of all lovers of pops music.
We’ve got a team of trendy types – technicians, artists, musicians and backroom boys – straining every nerve to keep you right in the swing of the real thing, the jumping, swinging, psychedelic scene of modern pop music.
So, here’s our twenty-eighth issue, packed solid with twelve hit songs, all buzzing around at or near the top of the charts – or on the way.
Wanna help us top our record figure of a third of a million copies of one edition? We’ve done our best to give you the best.
What about it, huh?
Label: Hallmark SHM 810