Saturday, September 8, 2012

Rare Avenue vinyl from 1969

I am grateful once more to record-collecting enthusiast and covers album fan, Declan, for the following LP. It's one you will be very lucky to see 'in the flesh', which is why I thought I would post some images.

The title is "12 Top Hits", and it forms part of the celebrated Avenue series, also known as "England's 12 Top Hits", since it later had a tweak in name. These early albums are extremely rare, a situation exacerbated by the presence on many of them of Elton John and David Byron, both of whom appear here, and who have attracted vinyl junkies like Hoovers to the few copies still in circulation.






The 12-track LP features several lead vocals by David Byron ("Sugar Sugar", "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother", "Soul Deep" etc), as well as Elton who sings backing vocals on a few titles and lead on "Don't Forget To Remember".

As with most of their cover version albums, Avenue also released this collection across two 6-track EPs, AVE 84 and AVE 85, which are slightly easier to find than the LP. AVE 84 contains all of side 1, AVE 85 all of side 2.




If you want to hear some of David Byron's vocal slots in glorious modern stereo, we have to recommend again the two Artistry CDs which collect many of his session recordings together. You will find them on Ebay - between them, volumes 1 and 2 include four tracks from this elusive LP and many more from the series. Cover photos and track listings can be seen on my post of August 30.


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