Hot Hits 5 - the Australian record sleeve

It was with great interest that I learned from collector Jason Ward, of a rare Australian sleeve design for mfp's "Hot Hits 5". Jason promised to send a photo, which duly arrived, to reveal an impressive alternative cover - and this was the first time I had ever seen it!

As a reminder, this is how the UK edition appeared:

What a great job the Australian office did with the sleeve. I still don't know exactly why they wanted to change it - all Australian editions from 1967 until this LP had the same cover art on both sides of the globe. But for whatever reason, they ditched the home-grown artwork in the spring of 1971.

So far I only know of one later Australian LP in the series. It was the follow-up, volume 6, and once again the cover was switched. I presume these were the last two, but am prepared to be corrected on that! Thanks to Jason for the images above, and for interest, here is the parallel Australian artwork for Hot Hits 6:

Australia:

 

UK: