12 Tops: the (one and only?) end-of-year compilation

Discoveries in the world of 12 Tops, so far as the tape editions are concerned, have been fairly numerous this month. Recent blog posts include a copy of 12 Tops volume 1 on cassette, as well as an alternative edition of volume 19 on 8-track. Now, another find, also on 8-track - the alternative edition of the only (so far as I know) end-of-year collection from the series, Top 20 1973.

As seems standard across the 12 Tops cartridges, this is known is both green and white shells. Both came out in identical slip cases. Here are the scans, firstly of the slip case:

And the cartridges themselves. They appear identical in all respects, except for the colour of the plastic. It's not clear why both green and white editions were made:  

As noted, this album is probably the only case of the 12 Tops series being compiled in this way, and no vinyl edition is known. The contents reveal that the cartridge was probably issued some time before the close of 1973, since the final two albums of that year are not sampled on the collection. What we do have is two or three tracks from all the other 1973 LPs - volumes 8 to 15 inclusive. Wouldn't it be amazing if an LP edition turned up? Nothing would surprise me any more!

Mega-rare "12 Tops Volume 1" - on cassette!

Even a seasoned collector like myself is regularly amazed at the things which turn up in the world of budget cover versions. The latest jaw-dropper is the cassette pictured below, which, until a few days ago, I had no idea even existed. Now, thanks to the owner of this copy, Lars Larsen, we not only know it exists but have superb images of it as well - so here it is, in all its glory:
 

 

Even the LP edition of this album (below) is hard enough to find, so copies of this cassette must be extremely scarce. The insert clearly shows it to be a UK release (as one might expect), and compared the the vinyl the playing order is almost the same - except that "Look Wot You Dun" and "American Pie" have swapped places, probably to make the playing time of each side more equal. And the cassette is issued on the Damont Records label, rather than Stereo Gold Award.

I am not aware of any other cassette editions from this series, until as late as volume 18 (pictured below), and none thereafter. Were there others released? Please drop us a line if you know.  

 
Thanks to Lars for the scans and information.

Latest 8-track finds

I've picked up three over the past week or so, all of them because of their physical appearance. (Music to look at, rather than listen to!)

First up, a copy of Pye's "12 Chartbusters Vol 8". It matches the LP volume 17, since for some reason Pye decided to start numbering the tapes from volume 1 again, following the release of number 9. The key thing about this cartridge is, it has a green shell. Previously I knew only of white-shell editions:

The next one is a copy of "12 Tops" volume 19 on the Damont Records label. A similar situation, but the other way around - I knew of green-shell editions, but discovered and bought this white one. (At least, it was white when new!):

And lastly, perhaps the most interesting of the lot, is a cartridge called "Sounds Like Shearing". I don't know who's on this, or what it sounds like - although the reference to (George) Shearing is a clue. This one I purchased just for the label on the front:

 

Look familiar? This is an image from the same photo shoot as two much more common albums - namely "Revived 45s" volume 2 (1971) and "Top of the Pops" volume 50 (1976). I wonder who the model is?...

Rare 8-track cartridges from 1974

Just recently I picked up the following two 8-track cartridges for the bargain price of £1.20 each. Apart from being rare budget albums, the main attraction for me was the superb condition of both, including the outer sleeves which tend to get lost over the years. The albums in question were 12 Tops volume 19, from 1974, and a Chartbusters compilation from the Pye stable, also from 1974 and never released on vinyl.

These are the outer sleeves:

And these are the cartridges themselves:

So far as I know, there were only two albums from "12 Tops" which made it onto 8-track - volume 19 (above) and the previous volume 18. The cartridges do not carry volume numbers however, and are on the Damont Records label as opposed to Stereo Gold Award.

The Chartbusters collection is one of four or more which were issued on cassette and/or 8-track, but not on LP. It contains some 30 tracks, only a few of which had previously featured in the "Pye Chartbusters" series. During 1974, "Pye Chartbusters" was featuring the same Damont recordings as "12 Tops", and so where the two collections above have the same track listed, it is probably the same recording both times. (Lack of reliable hardware means I haven't checked!)

"Billy Don't Be A Hero" is on both cartridges - and a sound clip is included below. Also included is a clip of "Every Day", the Slade ballad which was covered for "12 Tops" in a pretty decent version.

Billy Dont Be A Hero.mp3

Everyday.mp3

 

12 Tops - the strange case of volume 7

As record collectors, most of us start out with a simple goal in mind - to get hold of one copy of each release, relevant to our area of interest. Sounds easy, but things soon start getting tricky when you realise that some albums exist in different editions, posing the question of where you want to draw your line in the sand. The 12 Tops series offers a wealth of alternative editions for the collector to consider - from cassettes to special American editions and even 8-track cartridges, some of the latter appearing in different coloured casings. Whether all these varieties float your boat is up to you, but there's one alternative edition which, I would think, almost all collectors will have on their wants list, which brings me to the subject of this post...

I was recently given a copy of the comparatively rare 12 Tops volume 7, catalogue number MER 103. If you are not familiar with the story behind this LP, and have just one copy in your collection, check out the catalogue number; chances are, it is MER 103X - which is more common, but significantly different from MER 103. So what's happening here?

Of course, MER 103 is the standard catalogue number for the series, and so this must have been the first edition. For reasons unclear it was withdrawn soon after it went out, and replaced with the amended MER 103X. This second edition has a different track listing - the song "Everybody Plays The Fool" - a non-hit for an act called Main Ingredient - is gone, replaced by "Crazy Horses" - a sure-fire winner from The Osmonds.

This change is obvious on the front cover, where "Crazy Horses" was inserted at the top of the song list, but really affected side 2 of the LP where some of the other songs were moved about, presumably so the playing sequence was more acceptable.

If you're a long-time collector, this probably isn't news to you at all - so here's some more, which probably is. There is, in fact, a third pressing of the LP out there. It is an edition of the re-issue, 103X, and is revealed by the different label used on the LP. Pictured below are the two varieties. Note, for example the large lettering saying "Side 2" to the left of the play hold on one edition, but not the other.

And volume 7 wasn't unique in this respect; volume 10 was similarly issued with two label varieties:

Normally label varieties like this are the result of two different companies manufacturing the records at different times, but why two firms might have been involved here is not obvious; after all, these albums were probably of a fixed print run, and one might have expected them all to be pressed and distributed as a single batch. And who were the firms involved? We can see from the small print that one version of 103X was pressed by Pye - but the others are at present unknown. Mystery upon mystery!

Of course it is up to the collector how deeply they want to go into all this, and whether they think it is worth tracking down all the subtle varieties for their collections. For my part, I enjoy it - so let me know if you've discovered any more oddities from the 12 Tops series, or indeed other covers albums, and perhaps we can feature them on the blog.

Hergestellt in England: Zwolf Tops

Excuse the ham-fisted German in the title of this post. The subject matter here is a German LP (no surprise) which goes by the paradoxical name, Made In England (which it isn't). Here it is:

I picked this up at the weekend for £1, little suspecting that it contained a selection of tracks plucked from the familiar UK series, 12 Tops. Research (ie, flogging Google for all it's worth) has shown that this LP is one of a series of at least ten from Germany - West Germany to be precise - all of them compiled from the 12 Tops series. This, as the cover says, is instalment number 2. Nice graphics on the back, too.

This particular edition has seven tracks from 12 Tops volume 2, with which it must be contemporary, plus five from a special US edition which was prepared at the same time, and which adds to the international flavour of this album. These are the two source LPs:

As they (possibly) say in Germany: ausgezeichnete mein Freund.

Todays Hits EP

I picked this one up at a car boot sale in Sussex, earlier today, for the sum of 30p. It's a four-track EP called "Todays Hits" and is one of at least three issued in the same series.

The tracks, as you might guess from the cover art, come from the LP series, "12 Tops", and all four of these are from "12 Tops volume 27" (March 1975). You can see a credit for Damont Records on the back of the sleeve - the firm behind the "12 Tops" recordings.


LISTEN: Click the link to hear to the track, "Girls", from this EP: Todays Hits Girls.mp3

This is the original LP all four tracks on the EP are taken from...