That Philips cassette - turns out it's Elton!

Blog regulars will recall that I recently posted details of an odd cassette I discovered, released by Philips and containing medleys of soundalike recordings (below). You can read the original post here.

I was stumped as to where it originated. Philips were not known for making soundalikes, but I couldn't identify the original source of these tracks, which are shortened, and which flow together, sometimes with music linking them.

Last week I was contacted by Elton John collector, Steve Olson, who provided some fascinating new info. It turns out that many of these recordings are in fact the familiar sessions which Elton John took part in on the standard LPs - I just hadn't recognised them! As it happens, the cassette is a re-issue of a European LP called "28 International Top Songs", which features many Elton cuts we know from labels such as Marble Arch, plus a few Avenue recordings too.

Below is the LP sleeve as it appeared in West Germany, on the Fontana label.

And here are two more editions from the Netherlands, one on Studio 33, the other on the Tune label:

The track listing matches exactly. Steve has documented this LP well, and according to his notes, Elton can be heard on most songs, and is lead vocalist on no fewer than nine cuts.

Steven also considers it possible that Elton plays the connecting piano music, making this a real scoop for collectors. For example, if one plays "Lola", there are some unexpected piano notes near the end... and then some more... and as "Lola" fades away, the piano takes solo stage, before quoting a bit from "Bridge Over Troubled Water", which then arrives in full. If Elton was responsible for these sections, he should be recognised as not just playing them, but having probably composed the many original parts we here.

You can find specifics about this album, and a good deal more on Steve's website, ToBeKompleated, where you can download an astonishingly detailed catalogue of all of Elton's known session releases.

Thanks to Steve for the info.

Cover versions on the Philips label

This post concerns one of the more unusual items to turn up from the soundalike genre. Below is pictured the cassette, 28 Top Hits which was released on the Philips label in 1970 or 71.

28 is a lot of tracks to squeeze onto an album, but Philips were able to do it by editing down the songs and arranging them into short sets, usually with three tracks each. Mike Morton did a similar thing with some of his 1970s LPs, disguising the edits with fake audience applause, but here, Philips simply present these partial songs as they come, with some extra work done on making them sound continuous. The inserts show how the track sequence is arranged:

My initial thought on finding this tape was that it was probably compiled from some other series; after all, Philips are not generally known for soundalike cover versions. Prime suspect, thanks to the editing and sequencing, was Mike Morton, but in fact none of his, nor any other of the period LPs contain these recordings. I do not know where they originate at all!

This cassette was possibly a one-off. Pictured below is an advert from Philips concerning the launch of the "Sonic Series", of which the tape above forms a part. It would be fascinating to find out what other tapes in the series consisted of.