Chevron magazine advert bigs up cover versions

I was recently contacted by Gary Jones, who brought to my attention an old advert for Chevron cassettes - the budget line stocked primarily, probably exclusively, by Woolworths in the late 1970s and 1980s. Gary chanced upon the ad in an old copy of Smash Hits magazine - as featured on this impressive blog. (It's the Christmas edition, posted up on December 1, 2014 - click the mag cover to see all the scans.) Anyhow - here it is, and you can click here to enlarge:

Note first, how the ad is titled "So This Is Music". Since the magazine which carried it appeared in December 1984, the unrelated Now! That's What I Call Music LP series had been up and running for a full and highly successful year - and the similarity of titles is striking.

The advert shows how much emphasis Chevron placed on their cover version cassettes at the time, not least in borrowing that title. Their series, This is Music, was running apace in 1984, and we see no fewer than three volumes cited in the ad, as well as cover scans of two - plus the end-of-year collection, Top Hits of the Year. Below are some close-ups.

 

Here we are in 2014, going on 2015 - an age of MP3s, MP4s, iPods, iPads - whatever - and it's amazing by modern standards that budget cover version cassettes were being actively promoted in a magazine dealing with proper chart music - albeit one aimed at teenagers, none of whom were to be seen dead without a Walkman. It shows how much emphasis Woolies placed on these cassettes, and presumably reflects on their popularity at the time.

Thanks to Gary for the heads up, and the proprietors and editors of the "Like Punk Never Happened" blog - a fine trip down memory lane for us older viewers.

Incidentally, you can find out more about Chevron's This Is Music series here.

Exactly what it says on the tin!

Shoppers milling around the music section of Woolworths in the autumn of 1985 might have been baffled to see a small rectangular object sitting on the shelves, wondering what on earth it was. No problem - the Chevron label forestalled any unease by printing the solution on the front: "This..." they explained, "...Is Music". Volume 6 in fact. Here's my copy, just landed:

This is quite an attractive item really. Check out the songs - a few period classics like "Part Time Lover", "There Must Be An Angel" and "Running Up That Hill". They don't write 'em like that anymore - mind you, we were saying that in 1985 too - witness revived oldies like "Dancing In The Street" and "I Got You Babe"!

This cassette is the sixth in a series of seven, which ran between 1984 and mid-1986. Chevron of course had years earlier been issuing the "Parade of Pops" series, but in the 1980s, they re-launched their cover version offer with this title, plus the concurrent series, "Hits Hits Hits" (only four of which ever emerged). Of course one needn't look too hard to see where they got their titles - massive at the time were the original chart hits album series, "Now! That's What I Call Music" (Virgin) and "Hits" (CBS) - so, "This is Music" and "Hits Hits Hits" were titles bound to fool the unwary (not!).

All this might seem a tad funny these days. Equally quaint/silly were the imaginary artists who were credited on the insert. "Angel" wasn't by Madonna - no, it was by Rosanna. And "Running Up That Hill" was performed by Teresa Green. Do you know Teresa Green?... (If you don't get the joke, ask the nearest 5-year-old and watch them laugh.)

They also use the label's standard group identities on a few tracks, where they apparently ran out of such inspiration - names like LA Sounds and Sound Sensation are familiar enough - while Hit Machins Unlimited is not by collectors of the famous Machin stamps, but a mere typo.

So are we laughing at them, or with them? It's hard to know. I think it was "at" when volume 7 appeared, with the records on the front now perching on little wooden stilts - what on earth??

Anyway, these tapes are pretty rare these days. I'm gradually amassing a collection but it's slow progress! Glad to get volume 6 safely in my cassette case - let's hope some more turn up soon.