When does a one-off become a series?

We had another interesting email from Clive Hetherington recently, in which he flagged up a couple of covers albums we'd not seen before. Both are UK albums on the World (?) label, an imprint of the World Record Club.

Which may ring a bell; we've featured this (supposedly) one-off from Word Record Club before see here:

This album appeared sometime in the second half of 1964, and so far as we knew, was never followed up.

Now Clive's research has thrown up two possible successors. The label is different, but the company the same. Fistly, here are a few images:

The top one is called "DJ's Dozen" and the bottom one is "Hot Pops". Although both contain his from summer and autumn 1965, in both cases the labels state 1966 as the year of issue, so they weren't released currently with the hit versions.

These are wonderful finds, but can we really consider the World Record Club releases to be a series? Probably not. Nevertheless, these new discoveries will be of much interest to UK collectors, and provide some more evidence of the cover version idea gaining traction in the mid-1960s.

Here are the track listings, and where the corresponding single entered the UK charts, the date is given as a point of reference:

DJ’s Dozen

• What the World Needs Now
• On My Word (12/06/65)
• Ticket To Ride (17/04/65)
• It Ain’t Me Babe (05/06/65)
• Please Don’t Just Stand There
• Help (31/07/65)
• There But For Fortune (10/07/65)
• Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere (29/05/65)
• Colours (05/06/65)
• You’ve Got Your Troubles (10/07/65)
• Mr. Tambourine Man (19/06/65)
• I’m Henry The Eighth I Am

Hot Pops

• Satisfaction (28/08/65)
• The Time In Between
• Catch Us If You Can (17/07/65)
• All I Really Want To Do (14/08/65)
• I’m Alive (29/05/65)
• Looking Though The Eyes Of Love (12/06/65)
• And I Love Her
• We’ve Gotta Get Out Of This Place (17/07/65)
• You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away (25/09/65)
• Down In The Boondocks (09/10/65)
• Don’t Make My Baby Blue (07/08/65)
• Unchained Melody (14/08/65)

We must also mention the album below, chanced upon while looking for more info:

"Top Pop Song Hits Vol 2" is basically a compilation from the two UK albums - everything points to it being a US release. I wonder what they did for Vol 1??

Thanks to Clive for his scans and info.

UK one-offs part 11: Everyone Who Had a Hit

This historical item was one of Britain's first cover version long players, appearing in late summer 1964 (the last of the featured hits to make a splash was "Do-Wah-Diddy-Diddy", which entered the UK charts in July, on its way to number 1). So it's not the very first - a couple of "Top Twelve" albums beat is to that accolade - but still a nice early example of the format. To our knowledge it was never followed up, making it the latest in our series of featured one-offs.

World Record Club are a slightly unusual name to see in the cover version arena, generally confining their interest to name artists of the day, as well as classical recordings. And while the title of the album is a play on "Anyone Who Had A Heart", the joke doesn't quite work, as it contains nobody who had a hit (at least, not a big one), but instead a bunch of soundalike singers and musicians.

They aren't entirely anonymous - some of the names are written across the back: Ray Ellington, Janie Marden, Sandra Gale, Angela Page, The Young Ones ... and some of these - particularly Ray Ellington - were known radio and recording stars of their day.

Nice to see the cover version idea taking shape, and great to see some Motown, Burt Bacharach and Beatles hits included.