Very rare box set on Ebay

Back in 1968 (we think!) mfp took the extraordinary step of re-issuing their first four budget cover version albums in a special box set - containing the albums, Hits '67, Smash Hits, Heart Hits and Hits '68.

Some years ago I spotted one online and bought it - I have never seen or heard of another copy anywhere until now. Remarkably, one of these mega-rare box sets is up for sale on Ebay:

More info on this box set can be found here. And here's an old blog post I did about my own copy back in 2012.

For a reasonable £29 plus shipping, this holy grail for cover version fans can be yours if you're quick. Here's a link to the Ebay listing.

It looks to be in reasonable condition, with some light wear and tear, and also has the original printed insert. Judging by the photos, the inner sleeves are later, but could easily be swapped for plain white ones, as originally issued. And some sticker removal would be in order for at least one of the record labels! Nonetheless, a great item for someone out there.

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**UPDATE: Item is sold.

Bill Wellings - did he start his own label??

A short while ago, we were contacted by Clive Hetherington about an album he had chanced upon, called "Top Hits of '72". here are some images of the LP in question:

If the model on the sleeve looks vaguely familiar, it's because we've seen her before, on the Deacon label's "Top Hits of the Year" for 1971:

So what have we here? Initially, this looks to be a typical LP of soundalike cover versions on some obscure label - International Hits Series London - so maybe this is an overseas release? The tracks on the album look familiar to us, even if the label does not - all of them were also included in the "Hot Hits" series - ranging across volumes 9 (January 1972) to 12 (July 1972).

Clive kindly did some sound checks to compare, and was able to confirm that these are the very same recordings. Of course, we didn't realise at first, but this could be one of our most significant finds for a long while.

What Clive has found is a previously unknown compilation from mfp's "Hot Hits" series, which appears in fact to be a UK release, as we shall see. This is amazing enough to a seasoned collector like myself, but is just the tip of an iceberg or two, which we need to explore in more detail.

First of all, there is a Canadian edition of this in existence too. This was released on the Arc label:

Highlighted above is the small print on the back of the sleeve (not stated on the UK edition) - "A BWD Production". This is the more obvious clue that these recordings are from the mfp stable. So is Clive's LP really a hitherto unknown UK album? I think so!

The International Hits Series London released several others which look very much like editions or compilations of Bill Wellings' mfp material. Here are some more examples:

"Soul Hits", "Million Seller Hits", "Smash Hits Presley Style" and so on - this could be mfp itself, in some parallel universe! More significantly, Clive's album is catalogue-numbered BW 012 - while the other six examples above are numbered BW 004; BW 005; BW 016; BW 018; BW 023; BW 027.

These are clearly Bill Wellings' recordings - and the catalogue numbers starting BW, his initials, surely point to this being Bill's very own label! This being so, how has it escaped our attention for so long???

If I have convinced you, I'm about to throw a spanner in the works. This is bothering me, and I would like to know the whole story...

Check out the last of the images above. "Smash Hits Presley Style" was almost issued on mfp in the UK, but the last three tracks are different. Here's the standard edition we know and love:

The trouble is, Bill Wellings' own edition (if that's what it is) was issued in Italy on the Broadway label:

Why does this matter? Because Broadway issued a long run of albums, many of them nothing to do with Bill Wellings, or mfp for that matter. In fact, we featured one on this blog just a few days ago (here). Broadway, and Broadway International, used the same catalogue prefix BW (presumable short for "BroadWay")... so perhaps BW does not stand for Bill Wellings, and the albums on the International Hits Series London label are just re-issues of Italian albums?

It's impossible to be sure, but my hunch is that they are the creation of Bill himself, and the coincidence of the "BW" catalogue numbers is just that - a coincidence.

Looking at the Italian album above, it has the Broadway logo on the front, but also that of the International Hits Series London label - what's that doing there if Broadway were the original issuers? Surely it implies International Hits Series London were the creators of the album? And similar logic applies to that Canadian press of "Top Hits of '72" - it mentions BWD, but nowhere does it mention Broadway. So in both cases, the overseas editions point back to the UK for their source, and not at each other.

So, we can cautiously conclude that Bill was indeed behind the International Hits Series London label - his own outlet, with his initials given in the catalogue numbers!! Clive's discovery is not just a hitherto unknown compilation, but a hitherto unknown label and whole series of albums containing our celebrated cover versions.

As a point of interest, here is mfp's year round-up for 1972. Only a couple of tracks duplicate Bill's selection (and in fact half of mfp's album is all-new, rather than being compiled from the usual albums - which is perhaps a clue to the fact that two labels were going at once in the UK).

One final thing to note - Clive's album was pressed on the same nearly black vinyl we have covered several times lately, which is in fact coloured when held up to a strong light. Here's an image:

What an amazing new find. Moments like this make me realise how little I really know about all this! Despite the confusion of the Broadway label, I do believe we have documented a Bill Wellings UK label for the first time. Please help us with any info you may have, so we can get to the bottom of it all!

Thanks to Clive for flagging this all up to us.

Springbok!

We Brits might think that "Top of the Pops" was the biggest series of cover versions ever, but our South African friends may disagree. Over there, the "Springbok" albums were being released from 1970 to late in the 80s, and although "only" 74 regular editions came out, add in all the side issues like "Springbok Hits of the Week" and "Springbok Hits of the Year" and the count spirals up to something like 130! Pretty impressive stuff.

The albums came out on the South African incarnation of mfp, and we've just bagged our very first copy.

This volume 12 appeared in 1973, and spans a period of time which in the UK was covered by mfp's "Hot Hits", roughly volumes 16 to 20. There are a few tracks in common - "Say Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose", "Take Me To The Mardi Gras", "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" and one or two others - but these are different versions, recorded in South Africa.

Readers may have noticed before, a link to a fantastic "Springbok" fan site on the right of this page. Have a click on it and go and explore this fantastic collection of album covers and track listings. The proprietor has also uploaded them to 45 Worlds - well worth a look to see how cover versions were appearing on the other side of the world! 

UK one-offs part 9: Sparkling Sounds

When Bill Wellings moved on from mfp in 1973, the label - which had pioneered the cover version format in 1967 - found itself without a product to fill the discount LP racks. "Hot Hits" folded, and mfp either lost interest or couldn't get their act together until the end of 1974, when they set upon a short-lived set of "Chart Choice" albums which never really caught on.

In the gap between "Hot Hits" and "Chart Choice", we were treated to occasional albums like Non Stop Pepsi Party, and this one - another drink promo with a slew of covers recordings:

Just the way you want to hear them, it says. The song selections are reasonable - mostly early-70s pop songs, originally from the likes of Gilbert O'Sullivan, Abba, Neil Sedaka and so on, plus "Hey Jude" - thrown in for Beatle fans out there.

It's not yet clear if this promotional LP was on general sale. It's unlikely that today, a product could be casually sold to kids with a blatant advert for alcohol on it (albeit looking rather like Bambi in a bow). (Bet you didn't know Babycham was also the first alcoholic drink to be advertised on British telly? No, I thought not.)

So was it a mail-order thing? Answers on a postcard please. (Or just leave a comment!)

UK one-offs part 4: Non Stop Pepsi Party

Biscuits, beer, petrol and polish - there's quite a diverse range of commercially branded cover albums. The one featured here, another installment in our current "one-off" series, proudly promotes Pepsi cola, in what purports to be a "non-stop party" (it ends after 20 songs!) by Denny Wright and the Hustlers.

The style is much in the Mike Morton Non-Stop vein, but this is of course on mfp and appears to have no links. As it says on the model's top, this 1974 album is Lipsmakinthirstquenchinacetastinmotivatingoodbuzzincooltalkinhighwalkinfastlivinevergivincoolfizzin stuff.

Indeed.

MFP tots up Australian double

This week I was pleased to hear from Phil Watt, who emailed from Australia with some images of the album below. At first glance, it's a copy of "Top of the Tots" volume 3 (which is where the sleeve art originated) - but look again...

It's called "The Best of Top of the Tots" but isn't a compilation in the usual sense. The track listing below reveals all:

This is in fact a double album re-issue, not of volume 3 but of "Tots" volumes 1 and 2, both of which, incidentally, had previously been released by Summit in Australia

How this album came about is a bit of a mystery. The stand-out feature is the MFP logo, indicating this is part of their Australian "Two of a Kind" series of double albums. We know from our other Australian "Top of the Pops" LPs that by about November 1972, the Australian Summit label behind "Top of the Pops" there had moved in with the Australian MFP, at offices on South Creek Road, Dee Why. This particular release is the most overt example of the two labels merging their interests, and we believe it appeared around 1975.

The cover reminds us of something else, too. A few years ago, MFP went all digital and issued a download-only album called "Hot Hits Presents Junior Choice Favourites". Look what they selected for the artwork:

One final thing to note - "Top of the Tots" volumes 1 and 2 also ended up being released in the UK as a double-pack. However this was not on vinyl, but cassette, as part of Pickwick's Ditto series of twin cassettes. Here's one of the pair of tapes:

Amazing find, this, and great to see MFP and Pickwick joining forces.

Thanks to Phil for the images.


+ + + + + + UPDATE + + + + + +


Further to the above, Phil has sent some info and images about the packaging of this Australian album.

The two LPs were housed inside plain paper inner sleeves, both of them slipped into a conventional sleeve (not a gatefold). And the labels are 'orange' mfp, as shown below. Great to see Pickwick mentioned straight above the mfp logo!

Mystey golden album - can anyone translate?

Summer 2015, and while this blog was in golden slumbers, I discovered the record below. Years of looking at covers albums has taught me to spot them easily (especially when the small print says "Beatt International") so of course I had to have it. £1 I think it was:

 

Wow - Benson & Hedges Celebration, it says. For those not in the know, Benson & Hedges, or B&H, were/are a brand of cigarettes famous for their gold boxes:

So this album has something to do with a promotion for cigarettes, but what? The most surprising thing of all is the script on the back. It's definitely some sort of Arabic, but exactly where this LP originated I cannot work out! What's needed is someone who can read the script - here are a few close-ups, if anyone can help:

As for the label, it's instantly recognisable as a Music for Pleasure design, and in fact says so across the tops. For what we have here, far from being some exotic Middle-Eastern concoction is, in fact, none other than our own "Smash Hits '75", draped in gold (only the sides have been swapped):

Interestingly, in the UK this was mfp's final cover version LP of the sort, not counting a couple of albums on their side-label, Fanfare, and closed off the "Hits" / "Hot Hits" concept which had been running for more than eight years.

So what do we make of this golden edition? It would be great to know the country of origin, and the rest of the story behind it. The promotional purpose is clear enough; but which countries in the region were big on B&H? Help us out if you know!

More pricing shenanigans from mfp

It's been a curiosity for ages: mfp and their retail price changes. I've done a couple of posts on it in the past - here and here.

The thing is, they used to print the retail price on the sleeve itself, which is great in theory but obviously more problematic than it seems. In fact, they ended up issuing issued several of their albums in different editions, with alternative prices on them. And where that failed, they used their own stickers to make things so.

Old news perhaps, but I've just stumbled across another stickered example. Here's the usual sleeve...

14 shillings and sixpence, in your old money.

Here's the stickered version...

Make it fifteen bob. Or 75p, if you will. (We were just going decimal, after all.)

Here's the sticker itself. You can see it is marked "Music for Pleasure", so it's come from the factory like this; it's not a shop sticker.

So, another curious addition to a somewhat convoluted discography, for us completists to deal with. No doubt there are many more out there...