More Top of the Pops LPs from South America

Happy new year!

The budget cover version scene has, unsurprisingly, been a little quiet for me over the festive season. However, I have come across a couple more Top of the Pops albums from overseas - South America to be precise - which I have been able to add to the ever-growing international discography. Sadly, I don't own copies of either - just images obtained from the internet. But it's still a pleasure to kick off 2013 with the following...

First off, the LP below is from Brazil, and is at once recognisable as a pressing of the UK collection, "Disco Mania: 40 Smash Disco Hits!" from 1976. Nothing much seems to have changed so far as the outer packaging is concerned, except that the label - Arara - have their logo on the front. (The red line on the cover photos is a stand used to help with the photography - it is not printed on the sleeve.)

Below are the actual record labels. Although not too clear, the Arara logo consists of a parrot perched on top of the letters spelling out the name. (The word Arara seems to mean parrot in Portuguese.) The track listing is the same as in the UK.

Our other festive find is pictured below, and in some ways is the more interesting of the two. It is a compilation unique to Argentina, and is called "Top Rock Music", which was released on the TK Records label, apparently in partnership with Hallmark, who have their logo in the corner of the sleeve. The sleeve also says "Presented by Peter Exs", although who he is, and what his input is here, is anyone's guess!

The album was released in 1975 and contains 12 tracks from Top of the Pops volumes 36 to 45, if the listing on the back is to be believed (it includes the song "If" twice). Assuming this is accurate, then there is also a 13th track, which is a version of the song "7-6-5-4-3-2-1 (Blow Your Whistle)", a disco single by the Gary Toms Empire, although we've no idea where this version comes from. Incidentally, we know this album also exists in an Argentinian cassette edition with a cover which is a mirror image of the LP sleeve.

Despite being a single album, the sleeve is gatefold. Below is the image printed on the inside, and in fact this is not the only Top of the Pops compilation from Argentina to feature a topless shot inside the gatefold.