Super Hits from Brazil

It's well-known that "Top of the Pops" exported their wares around the world, but so far as the States goes, they barely dipped a toe in the water. Over there, Pickwick had their own ideas, and among other things, ran ten installments of a cover version series called "Super Hits", billed as being by the group, King's Road. Sometimes, these albums would borrow a track or three from the UK "Top of the Pops" (we assume it was that way around!) and in the case of the last three in the set, the sleeve photos too!

Which brings us to this latest virtual find: a copy of "Super Hits" volume 8 - not from the US, but from Brazil. All we have is the front cover, but that's enough to tell what's afoot -

The tell-tale sign here is the label logo. The US series was issued by Pickwick and has the appropriate branding on the front (see below); this Brazilian edition was on the little-known Itamaraty label.

The sleeve art is instantly recognisable to Poppers' fans. It's Nicola Austin in her red whatever-it's-called, as seen on UK volume 22. Cover photo aside, there are no crossovers between the US - and Brazilian - albums and the UK "Top of the Pops" series. 

This is the first Brazilian pressing of "Super Hits" we have seen, but it seems likely there are more. Perhaps not all ten, but probably others beyond just this volume 8. 

While we're on the subject, we may as well look at the American volumes 9 and 10. Volume 9 only shares a cover photo with "Top of the Pops", but volume 10 has the added bonus of three Poppers' recordings: "Daniel", "The Twelfth of Never" and "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree" - all much later than the UK albums, demonstrating that the UK had their hands on these photos first!

 

Top of the Pops vol 22 - demonstration copy

One for the hardcore record collector: A short time ago I reported on the sale of a white label test pressing from the Avenue LP series. These things are almost unheard of where covers LPs are concerned. Areas well-known to mainstream collectable records - white labels, acetates, promos, demos - are conspicuously absent in the annals of the budget cover version, which is why that white label was such a surprise to see.

Now another item has turned up which is not quite so special, but still extremely rare, and which I was delighted to add to my Top of the Pops collection this week. Here's the photo from Ebay:

What it shows is a copy of the UK volume 22 (circa Feb 1972), but this copy - which is probably still unplayed - is stickered with DEMONSTRATION RECORD NOT FOR RESALE, and it comes housed in a plain white card sleeve (original) which is stamped DEMONSTRATION RECORD.

For those not up to speed with the minutiae of record manufacture, I'll briefly explain what this is: When a new record is about to come out, advance copies are made and sent out to disc jockeys, reviewers, shops, etc. to publicise the release. Often they have the full commercial labels on the discs, marked "demonstration" or "demo", which prevents them from being passed off as sale stock. It is usually the case that these represent the very first pressings, for obvious reasons, and they generally go out before the standard edition is released. So, on that assumption, this LP was from the first press-run, and might have been "issued" before the full album was ready - which might also explain the absence of a printed cover.

OK, so that's the story. Below are some pictures of the cover and labels, plus an image of the commercial sleeve featuring Nicola Austin. To date this is the one and only demonstration copy I have discovered from the cover version world. There are bound to be more out there - let's hope they come to light!

Pye Chartbusters - rare bottomless edition turns up

Collectors will be familiar with Pye's notorious Chartbusters volume 1, which featured a topless cover photo of model Nicola Austin. Much less well-known is that Pye manufactured another version of the sleeve, probably in response to complaints from the public and/or retailers reluctant to display the topless version. The two editions are pictrued below:

The edition pictured top, which I will call the "bottomless" one, turned up for sale on Ebay recently - a rare thing in itself. The seller helpfully included photos of the back of the sleeve and the labels, which appear in all respects the same as the topless version - except for the photo of course.

The model on the "bottomless" version is not known at present, but the imagery is hard to miss; Pye are clearly having their own protest here, featuring a model with nothing at all below the neck - just the head is visible, as if severed from the body. I think we get the point!