Sounds Like Hits - White Label Promo!

White label promos are almost unknown in the world of the budget cover version. So much so, this is the first I've seen - I'm not counting this white label test pressing.

I was lucky enough to pick up this LP from Ebay for a couple of quid, and although it didn't come with a sleeve, it is a worthy addition to my collection:

It is, of course, Fontana's "Sounds Like Hits No. 5" from early 1969. Presumably this was not the only one from the series to be put out in promo form, but none other has so far surfaced. Here are the commercial copy labels and front cover:

Nice find!

Sounds-Like Hits - Kenyan cover versions?

A week or two ago I chanced upon an unusual-looking album on Ebay - "Sounds-Like Hits volume 2". The listing had just ended, so I missed my chance to bag it for 99p, and the would-be seller decided he wouldn't re-list it. So, it's one which got away from me...

Further research proved a little fruitful but not much! There was, not surprisingly, a volume 1 as well, as listed on Discogs. Here are both albums, with song titles printed on the front:

Both albums appear to have come out in 1975. Whether they really are soundalikes is hard to know, but the vintage of the tracks suggests as much - the contents of volume 1 were practically all UK hits in 1974-75, giving it a topical twist, while those visible on the front of volume 2 follow suit (except "Loving Arms", which is unknown to us). This selecting of recent hit material is one of the trademarks of the budget covers LP.

The full track listing for volume 1, incidentally, is as follows:

• When Will I See You Again     
• Can't Get Enough Of Your Love Baby     
• You're My First My Last My Everything     
• Shame Shame Shame     
• Rock The Boat     
• Rock Your Baby     
• I Can't Leave You Alone     
• Let's Get It On     
• Kung Fu Fighting     
• Dance The Kung Fu     
• Doctor's Orders     
• Drift Away

And the album title? It's tempting to link it to the UK "Sounds Like Hits" series from Fontana/Rediffusion, but they'd stopped appearing by the end of 1970. Consequently there are no direct links, and cover version equivalents of tracks like "Shame Shame Shame" and "Rock The Boat" are obscure - not least because few regular LP series were still appearing come 1975.

We do know that AIT was the label here, which was operating out of Kenya. Again from Discogs: "A.I.T. Records, run by the Kenyan politician and music producer, P. Oluoch Kanindo, was an important player in the Kenyan music industry with a publishing wing, EIT Pub."

Not many budget cover versions are known from Africa (apart from those issued in South Africa). I have just one in my collection, an East African edition of "Top of the Pops volume 20". Wish I'd stumbled upon "Sounds-Like Hits volume 2" a little earlier, and it would be in my collection right now! Instead, I'll keep my eyes peeled for more info...

Sounds Like Hits - a glimpse of volume 8

Among the hardest of all UK covers albums to find are those from the Rediffusion "Sounds Like Hits" series. I have previously lamented the fact that, after many a long year's collecting, I still haven't so much as laid eyes on the sleeves to volumes 3 or 8 - let alone got my hands on copies. Gradually I've been ticking them off, but these two still evade me - so I was delighted a few days ago to be contacted by Australian collector, Ken Grady.

Ken describes himself as a casual 'jackdaw' who picks up LPs he finds on his travels. Luckily, one of his most recent scoops was an Australian copy of "Sounds Like Hits" volume 8! It was issued in Australia on the local Astor label, who among other things, were also issuing all the Marble Arch "Chartbusters" LPs to Australian listeners, at the same time.

From what we know about the Astor editions from the "Sounds Like Hits" series, the sleeve designs always match their UK equivalents, with just the relevant label logos changed (gold stickers on the front come in handy!). So, we can be pretty sure this is what the UK album looked like - if it exists, that is. (Which it surely does.)

Here are the images Ken sent through:

Our thanks to Ken for details of this, and several other Australian albums, which have greatly increased our knowledge of the Astor label discography.

For more info on Australian pressings of "Sounds Like Hits", see here.

Sounds like a new Rediffusion LP

Long-in-the-tooth readers will recall my near miss in locating a copy of Sounds Like Hits volume 9, last year. Well, I'm happy to say that I've finally bagged a copy and at a modest price too. These albums are among the hardest to find in the regular covers LP sector. A couple of them, I don't even know what the sleeves look like, they are that scarce.

So here's my latest one...

A glance at the track listing soon confirms this is essentially the same album as issued by Fontana. The tracks are even in the same order:

Interestingly, the Fontana edition is dated 1970, whereas the Rediffusion LP has 1969 on the labels. This suggests the Fontana editions were coming out later than Rediffusion - although it's still not entirely clear why two different labels were issuing the same discs. Note also that Fontana had only reached number 8 in their series by now, whereas Rediffusion were up to number 9. Curious.

Oh, and notice too a rare example of a non-hit album track being included: The Beatles' "Maxwell's Silver Hammer". You don't see that too often...

Sounds Like Hits - the agony and the ecstasy

The title of this blog post is a little melodramatic, but you'll see where I'm coming from...

I sometimes visit the old market at Spitalfields in East London. Usually there's nothing much to find from a budget LP perspective, but yesterday I came up trumps with the two albums below. They are numbers 10 and 11 of the extremely hard-to-find "Sounds Like Hits" on Rediffusion. I was amazed to find not one but two, in great condition - and in buying them, managed to double the number I have in my collection - an indication of how rare they are.

So, that's the "ecstasy" part. Now for the "agony" bit. The seller saw me clutching these, while rifling through the boxes in search of yet more, and asked me if I'd seen the other two as well. No, I hadn't - so he helped out with the search, adding that they all came in together and should be next to each other in his boxes. Alas, between us we failed to locate the others, although he hadn't recalled selling them (perhaps they'd been pinched). According to memory, he said they were numbers 8 and 9 of the same series - which is desparately frustrating as I would have loved to pick them up as well - especially number 8; I've never even seen what the cover looks like!

So, two managed to get away, but nevertheless, I have numbers 10 and 11 secure on my shelf. It's interesing that number 10 turns out to have a red label with white star. All the others I've seen in the "Sounds Like Hits" series are yellow, but the fact that the star is white and not black proves the use of red was intentional, and not just a case of the wrong paper being used. These are the labels from the two LPs:

Note that No. 11 is produced by Allan Crawford. He was of course the man behind "Top of the Pops", and was still producing those at the time. Unsurprisingly, there are several tracks (no fewer than eight) which appear both here and on "Top of the Pops" volume 10. Although these are different versions, they are very similar and most seem to feature the same vocalists as on TOTP.

If the buyer of "Sounds Like Hits" number 8 is reading this - any chance of a photo of the front cover? Pretty please!!!

Copycat ... er ... Covers - part 2

A little while ago I posted some examples of record sleeves which use the same artwork as the UK covers albums. Part 1 featured examples from the "World Top 12" series - see it here.

This is part 2, which shows sleeves from a range of UK LP series, and overseas counterparts. There are several more examples out there, and we would be grateful for further contributions. Part 3 will follow in due course...

First up, is the Contour label's "16 Chart Hits" volume 12. Below are albums from Finland (left) and Portugal (right). The Portuguese LP reverses the photo, and is part of a series called "Top Pops", from which this is a best-of compilation. Looks and sounds quite familiar to me... 

 

 

These next two examples are from the UK series, "12 Chart Busters" (or "12 Chart Buster Hits" as it was known for a while). Next to volume 10 is a Brazilian LP with the same photo, in the same rectangular frame. Underneath us UK volume 12, plus a Spanish album on the Olympo label (who issued some Top of the Pops LPs there) which has a photo from the same shoot.

 

The British Rediffusion albums are among the more difficult covers LPs for the collector. Nevertheless, the cover art crops up in unexpected places, as shown in these examples. "Hit Parade Special" volume 8 has an equivalent sleeve from Australia, used on an LP of Simon & Garfunkel covers. The photo is slightly different and has also been reversed, which can be seen from the slope of the sea behind the model.

And "Sounds Like Hits USA", an obscure British release from 1970 is mirrored in this Brazilian album, also containing chart cover versions. 

Lastly, here are two examples from the much later Chevron series, "Parade of Pops". In both cases the covers are from LPs, whereas one of these was only released on cassette in the UK. And in both cases, the photos are different, but clearly taken at the same photo session. Top is an album from New Zealand, and bottom, one from Turkey.

 

I'll post some more of these at some point. I think a "Top of the Pops" special might be next...