More on the Top 12 Pops...

Readers might recall that collector Bill Williams contacted us a while ago about an old 78rpm, 10-inch record on the Top 12 Pops label, dating back to 1956. We featured it here, and below is a label scan:

At the time, this very early covers record was the first we knew of the label, but for a different but seemingly related release from a little earlier. The records seem to have been mail-order releases, and now, through the shop window of Ebay, we have chanced upon a couple more:

The scans show two more releases in the series: EMO 19 and EMO 62.

EMO 19 consists of: Memories Are Made Of This / It's Almost Tomorrow / Only You / I Hear You Knocking / Croce Di Oro / Gee Whittaker.

EMO 62 consists of: Great Pretender / Teenage Prayer / Band Of Gold / Davy Crocket / Sixteen Tons / Shifting Whispering Sands.

The track listings suggest that the records date to around 1955-56, and we would love to find out more about this series. These two got away from us, but if we chance upon more, we will post them up here as part of the ongoing research into this early covers label. 

Very early covers EP discovered

Thanks to record collector Bill Williams, I have come across the following 10-inch record, which might be termed an EP, given that it contains six tracks. It's something of a prototype for the more familiar 7-inch EPs which would follow in the 1960s, but this one dates right back to 1956, and is on 78!

The title is, as the scans show, "Top 12 Pops of the Month Record Club" - so it's a mail-order club release. The record is not anonymous - it's credited to the Top Pops Orchestra and Vocalists. What do we know about them? Not a lot, but we can make an educated guess.

Regular readers might recall a post about a year ago about another 78 - the first I'd ever found, in fact - by the Top Hits of the Month Record Club. The original post is here and a label scan below:

My hunch is that this latest find is by the same outfit, who have altered their name somewhat. The real clincher for me is the catalogue number. The one above has EMO 11, and this new discovery has EMO 20. This seems more than coincidence, so we can conjecture that it's part of the same run of mail-order 78s, from the same source.

Incidentally, despite its speed of 78 rpm, this EP is pressed onto vinyl rather than shellac, so it has a real claim to being one of the first, if not the first covers EP released in the UK.

Our thanks to Bill for the images and info.