In the late eighties, I was an Oklahoma kid going to university in Montréal, and without much for spending money. It always amazed me how much more expensive CDs were in Canada than they were in the US...
Still hoping that some label would reissue the great pop album by Dan Hartman called "It Hurts To Be In Love", which was full of great overlooked '80's sounds like the following ...
I've posted this before in threads about bands that only released one album, but this album has also never been released on CD. It's one of my top 20 albums of all time, wall-to-wall power-pop perfection, and contains a song ("Wastelands") that Midge Ure (who produced this album) later recorded and released as a single off his The Gift album. Modern Man - Concrete Scheme. Modern Man morphed into Messengers, who went on to tour with Ultravox, and release several singles.
Anything by Pat MacDonald & The Essentials (pre-Timbuk3 but Barabara K is on the last track of the first album plus all of the following E.P. FWIW): Pat MacDonald & The Essentials / Lowdown Pat MacDonald & The Essentials / Essentialist Propaganda EP Pat MacDonald has 3 tracks from Lowdown available for download for free off his website (From ) but I don't believe they've ever been released on CD...
The original. Buckner & Garcia - Pac-Man Fever Never has or probably never will be released on CD or digital for that matter.
I wasn't aware until now that the Immaculate Fools debut album from 1985 was never released on CD until the career spanning box set that was released by Cherry Red just before Christmas. It has only taken 35 years. I have had a vinyl copy since the day of release and had always been happy with that but it is nice to finally have it on disc now.
I don’t think The Explorers Hold by The Trypes (a Feelies-related group) was ever issued on CD. It’s really a four-song EP, though.
Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers’ Rockin’ & Romance has technically never been issued on CD. You can buy a custom-made CD-R from the label, Twin Tone, but (according to Discogs) you don’t get any artwork or liner notes. It’s just a silver recordable disc, I guess.
that's sad. Surely there must be some reissue label left that would license the Twin tone discography.
It looks like a good deal of Twin/Tone's catalog is now available digitally on iTunes, but Rockin' and Romance isn't one of them. Their webpage, which looks like it hasn't been updated in some time, offers a link to buy the album on iTunes, but the link no longer works. The CD-R offer looks to still be available, though.
In the UK, the big chart acts of 1979 and 1980, for example albums by Gary Numan and Adam and The Ants, Stiff Little Fingers etc were never considered for CD release in 1983-1984. Such a shame.
Would very much appreciate Deborah Allen's Telepathy (1987) issued on CD. The title track is one of Prince's best contributions to an artist outside of himself. Deborah really rises to the occasion, too. Had RCA not gone through a shake-up in its leadership at the time of this album's release I think a more aggressive promo would have made this single more known today. As it was, the song was released with as little PR as possible, which was odd for a release as curious as this. The album overall is a fine album, pretty much cut from the same fabric as "Telepathy". 12" versions & a B-Side are all available for inclusions on an expanded issue. Considering that Deborah was experimenting with her sound for this album I'm sure there are a few gems from these sessions still in the vault, too.
Nevertheless, they have all been widely available on CD since, so not that relevant to this thread? Another off-topic entry (since it was just a single, not an album, and released in 1979...): the Damned's ex-guitarist Brian James's solo effort "Ain't That A Shame" hasn't to my knowledge been ever released on a CD. A fitting title if ever there was one - it's a fabulous piece of power pop, one of my all time favorite records. A re-recording can be found on BJ's solo album from 1990 but it just isn't the same.
He seems to have disappeared from SH Forums. Kinda devastating to me, as I love his updates about his label.
The Wombles – The Wombles Christmas Album (1983, Vinyl) The Wombles Christmas Album. Released on vinyl only in 1983. Sadly never reissued on CD.
