Spoiled booklets (in all forms) has become a bigger issue for me now, than the disc condition. So many arrive with major damage to them. If it's a very cheap or HTF item and the disc's fine, I'll just suck it up and keep looking for another one (MM sent me a copy of the 1988 Lilac Time CD - disc was actually near perfect but the booklet had been very mandhandled). But quite often I'll not be so accepting. EG.
But compared to this it’s almost Mozartian… It’s a miracle my TV isn’t in pieces the number of times I’ve had to endure this
I hate this kind of BS so much. 'Freespirit' 'Fearless'. Bollocks! It usually comes on YouTube bombarding me with modern toss when I just want to watch some comforting video about old rock music.
That Death Disco version was intriguing, and motivated me to look into those ever-present TOTP albums: About the albums - TOP OF THE POPS LPs (weebly.com) Almost Better Than The Real Thing – Nostalgia Central Cheap Thrills – The Amazing World Of The Top Of The Pops Cover Version LPs – The Reprobate (reprobatepress.com) Obviously I have been aware of them, and there have been discussions of some very well known musicians contributing in their early careers to other similar projects: Elton John and Thin Lizzy (who did an entire Deep Purple 'compilation' LP, apparently). But I was not aware of the specific history of the Top Of The Pops series. I learned they had nothing to do with the BBC weekly television programme, but adopted the name once it was discovered it had not been copyrighted. Also that there was a bespoke 'in-house' team led by producer/arranger Bruce Baxter from 1971-78, who used a network of session pros and singers to churn out the cover versions like an assembly line. For sixty five albums in the 70s. Your album was just outside this 'classic period' which ended when Bruce Baxter quit (one can imagine his relief during the last ever session after seven years of doing this stuff!). The label Hallmark then decided to continue but by buying in covers from rival Coombes music, this meant the same versions would appear on other similar albums. This in turn hastened the decline of a series that was already being hit by compilations of original versions. And increased purchasing power of the population, one assumes, who no longer needed the bargain of 12-16 'hits' for the price of one seven-inch 45. I find all this fascinating. Not enough to start collecting these LPs (I hope! - you never know...). There's just so much original out there to investigate and enjoy. But as I write this, somewhere an unwitting charity shop chancer or two goes about his daily routine, not realising the day will soon come when we shall meet as he spots me pouring over one of these albums, and he ventures to say cattily 'You do know none of those are the original versions, don't you?' And I will reply, 'Unless I am very much mistaken, this is in fact late period Baxter, featuring excellent tubswork from Andy Newark throughout and a rare appearance by the American bottleneck wizard Dylan Shanne, on temporary loan to the Kingsway studios. A must have if only for the sterling rendition of 'Only Women Bleed' by Baxter's loyal and talented man Stu Calver - his 'Fly Robin Fly' is to be played at my funeral. And only fifty pence! Let us hope the condition makes it a keeper! I have left a few for you, sadly only from the Coombes era, I do hope you can find something you desire, but know this treasure is coming home with me!'. I reckon he'll soon be joining his wife elsewhere in the shop to debate whether that teapot will scrub up well enough to be taken down to the caravan.
I'm still going to bin every one that comes my way, 15 records sent to landfill this week, the more we can remove the better the world will be, just imagine charity shops and boot sales without the worthless vinyl, one can but dream.
The '80s ones are quite collectible, particularly those with a Page 3 Stunna on the cover. If you haven't heard the Top of the Poppers cover of Bohemian Rhapsody, do give it a listen on YouTube and marvel at the version they knocked together in an afternoon, in comparison to the painstaking original. It's rather impressive.
Heartbreaking when that happens. I used to leave discs on the shelf if the booklet had been caught in the tab* but after leaving behind a copy of Olivia Newton John's Totally Hot (or Soul Kiss - I can't remember now!) in Folkestone for this reason and that having to spend another few years before I came across another copy in Inverness I've decided that if it's something decent to simply pick it up now and hope a nicer copy turns up somewhere down the road. Of course, recently there hasn't been a sausage to pick up anyway. Buying CDs sight unseen from the likes of Music Magpie has lost its novelty too these days. * One had standards, don't you know..
My favourite ever episode of Charity Shop Classics is the one dedicated to budget covers, including lots of TOTPs. Just the first two or three tracks should give you a taste, and a proper laugh. The guy they got to impersonate Marc Almond is quite something... Mixcloud
They aren't collectible in any real sense, they lack artistic merit and rarity, what happens is that numerous people see them all the time in charities and boot sales and think that perhaps they should collect them, a bit like stamps I guess, then some of those people write about it online creating a little false hype about Elton John etc., but it's not based on any genuine love or quality and eventually those collections find their way back into the charities whereas they should be finding their way into the back of dustbin lorries.
The beauty of my plan is that there is a finite number of TOTPs LPs and natural attrition has already played it's part, I calculate that a properly funded programme could eradicate them from the wild within fifteen years.
If the disc is nice, but booklet not, there's a chance in the future a copy with the opposite will turn up, has done for me a few times, so I then combine the good elements to make a decent version. Of course it depends how pricey the CD is, as to whether this is a financially sound approach. EG.
If you ever see this one for a quid, Mart, I'll take it off your hands. Top Of The Pops - Top Of The Pops Vol. 92
True, but usually only when coupled with extreme rarity, being both abundant and lacking in artistic merit should prevent it, but the appealing covers, and substantive catalogue that makes a complete run look achievable due to that very abundance which means the usual rules don't apply, but also means that for the vast majority of collectors it's just a box ticking exercise with no real passion, hence so many released back to clutter the world.
Linda Lusardi fans? Her brother was an excellent engineer. I'm getting a feeling of déjà vu, you may have mentioned it before.
I still pick CDs up if that's happened on a CD that doesn't show up often and it's cheap. It's just bloody annoying!
I don't think the very last few in the series sold in any great quantity, as by then we had plenty of proper comps to buy, hence some being much rarer than the vast majority.
The later ones may be much scarcer, but they are hardly rare, trust me, I collect a lot of things pressed in the low hundreds fifty years ago, that's rare, a mid-eighties LP that sold in the thousands is relatively common, though I will do my bit to make them all scarcer.
Can anyone confirm that Tesco, and maybe other supermarkets, used to play cover versions of hit songs as piped music? Something to do with the cost of licensing the public playing of the originals, if I remember right.
