A&M "Classics" CDs from the 1980s

That's right! Why wasn't there a Claudine Longet volume?

 

Didn't initial pressings of the Gino Vannelli disc include a free tuft of his chest hair?

 

All 27 covers:



Scans courtesy of Mr. Bill at A&M Corner.

Harry

 

Just reviewed the database for my CD collection . . . I have Japan Denon pressings through Cat Stevens Volume 24. The Pablo Cruise (Volume 26) and LTD (Volume 27) compilations I have were pressed by Denon USA. I don't own the Squeeze Classics Volume 25 CD.

The A&M Classics series has always struck me as a bit uneven. While the sound quality is generally good and the packaging states that many of these sets were assembled from original master tape sources, several CDs in the series have truncated single or LP versions of songs (Supertramp, Brothers Johnson, Peter Frampton, Styx), alternate non-hit versions of songs (Joe Cocker, Joan Baez) and re-recordings and remixes (Carpenters, of course!).

 

Thanks! That's very helpful. It still leaves the possibility of J-for-US pressings of 25-27 in doubt, but at least it formally "wraps up" the other 24.

I'll hold out for Denons of the ones I don't have from 1-24 but I might just buy US pressings of the other 3 and be done with them - I can continue to look for potential Denon versions in the future...

 

The PDMC USA is from the era when A&M was acquired by PolyGram (1989) and the PDO USA became PMDC USA when DuPont sold their shares in PDO to Philips/PolyGram (1990-1). Making this disc likely a 1991 at earliest. Later versions have a PolyGram catalog number (lots of numbers) instead of the A&M catalog no. of CD-xxxx.

 

This would be a killer anthology!

 

Anyone with Nazareth, Volume 16, what are your thoughts on its sound quality?

 

The "Purple" series!

 

Man, I know people say they have J-for-US pressings of Nazareth, Mendes and Lani Hall, but I've searched for years and can't find them!

 

I remember when these came out...was disappointed that there was no Baja Marimba Band or Ozark Mountain Daredevils in the series.

 

I made my own Baja Marimba Band FOURSIDER based on the double LP track list using whatever digital versions existed and filling in with clean needledrops.

 

It was posted above, but Photobucket spoiled it. Let's try again. These are the 27 releases in the A&M Classics 25th Anniversary series. Original scans are from Mr. Bill at AMCorner. I combined them all into one image:

 

Just looking at that now, I'm realizing a couple of things. The first 12, up through Peter Frampton have the word CLASSICS in a serif-type font. Starting with 13, Nils Lofgren, the remainder all have a plainer sans-serif font for the word "CLASSICS". Also, the various individual scans have great variations in the color purple, whereas the actual discs I have tend to be closer in color.

 

Thanks for posting this image of all of the A&M Classics compilations.

 

I am very happy with the sound of this compilation.

 

@HGN2001

Harry,

 

For those that own the Nils Lofgren disc, how does it sound? It looks like a great track list.
I currently have:
Herb Alpert and Tijuana Brass-Japan
Peter Frampton-Japan
Sergio Mendes-USA
Joe Cocker-Japan
I also have "The Autobiography Of Supertramp" West German A&M disc with the same track listing as the Classics Vol 9. Probably same mastering but just different artwork and name.

 

I have three copies of the Tijuana Brass disc. The first one I bought was Made in Japan and has the track indexing error. (#13 "So What's New" also contains all of "Spanish Flea". The disc later corrects as "Zorba The Greek" is split in two halves.) Somehow I got word that it had been fixed and bought another copy. That one is a Made in USA. Then a relative passed away and had one lying around so I rescued it from the garage sale. It's another Japan disc with the error.

Other than that, I have:
#2 Carpenters - USA
#6 Chuck Mangione - Japan
#18 Sergio Mendes - USA
#19 Lani Hall - USA
#20 Alpert solo - Japan
#22 Wes Montgomery - USA
#23 Burt Bacharach - Japan
#24 Cat Stevens - USA

 

I've just picked up four more of these in the used market on Discogs for not very much money. It seems a shame not to have more in my collection when they are readily available. I've grabbed Supertramp, Styx, Rita Coolidge, and Joe Cocker. Probably haven't even reached $20 yet.

 

Most of these are easy to find - especially if you're not picky about country of pressing origin. If you're fine with US or Japan, you can locate almost all of them on the cheap.

Lani Hall isn't tough to find online, but it's expensive on eBay - and as noted earlier, it's next to impossible to find the Japan pressing. When I ran this thread initially, we got claims the J-for-US Lani exists, but I've never seen it appear on eBay...

 

I’ve got them all. It is hard to find decent scans of the artwork, due to the color variation.

 

I see what you did there, Jawaka.

 

I just got this CD off ebay but I'm concerned it may be a bootleg since it does not have a barcode or say "Volume 19" on the cover.

If anyone has good or bad news for me I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!