K-tel compilations of the '70s - Progressive Rock Music Forum (2024)

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Stool Man's thread about 20 Dynamic Hits sent me on a nostalgia trip, wherein I discovered this beauty:

Those "K-Tel albums" of the 70s

My cousins, who were older than me, tended to have these albums, so I associated them with a grown-up taste in music. *cough*

But my mum did buy us kids one for Christmas:

Ah, those were the days, when a mother could buy her young children an album featuring a young woman's exposed buttock cheek and not expect a visit from a social worker.

Who else here was blessed with these treasures?

I have this one from the early 80's.

These albums were revolutionary, honest. They offered a cheap way to get the most popular songs of the day, decades before file sharing, downloads, MP3s, etc. The only way to preserve the songs without buying the singles was to record them on tape or cassette, usually off the radio.

I have this one too:

Edited by rushfan4 - March 21 2013 at 14:04

Easy Livin wrote:

The only way to preserve the songs without buying the singles was to record them on tape or cassette, usually off the radio.

Lordy, I did enough of that! Then I'd sit with the tape, hitting play/stop/rewind while I transcribed the lyrics to The Logical Song or the guitar parts to Wish You Were Here.

Good times.

This is an odd one because it has a Pink Floyd track(Welcome To The machine) and Pink Floyd generally don't permit their songs to be used on compilation albums. The explanation in this case is printed in red on the bottom of the cover: 'Proceeds from the album were contributed to "The Year of the Child" to help sick and handicapped children'. Apparently the album was compiled by members of Led Zeppelin.

A1 Electric Light Orchestra – Shine A Little Love
A2 Wings (2) – Jet
A3 Gerry Rafferty – Baker Street
A4 Dire Straits – Sultans Of Swing
A5 Eric Clapton – Let It Grow
A6 Elton John – Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
A7 Cliff Richard – Devil Woman
B1 Supertramp – Give A Little Bit
B2 Thin Lizzy – Boys Are Back In Town
B3 Yes – Don't Kill The Whale
B4 Pink Floyd – Welcome To The Machine
B5 Bad Company (3) – Rock & Roll Fantasy
B6 Led Zeppelin – Candy Store Rock

Edited by Dean - March 21 2013 at 14:08

Two more, slightly older:

A1 Who, The – Substitute
A2 Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, The – Fire
A3 Procol Harum – Whiter Shade Of Pale
A4 Cream (2) – Sunshine Of Your Love
A5 Jimi Hendrix – Hey Joe
A6 Elton John – Crocodile Rock
A7 Ashton, Gardner & Dyke – Resurrection Shuffle
A8 Faces, The* – Stay With Me
A9 Derek & The Dominos – Layla
A10 Thunderclap Newman – Something In The Air
B1 Spencer Davis* – Give Me Some Lovin'
B2 Free – My Brother Jake
B3 T-Rex* – Get It On
B4 Joe co*cker – With A Little Help From My Friends
B5 Status Quo – Down The Dustpipe
B6 Manfred Mann – 54321
B7 Move, The – Blackberry Way
B8 Hollies, The – Here I Go Again
B9 Kinks, The – All Day & All Of The Night
B10 Deep Purple – Hush

A1 O'Jays* – Backstabbers
A2 Johnny Nash – There Are More Questions Than Answers
A3 Roxy Music – Virginia Plain
A4 Atomic Rooster – Devil's Answer
A5 Judge Dread – Big Six
A6 Dave And Ansil Collins* – Double Barrel
A7 John Kongos – Tokoloshe Man
A8 Daniel Boone – Rock And Roll Bum
A9 Free – All Right Now
A10 Faces (3) – Stay With Me
B1 Tyrannosaurus Rex – Debora
B2 Mac Davis – Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me
B3 Lesley Duncan – Sing Children Sing
B4 Colin Blunstone – I Don't Believe In Miracles
B5 Pioneers* – I Believe In Love
B6 Johnny Pearson – Sleepy Shores
B7 Greyhound (4) – Black And White
B8 Lindisfarne – Meet Me On The Corner
B9 Dandy Livingstone – Big City
B10 Cat Stevens – Moonshadow

I've highlighted the Lesley Duncan track here because this album was my first introduction to her wonderful voice, she never found much success as a solo singer but produced two notable albums, Sing Children Sing and Earth Mother, worked with Elton John, sang backing vocals on Dark Side Of the Moon and lead on Alan Parson's Eve. Sadly Lesley died in 2010 after a long illness.

Her song "Love Song"has been covered by over 150 different artists, this early acid-folk version is the original.

Edited by Dean - March 21 2013 at 14:25

This is the one I had when growing up.

(1980)

Edited by infocat - March 21 2013 at 21:31

Snow Dog wrote:

Never had a K tel album, had a few Top Of The Pops ones.

My sister had this one:

These regularily topped the UK charts in the early 70s and if I remember correctly the reason why budget albums were eventually excluded from the charts was because a Top Of The Pops album containing a cover of Maggie May knocked Rod Stewart's Every Picture Tells A Story (that contains the original version) off the number one spot.

Edited by Dean - March 22 2013 at 05:42

^I remeber not realising they were all cover versions at first and then I though...this Sweet song doesn't sound quite right!

Not bad versions though...not so much covers as clones.

Edited by Snow Dog - March 22 2013 at 05:47

Snow Dog wrote:

^I remeber not realising they were all cover versions at first and then I though...this Sweet song doesn't sound quite right!

Not bad versions though...not so much covers as clones.

As Bob said earlier - some of the sessions musicians on those albums later became famous in their own right. Rick Wakeman did hundreds of sessons recordings at that time (the contentious "Piano Vibrations" album is an example of that). I have an album called "Funky Junction plays Deep Purple" which was a sessions recording of Purple covers by a band that later became Thin Lizzy.

Ajay wrote:

Stool Man's thread about 20 Dynamic Hits sent me on a nostalgia trip,

Mea culpa!

Not K Tel but does anyone remeber this?

Dean wrote:

Two more, slightly older:

A1 Who, The – Substitute
A2 Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, The – Fire
A3 Procol Harum – Whiter Shade Of Pale
A4 Cream (2) – Sunshine Of Your Love
A5 Jimi Hendrix – Hey Joe
A6 Elton John – Crocodile Rock
A7 Ashton, Gardner & Dyke – Resurrection Shuffle
A8 Faces, The* – Stay With Me
A9 Derek & The Dominos – Layla
A10 Thunderclap Newman – Something In The Air
B1 Spencer Davis* – Give Me Some Lovin'
B2 Free – My Brother Jake
B3 T-Rex* – Get It On
B4 Joe co*cker – With A Little Help From My Friends
B5 Status Quo – Down The Dustpipe
B6 Manfred Mann – 54321
B7 Move, The – Blackberry Way
B8 Hollies, The – Here I Go Again
B9 Kinks, The – All Day & All Of The Night
B10 Deep Purple – Hush

A1 O'Jays* – Backstabbers
A2 Johnny Nash – There Are More Questions Than Answers
A3 Roxy Music – Virginia Plain
A4 Atomic Rooster – Devil's Answer
A5 Judge Dread – Big Six
A6 Dave And Ansil Collins* – Double Barrel
A7 John Kongos – Tokoloshe Man
A8 Daniel Boone – Rock And Roll Bum
A9 Free – All Right Now
A10 Faces (3) – Stay With Me
B1 Tyrannosaurus Rex – Debora
B2 Mac Davis – Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me
B3 Lesley Duncan – Sing Children Sing
B4 Colin Blunstone – I Don't Believe In Miracles
B5 Pioneers* – I Believe In Love
B6 Johnny Pearson – Sleepy Shores
B7 Greyhound (4) – Black And White
B8 Lindisfarne – Meet Me On The Corner
B9 Dandy Livingstone – Big City
B10 Cat Stevens – Moonshadow

Jimi Hendrix - British Gold???

I used to have a couple of 20 Fantastic Hits albums in the 70s. I remember a couple of Blackfoot Sue classics that were on them. Anyone remember them?

Dean wrote:

Snow Dog wrote:

^I remeber not realising they were all cover versions at first and then I though...this Sweet song doesn't sound quite right!

Not bad versions though...not so much covers as clones.

As Bob said earlier - some of the sessions musicians on those albums later became famous in their own right. Rick Wakeman did hundreds of sessons recordings at that time (the contentious "Piano Vibrations" album is an example of that). I have an album called "Funky Junction plays Deep Purple" which was a sessions recording of Purple covers by a band that later became Thin Lizzy.

I remember that, I never realised it was Thin Lizzy though.