Remember "Super Hits 73", Performed by "the Original Artists"?

[miamimadman]

If you want to hear really bad versions of 70's songs sung by other people, you need go no further than your local flea market and look for an Album with a name like "Super Hits '73" or "Hot Disco Hits" or some such name. If you look on the back and it lists the songs, but not who sings them, it's most likely one of these rip off Records done by unknown singers. Once in a while the singers even got the words wrong!. The biggest perpetrator of these Records was the Pickwick label, and there were other lesser-known companies as well. K-tel issued Rip off Disc's with the Current Top 30 or 40 Songs on them, featuring the actual Artist, however the songs were chopped off, or edited, or sped up!
These type of recordings has made a comeback in the last decade. In the cheap tape sections of Stores, there are tapes such as "Hits of the 80's" or "Hits of the 90's" that lists the songs, but no hit singers. If you look close enough, you may find in small print, Performed by the "COUNTDOWN SINGERS", or the "ORIGINAL RECORDINGS" or other silly names!.

 

[KMRichards]

> The biggest perpetrator of these Records was
> the Pickwick label, and there were other lesser-known
> companies as well.

There was also a Canadian label, Madacy Records, which was/is infamous for dragging the original artist into a studio and re-record an old hit, which they would then issue in a compilation CD ... with a tiny asterisk pointing at a footnote that the songs were "new recordings by the original artists".

This, of course, allowed them to use the artists' names and the phrase "Original Artists" on the cover of the booklet.
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[dave73]

> > The biggest perpetrator of these Records was
> > the Pickwick label, and there were other lesser-known
> > companies as well.
>
> There was also a Canadian label, Madacy Records, which
> was/is infamous for dragging the original artist into a
> studio and re-record an old hit, which they would then issue
> in a compilation CD ... with a tiny asterisk pointing at a
> footnote that the songs were "new recordings by the original
> artists".
>
> This, of course, allowed them to use the artists' names and
> the phrase "Original Artists" on the cover of the booklet.
>
I remember many of those compilation albums that you're talking about. I used to see lots of Pickwick & K-Tel records in Zayre & Mays Family Center when I was a child. Similar thing today with CD's, where most of those albums I see in Kmart and most notoriously in Big Lots. My dad used to have plenty of 8-tracks from Pickwick & K-Tel, especially country singer Lynn Anderson on Pickwick (but that's slightly off-subject).

 

[gr8oldies]

I remember being at a small radio station and playing "Piano Man" off one of those K-Tel CDs..figuring it'd be the normal version I was a bit surprised when it abruptly faded out around the 2:30 mark. <P ID="signature">______________
Soon to set the world record for recieving Nigerian scam and phising e-mails!</P>

 

[miamimadman]

Faded Records at the 2:30 mark!

> I remember being at a small radio station and playing "Piano
> Man" off one of those K-Tel CDs..figuring it'd be the normal
> version I was a bit surprised when it abruptly faded out
> around the 2:30 mark.

At my Radio Network (Unistar/Transtar) we would call that a 'Timed Record'!
<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by miamimadman on 07/31/05 03:57 AM.</FONT></P>

 

[Quazar]

My mom had an orange 8-Track from Columbia House called "The Best of 72" by some guy named Terry. I was only about 5, but I remember being a bit freaked when I heard the REAL songs on the radio and thinking..."hey that's not right..." She had several in her collection (all that goodness from taping a penny to a postcard...)