When I was a teenager in the 70's I couldn't get enoough K-tel! I wanted every rock/pop/disco album they put out, and I always asked for one at Christmas. All these years later, I still have those albums. If I still had that hi-fi, I would be playing them right now!!
KTEL was such an intergral part of American pop culture in the '70s. However, if you ask anybody under age 35, they'll have no fricking idea what you're talking about lol
KTEL was huge in Australia with heaps of Various Artist Albums being released through the the 70s and I think early 80s,Brashes was one of the big music retailers in the day,good times
I literally learned about pop music just from the K-Tel ADS, let alone the albums. My sister had a few of them in the early 70s. We lived in the sticks and were at least an hour's drive from any of the stores that carried the albums so it was all mail order, baby!
Wow, this is the first record I ever bought with my own money. I was too young to know that it was unusual to cram 10 songs on an album side, but I do remember thinking that "The Air That I Breathe" seemed really short and faded out really quickly. All in all, not a bad line-up. I still dig "Frankenstein."
towards the late 70's k-tel cut back the number of tracks to 18 then down to 14. The sound quality improved and you got the full 45 version...sometimes the longer album version (Turn Me Loose - Loverboy).
K-Tel did tend to edit the songs on these albums, usually by omitting one stanza. This way they can get 10 or 11 songs on one album side. When K-Tel introduced these LP's in the late 1960's, the songs themselves were a lot shorter in length, and what you heard on the original 45 is what you heard on the K-Tel album. Songs got longer (many over 4 minutes) by the early 1970's, so some tracks did get edited.
I had a copy of this back in the 70's. A couple of years back I found a really nice copy to replace the old one. The K-tel comps are hard to find in good shape, but it can be done. I have a few that are still sealed!
i was 9 when this came out, and snatched it up as quickly as my parents would buy it for me.... i wore out my copy.... radio edits, yes, but still great tunes for a kid to grow up on!!!
This ad, although featuring the great original announcer, is for the U.S. configuration of the album. The Canadian release has several different tracks.
Even though they sometimes only put like 3/4 of the song on there, I loved ❤❤❤ getting these for my birthday or Christmas. Also, Alice Cooper is among the "and the rest" crowd while Jigsaw gets featured lol outrage
This will always, always be my first record album. My second being "Right On!" I actually still have them; I didn't have a wife or girlfriend who could ever find them and get rid of them like some other childhood gems I wanted to keep...
My God...I actually remember that commercial! You couldn't produce and album like that now, the prima donna artists today would never allow it or it would cost a small fortune.
K-tel commercials would run a little bit longer at the end, with the visuals going but only the music for the audio, for a local TV announcer to do a recorded voiceover like "Available at Woolworth, Sears, and [insert other name of discount store here]."
The announcer on this commercial sounds like a WABC New York music radio D.J.I used to listen to. Plus back in the day, I bought the KTel record selector. It was a record stand that held about 20 albums. You put them in it and flip the first one forward and the rest would follow one after another until you found the one you wanted. And when you wanted to put the record back you flipped the first one forward again and it would stop at the empty slot to put the record back. it was cool then.
I never knew this was a Canadian-based enterprise; these ads would always come up when I lived in Brooklyn, often during the kiddie programs later on weekday afternoons on 11Alive.
This will always be my very first record album. And I still have it in a box somewhere. I wish someone has the record on here, so I can go back to when I was 7 years old!
I noticed in the ad that it says Glady Knight and not Glady Knight and the Pips. I believe do the fact that Glady wasn't allowed to record with The Pips because of a lawsuit at the time. It wasn't until 1980 that they were allowed to record together.
@Axemen666 I think you're right because the ad I saw on here for 25 Rock Revival Greats had different tracks than the one Dad had gotten from a flea market.The American and Canadian track listings had obviously differed from one another.
Blind Man in the Bleachers was a great song. It would have been perfect for a Friday Night Lights storyline in which one of the characters has a blind father who also attends his games, then dies, and the son and his team win the state championship.
Great post! Sounds good. I have a couple of those 'Oldies" comp commercials from the mid 1980s which are good too. I just can't imagine K-Tel promoting the shit from the 1980s -2011.
K-Tel had a lot of other gimmicky items as well...one I remember was the "Pres-Kwik" cigarette dispenser. You put a pack of cigarettes in the Pres-Kwik, push a button, and a cigarette comes out. My mother bought one of those for my stepfather for Christmas, but the 100MM cigarettes my stepfather smoked at the time did not fit the Pres-Kwik, so in the back of the drawer it went.
@beatlefan64 Wow, this is pretty cool :) K-Tel compilations are interesting, judging from these commercials.People complain about the audio quality but I love the idea of having so many songs stuffed on the sides! I only know of one K-tel comp from 1980 called "music on the radio".It was my favourite when I was a kid. I don't know if it was released elsewhere but I'm pretty sure it was, with,say, 70% of the same material and then some songs were replaced especially for the french market.
@thugie1 I only have one. Superstars Greatest Hits Volume 1. Actually, it's a great album. Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress by the Hollies is the first song, and that song was nearly brand new when it came out on that K-Tel album. Great Memories.
Other companies, going back to Waldorf Music Hall, Tops Records and Bell Records in the late 1950's, used "sound alike" groups or singers for their versions of current-hit records, then Hit Records in the 1960's. These 45's often sold for 39 cents at stores such as Woolworth's and S.S. Kresge's. Early ones were on 78's also. Then sound-alike albums were sold via mail order by way of TV commercials. I one one called "Summer '71" by "The Northern Lights", from QMO Sales, made by Columbia.
LPs $5.99, I can't believe this is how much I paid for it. Seemed like I cut grass for 6 months to get there. Then again I must have been paid a dollar per lawn I cut, it adds up!
I used to really HATE when they would cut the songs on these records. All my hard earned cash down the drain. Ruined my childhood. Why am I not suing K-Tel?
@jzcrandall In 1976 45's cost around 50-60 cents where I lived. By 1981 they were up to $1.29 and by 1985 they were $1.49-$1.99 then I SLOWLY switched to CD.
The idea behind K-Tel Records (and competitors Ronco and Adam VIII) was to offer 20 or more recent-hit songs on one low-priced LP or tape. A good idea, but the vinyl was thin, the records easily scratched and skipped, even with a new diamond needle, the sound quality was fair to middling, and the 8-track tape versions tended to jam, and get eaten up in the 8-track player. The "Now That's What You Call Music" CD series (now up to #42) is a modern version of K-Tel's top-hit music marketing.
This was my first ever album that I bought with my own money when I was 10. I think the grooves on it were completely worn down from listening it over and over! Unfortunately the album and my memory of what was on it was lost... I am looking for the song list so I can download all of it and listen to it again. Anyone know where I can find the song list?
You and me both!! My folks had one of these "album collections" on 8 track tape and there is one song I have been looking for, for literally years!! I still haven't found it and my folks refuse to let me borrow the tapes and their 8 track player! I told them that I could put them all on CD for them but apparently that isn't good enough!
It looks like you have the song list, but here are the songs and artists. A1 -Silver Convention Fly, Robin, Fly A2 -KC & The Sunshine Band That's The Way (I Like It) A3 -War Why Can't We Be Friends A4 -Average White Band Pick Up The Pieces A5 -Gladys Knight And The Pips Part Time Love A6 -Alice Cooper (2) Only Women A7 -Dave Loggins Please Come To Boston A8 -The Hollies Air That I Breathe A9 -The Edgar Winter Group Frankenstein A10 -Leon Haywood I Want'a Do Something Freaky To You B1 -Jigsaw (3) Sky High B2 -Sammy Johns Chevy Van B3 -David Geddes The Last Game Of The Season (A Blind Man In The Bleachers) B4 -Frankie Valli Swearin' To God B5 -Carol Douglas Doctor's Orders B6 -Johnny Rivers Help Me Rhonda B7 -Kool & The Gang Caribbean Festival B8 -B.T. Express Peace Pipe B9 -War Slippin' Into Darkness B10 -5000 Volts I'm On Fire
I'm lucky enough to have found some great K-Tel albums in record stores in my area. I'm probably about the only person my age who actually owns a working record player!
'Run, Joey, Run" was supposedly about a teenage boy getting his girlfriend pregnant, and her father was threatening to shoot him. The song started, "Daddy, please don't, it wasn't his fault, he means so much to me; Daddy, please don't, we're gonna get married, just you wait and see. "Run, Joey, Run" was on another K-Tel LP, I think it was "Dynamic Sound" from 1974.
The K Tel records where they used another band (lame bands) that did covers was the best of living in the 70s, lol. That and corduroy bell bottoms and tube tops.
