Embassy records

[Nuvistor]

If you enjoy listening to them, nothing is wrong. They were popular, excellent for party background music, well that’s were I heard them.

[Nuvistor]

Originally Posted by robinshack

A few days ago I enjoyed a programme on bbc iplayer about the hit single. Not sure how many days left to watch. I saw it 2 or 3 years ago as well.

I saw that on iPlayer, one or two things made me smile.
Pete Waterman saying that some performers didn’t like the finished product to which he said tough*, I do and it will sell, what do you think we are doing this for.
The man who was buying second hand 45’s, looked like juke box ones, well worn and played on an older version of a modern Crosley record player. Good luck to the man, he was interested in the music, a few crackles didn’t matter.

*Well perhaps not tough but along those lines.

[Grubhead]

Originally Posted by Nuvistor

The launch of the label must have worried the established record companies, the label was banned from the charts.
Cover versions of songs were popular with the established companies but it was ok I suppose for them to do that.

It wasn't banned from the charts. It was just that no chart had access to the sales of Woolies till about 1975. But Woolies stopped selling them in 1965.

So if you bought any records from Woolies up till 1975 you did not make any effect on the charts at all.

[Grubhead]

Originally Posted by Nuvistor

If you enjoy listening to them, nothing is wrong. They were popular, excellent for party background music, well that’s were I heard them.

They had their faults. Most of them were at least 20 tracks. And you can't get them all on a LP, unless they are around two minutes, such as 50's and 60's stuff. So K-Tel got round this by chopping verses out of the 3 and half minute pop songs of the 70's. Often the second verse. Though some were more heavily cut.
The other thing they did was to reduce the volume down. So if you switched from the record player to the radio after playing one of those LP's it blasted the room out!
K-Tel LP's had the "label" limited collectors edition on most. However some of the records were sold in vast numbers such as Soul Motion, so I doubt they were that limited. Though some LP's are less common than others.
One of the rarest I have seen is Pirate Radio, which was recorded at Radio Hallam in Sheffield.
K-Tel are still going and are advertising Memory Lane on TV.

[Nuvistor]

Originally Posted by Grubhead

It wasn't banned from the charts. It was just that no chart had access to the sales of Woolies till about 1975. But Woolies stopped selling them in 1965.

So if you bought any records from Woolies up till 1975 you did not make any effect on the charts at all.

I took that information from the link in post 2, so I cannot verify the statement. If the link is wrong, that’s fair enough.

[electronicskip]

I used to buy all those rubbish Top of the Pops LPs from the local Finefair supermarket back in the day which used to feature some slightly scantily clad female on the cover and had cover versions of the real thing on the discs.

[bluepilot]

Back at the time I was given a couple of Embassy records by cheapskate relatives. I never listened to them because they weren't the "real thing". Now they're still mint as a result. I was listening to the Bobby Stevens version of "A girl like you" only the other day. It's quite pleasant. He could actually sing.

There were other cheap labels such as Cannon which had three songs per side. The recording level was very low to get them to fit on one side of a 7" record. A lot of the artists were well-known and recorded the cover versions under pseudonyms to avoid conflicts with their other recording contracts. I just discovered the Cannon version of Mocking Bird Hill supposedly recorded by Frank Bacon and the Layabouts.

[dseymo1]

It's said that some of the session singers who performed these cover versions were actually to be heard on the original versions, doubling for artistes who couldn't reach the top notes for example!
One such was Marnie Nixon, famous in the business for her anonymous dubbing work.

[D_S_J_R]

My Dad worked at the record factory pressing these for a short while in the early 60's and I think 'Aylesbury' meant nearby village Aston Clinton on the A41. Long demolished and now housing, but I have a couple of albums and some singles. I recall the recording and pressing quality was very good - K-tel style compilations may have used original tracks I believe, but the low-level band-limited sound was often awful I remember...

[electronicskip]

I think most of the K-Tel stuff was original, I've still got a few. As were Ronco Records.

[Boom]

It was the way these cruddy LPs were pushed that got me. In great big letters across the front would be something like T=H=E B=E=A=T=L=E=S and then in micro fonts (played by the Unheard of Big Brass Band)

Then there was 'The best of Vol1' closely followed by 'The best of Vol2' on which the tracks from Vol1 were swapped about and just one unheard track added.

Anyway, I saw a 'Deep Purple In Rock' LP in a charity shop last weeks. It was new but the price tag made me splutter - £35

[Top Cap]

I recorded this BBC program many moons ago, all about Woolworth's records from their very humble beginnings. I have placed a temporary mp3 of it on my web-store.
http://www.g4cnh.com/public/woolworths_records.mp3

[AJSmith625]

Hello Top Cap, What an interesting and informative programme. I had no idea Woolworths records went back so far. Thanks for sharing.

Alan.

[Ted Kendall]

Dear old Brian...

[AndiiT]

Hi, I have a couple of Embassy records in my collection which two of my older friends tell me were cover versions done by "famous" artists, as has been mentioned elsewhere in this thread. Looking at some of the posts it seems that a few folk may be confusing the Embassy pressings with the later "Hallmark" Top of the Pops Lps which were also marketed by Woolworth's in the 1970's through to the early 80's.

There is a wealth of information about the TOTP Lps here which also includes mention of the Embassy pressings either on the site or via a link.
Radio 2 did a programme named "Even better than the real thing" which was very informative on how these albums came about in to being. I have a copy of it but aren't too sure how to host it anywhere for folk to have a listen.

The main difference between the Embassy pressings and other "cover" discs was that the Embassy ones did credit the name of the singer, none of the cover albums (TOTP, Hot Hits etc.) ever did. I am aware that Tina Charles has and Elton John is rumoured to have worked on the TOTP albums though.

Regards

Andrew

[Edward Huggins]

Don't knock these, they were well modulated and had a big sound.
As a then Muso, we had to rush into that first floor Studio, sight read the score and were paid Union Scale only. Then back, an anonomous skinny twenty-something, onto the street.....hard times.

[Richard_FM]

Originally Posted by electronicskip

I think most of the K-Tel stuff was original, I've still got a few. As were Ronco Records.

My Dad has a few of both, along with some Arcade compilations from the 1970s.

When my Gran let me help myself to her record collection I picked out a few which had belonged to one of my aunts.

[G8UWM-MildMartin]

Dear camtechman and other contributors to this thread,
Many thanks!
I was inspired to look for Embassy recordings this evening, and found some on YouTube. Then some more...
Four hours of pure joy! (Including just the two that were laughably poor.)
I particularly liked all the Ray Pilgrim (Bobby Stevens) ones; he sang very clearly, particularly enunciating "t" and "ing" and I could get over 98% of the lyrics. (And realised that a song I had always thought was about a bricklayer was actually having his heart stolen rather than his hod, and one about a motorcyclist was, in fact, writing home rather than riding.)

[llama]

Regarding Reg Dwight, not much mystery (though a comprehensive list would be interesting). I have here a CD called Reg Dwight's Piano Goes Pop. It's RPM 142 if anyone feels the need.
Graham

[Boom]

I collect 78's as well as vinyl with some of mine going back to the 1900's.

Even in those days you could be offered the full price version by a well known artist or the cheaper versions of main stream songs sung by relatively unknown session artists such as Al Bowlly. The only difference was that the artists name wasn't printed on the cheaper records.

You get some surprises when after playing one of these cheaper records several times the penny drops as to who is singing/playing.