UPDATE HISTORY
2020
JANUARY
JANUARY 31:
1968 RCA postcard from Spain:
Promoting their releases up through Valleri,
which used the same photo
for their picture sleeve.
Too bad they didn't use that one here in the USA.
JANUARY 29:
Another FB discussion revealed this Bell 8-track to actually be Canadian.
I had never seen an open copy before and Stephen Wright's and Michael Siever's
pictures confirmed this:
JANUARY 28:
We recently had a great discussion on my FB group about Nesmith's "Wichita Train Whistle Sings" LP from 1968. Everybody shared some photos and many were new to me so I've gone back and revised those pages with updates and did some more digging in the trade journals for better release dates. I assumed that the single "Don't Cry Now" was released in June with the LP, but it was actually released in September. Also found a release date for the Playtape version of the LP for August. I'll be adding some photos from the trade magazines as well.
Over the Christmas holidays I also spent time sifting through the trade magazines Billboard, Cash Box & Record World nailing down the exact cost of their original LPs & singles:
In the early '60s pop LPs were $3.98 for mono & $4.98 for stereo. Then in the Billboard issue of June 26, 1965 it's noted that "Anticipating the Government's elimination of excise taxes on entertainment products, RCA Victor Records has reduced its suggested list price on all merchandise."
So when Colgems began in September 1966 the mono LPs were $3.79 and stereo was $4.79. Then on June 1st, 1967 RCA raised the price of mono LPs to match the higher stereo price. Headquarters was released in May, so sometimes you will see price stickers for that mono LP with the lower $3.79 price still on it; this could be a great way to tell that it was an earlier pressing.
Then on February 1, 1969 RCA raised their LP prices to $4.98; "Instant Replay" was released sometime in February however I've seen a few copies with the lower $3.79 price tag on it and I wonder if some LPs leaked out at the end of January, before the change went into effect. In any case, copies with those price stickers might be a good indication of an earlier pressing.
This pricing structure stayed constant through "Changes". On April 1, 1971 RCA raised their prices to $5.98 However the double LP "Barrel Full Of Monkees" was part of a budget series so it retailed for that same single LP price of $5.98.
Their first single, "Last Train To Clarksville" listed for 94¢ and RCA stayed with that price until February 1969 when it rose to 98¢ which also coincided with the release of "Tear Drop City" where it remained through "Oh My My".
Like the IR LP some copies of TDC may have sold at the lower price, but I have yet to see any copies with a price sticker to verify.
RCA raised the LP prices in April of '71; however singles remained the same, so "Do It In The Name Of Love" listed for 98¢.
JANUARY 3:
Created a separate page for The First National Band's Quad 8 releases.
After much research last weekend I realized that there are many variations.
Many thanks to Stephen Wright whose discovery of the first Quad 8 tape
lead me to do some digging in archives of Billboard & Cash Box magazine.
JANUARY 1:
New look for the new year. Updated the top banner with two releases from 1970:
the Mexican Changes EP
and the Colgems Alpha Bits cereal flexi
that I'm sure you all have.
Re-ordered some of the buttons on the left moving the guys to the top and dropping
Advertisements & Sheet Music to the bottom as I really never access those anymore.
I changed the "VHS, DVD & Blu-Ray to "Film, Home Video & Digital Media" to better reflect the
content for all these. I will be adding in some film in the near future
as I've acquired a few of these in the past year.
Added a button for "Nigeria".