UPDATE HISTORY
2011
august
August 30: Just got in the West Coast 2 version of the Porpoise Song picture sleeve. It has to be the hardest sleeve variation to find. So far I've counted 22 sleeve variations among the 10 sleeves released by Colgems.
August 28: Added pressing plants and label variation info to the USA singles section for each record. Came across interesting Japan EP promo only Victor SSD-30-31, with songs from the Monkees first single here.
August 24: Rhino.com is now selling a newly remastered Head LP on clear vinyl and they are including a bonus 7" record of "Circle Sky (Live)" b/w "Can You Dig It (Mono Mix)," the clear LP and single are limited to just 500 copies worldwide. Both of these songs appeared on disc 2 of last years Head Handmade Box Set, so probably nothing new to see here. I, of course, bought one anyway. I'm a sucker for the singles.
Their other limited edition singles had print runs of 2500, 1000 and 1000; but hmmm, only 500, I wonder how long it will take to sell out.
Well it sold out in a day. At least it was a day for me. I got the an email that it was on sale and 24 hours later they were sold out. But apparently they did a 'soft launch' on the 19th. Glad I didn't wait!
August 22: Added 3 new records for Chile and some updated photos for USA promos. I now think I'm missing only one version of the USA promos: Oh My My with the RCA logo at the bottom. I have seen it and have a label pic of that up. Hopefully someday it will come up for sale again.
August 14: Created a unique page just for the Rhino Promo Only Releases that came out with the Rhino Handmade sets. Fortunately I was able to buy each one as it was released, after missing the HQ Sessions set.
I wrote Rhino and suggested they do one for an HQ Sessions reissue with a copy of the original single/picture sleeve found here, currently owned by Joel Whitburn.
August 13: Added 4 records to the Greece section and 2 more for Turkey; no picture sleeves however.
August 12: Got the 2nd Malaysia EP posted up now here. There are only 2 known for the entire country. The TKC-11868 looks exactly like the 4th French EP 86.956, which itself borrows from the HQ LP.
August 10: Found some really cool ads from a magazine I had not heard of before: GO....a weekly report of the music scene sponsored by local radio stations. The amazing thing is the July 4, 1969 issue, which is promoting "The Monkees Greatest Hits". In fact, it is really promoting their entire catalog.
I had not seen any ads promoting this release and it did pretty poorly on the charts (# 89, their worst charting record thus far). In fact, while there are ads for Someday Man, Good Clean Fun and Oh My My, the last 2 LPs 'Present' (# 100) and 'Changes' (did not chart) have no ad support, that I have been able to verify.
Also added a Fan Club Postcard promoting the new release "Oh My My".
StewMac gave me a nice scan of the Philippine record "The Day We Fall In Love/Sometime In The Morning". They really, really loved Davy there! I think the DW Washburn b-side, "Its Nice To Be With You" was a golden # 1, so there you go.
August 7: Whoa, long time since an update. But its been really slow out there, found some records but very few picture sleeves, so not much to show for it (unless labels excite you).
Thailand has many labels and I had one record with only a "G.R." which StewMac said might be Golden Records. And it might be, but I found another G.R. as Grandeur Records so I relabeled that section as that. Also found a nice unknown pic sleeve for that label found here as GR 68-4.
Also found 3 records from India: Last Train, I'm A Believer and the very rare, Oh My My.
India is just like UK, no pic sleeves.
Upgraded my German Valleri pic sleeve here; I hate spending money to upgrade, because it would never end with always looking for a better copy. Thats why I have 17 copies of the USA's Pleasant Valley Sunday, because you know, that white sleeve is tough to find in an nice true clean white minty state. Not unlike the Porpoise Song sleeve which in black, has always got some ring wear on it. So you just have to give up on the upgrades, but the German one, well, the price was right. Also got this one as well.
In the mail right now I have: 4 from Greece, 3 from Chile, 2 from Turkey and 1 from Malaysia with the picture sleeve.
Also the promo from Italy finally came in, 3 months later, it is JB 45N 1527 Pleasant Valley Sunday/Words. The first promo found oddly at the same time from another seller is just JB 45N 1508 Last Train/I'm A Believer. I already have one for Valleri which is just a regular label with a promo stamp on it.
Very nice to find these early Italian promo's with a unique orange label/numbering. Right now my turntable is out of action (new stylus on the way) so I can't play them, but the seller said there was an intro in Italian on each track, introducing it.
And...finally found a mono copy of BBM. It's a very nice EX copy still in the shrink; nicest copy of seen for sale in the 5 years I've been looking.
So that fills a giant hole in my collection. There are only a couple promo copies of the 45's that I don't have: Oh My My with the RCA symbol at the bottom and a Font Type 2 version of Pleasant Valley Sunday (which I am beginning to doubt even exists).