🥂 50th A&M 50th Anniversary 3-CD Set

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GroovinGarrett said:
I just received an order update from Amazon, this set is now eligible for release-date delivery on August 28.

http://www.amazon.com/50-The-Anniversary-Collection/dp/B008GOAF70/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1344196654&sr=8-2&keywords=A&M anniversary
Click to expand...

Current price is $22.25...not bad for three discs, and likely a booklet that will at least hit the highlights of A&M's history. In the past, a set like this would have been around $40 list price, and most local stores would have sold it at full list price.

I spent my last Amazon gift certificates on a new window actuator/motor assembly for the CR-V... :laugh: Such is my domesticated life!
 
WHAT......No Lee Michaels "Do You Know What I Mean" in the 50th???
Your kidding right?
Sting has an entry with the Police, as well as a solo single and Lee was left out?
.....SHAME
 
They easily could have expanded the set to four discs to get more of these favorites, but I would think they held it to three discs to keep it affordable.
 
This should have been done like the Elektra records box set of a few years back. That was a a 5 cd box set, that covered everyone that was ever on that label.
In my opinion, leaving out glaring omissions like Lee Michaels (and I am sure many others), is not a full representation of a 50 years as a label.
Might as well not even do a 50th.
 
I don't think it's all that "glaring" nor a "shame". The Lee Michaels song you mentioned is good but compared to the other artists on this upcoming collection he just wasn't that big a seller. Even a 5-CD set - which I would have no problem with - wouldn't be enough to cover every artist on A&M. Condemning an entire compilation simply because your favorite artist isn't on it seems rather silly to me.


Capt. Bacardi
 
Captain Bacardi said:
I don't think it's all that "glaring" nor a "shame". The Lee Michaels song you mentioned is good but compared to the other artists on this upcoming collection he just wasn't that big a seller. Even a 5-CD set - which I would have no problem with - wouldn't be enough to cover every artist on A&M. Condemning an entire compilation simply because your favorite artist isn't on it seems rather silly to me.


Capt. Bacardi
Click to expand...
I think your missing the whole point.
First off, Lee Michaels "Do You Know What I Mean" was a #1 song in 1971! Not a good enough reason to be included?
Second, is this a collection of the Biggest Artists? Sorry, I failed to miss where it said that.
This is an anniversary edition and a 50th at that! You only get one shot at a 50th. Wait....maybe if we wait for the 100th, he will be on that one, oh.......but most of us will not be hear to see it....again SHAME!
 
There may be some bad blood between Lee Michaels and A&M. As I recall, there's a story out there, repeated somewhere on this forum, that Lee Michaels was unhappy with something or other at A&M and had one more album that he owed them. He and his crew went into the studio, hastily wrote some songs, and threw them on that final contract album, and "Do You Know What I Mean", written in 15 minutes, became a huge hit. Michaels of course didn't disavow the song, but there still may be some hard feelings involved.

Just a thought.

Harry
 
Yes what you say is true, there was bad blood between them at the end, but he was included in the 20th edition.
While most of the 50th is very good, some of the artists/songs included are very odd to say the least! Odd like, WHAT?
Hate to keep repeating myself with regard to leaving Lee out but......Lani Hall, Gino Vannelli, and Chris Montez (hell, his biggest song was "Let's Dance", and it wasn't even on A&M)!
 
djdac said:
Yes what you say is true, there was bad blood between them at the end, but he was included in the 20th edition.
While most of the 50th is very good, some of the artists/songs included are very odd to say the least! Odd like, WHAT?
Hate to keep repeating myself with regard to leaving Lee out but......Lani Hall, Gino Vannelli, and Chris Montez (hell, his biggest song was "Let's Dance", and it wasn't even on A&M)!
Click to expand...

There could be a rights issue involved here that wasn't a factor on the 20th anniversary. And the 20th set wasn't for public consumption, either. The album "FIFTH" is sold through Lee Michaels' own label as mp3s these days.

Harry
 
I mentioned it before, but equally glaring as Lee Michaels is the omission of Brenda Russell's "Piano In The Dark", a top 10 hit and 20-year R&B/smooth jazz radio staple. These songs are part of the legacy, and the statistic nerd part of me hates to see them left off...but even if they did 4, 5, or 10 CDs, something would get priority and something would get denied. Look at it this way: the one song per artist (basically) rule on this collection already means that a LOT of big hits and pretty seminal records are not here. It's an overview. Hopefully, it'll make people check out more vintage albums........
 
It should also be noted that Herb and Jerry put together this compilation, and it's a good probability that these tunes were their own personal favorites and what they considered the A&M sound.



Capt. Bacardi
 
Lee Michaels rebounded w/ a Columbia album, Tailface, which unfortunately fared even more badly...

Enough that he'd abandoned the music business altogether... (And a good thing Columbia didn't do the same thing--nothing Lee had done there would have been included either!)


-- Dave
 
As the story goes, Lee Michaels had already burned his bridges with A&M before the "Fifth" album, so probably as Capt. Bacardi suggested, it was maybe an episode that Herb and Jerry would rather forget. But "Fifth" was a well-received album, both critically and sales-wise, and otherwise could have been included in the 50th anniversary collection I would think. That was undoubtedly the start of Michaels' disillusion with the business, which would lead him to drop out and move to Hawaiï (...then eventually open his shrimp restaurant in San Francisco.) It was the FM hit "Thumbs" that introduced me to his music, and then "Fifth".

A testament to the influence of the duo of "Lee Michaels and Frosty" is their inclusion in the film "Almost Famous" by Cameron Crowe. I remember a scene where the hero crosses Lee and Frosty in some backstage tunnel and they say hi and the hero is all impressed. A nice touch to recreate the early 70s ambience. Lee Michaels was definitely an icon of that brief era.
 
If it is an episode that Herb and Jerry would rather forget, then this really is A&M's Greatest Hits!
When you are doing a box set like this to document the progression of the label, you DON'T pick and choose the artists YOU want to represent the label, making like the others never existed, it makes the set bogus.
If this was 1971, he would be one A&M's biggest money makers.
You can't change history, and this is suppose to represent history.
Even Lee himself, has been trying his whole life to run away from "Do You Now What I Mean", and HE can't change history.
Moving to other labels later on, does not matter either.
I am sure there was bad blood with many of the artists on Elektra Records, but they were all represented on their set. There are many label box sets available out there, most of which, if not all, document their entire catalog.
Fact of the matter is, this is and should be called, "A sample of the History of A&M Records!
 
I'd dump Joan Baez in a split second to include any other track (including the Lee Michaels), but that's just me. :D

Have any of Lee Michaels' albums on A&M been reissued on A&M? If not, that might indicate a rights issue. Some artists are fortunate enough to be able to take back their back-catalogs.

These compilations are all subjective anyway. I'd have made quite a few alternate choices if I'd compiled this myself. As it stands, I can't get upset over it--I may eventually get this set, but already owning most of the tracks anyway, I see no rush to pick it up. A few minutes building a playlist is all it takes for me to "own" this set, leaving out the artists and/or tracks I don't like.
 
dostros said:
As the story goes, Lee Michaels had already burned his bridges with A&M before the "Fifth" album, so probably as Capt. Bacardi suggested, it was maybe an episode that Herb and Jerry would rather forget.
Click to expand...

That's right and you don't see the Sex Pistols in the set either! :laugh:
 
I'm not setting any expectations, but I really hope for the disc art they replicate the original label art. I think it would be cool for disc one to be the classic 60s ochre label, disc two the silvery 70s/80s-era label and disc three either the 80s red & black single label or the black 90's label.
 
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