A&M "Million Dollar Sound Sampler."

[Joe Koz]

My first post here guy's! Hi Rudy!

I try to hit are local Goodwill at lease once every month or so. Anyway, I've been rather lucky lately with A&M Record finds. I've scored a Cat Stevens "Teaser & the Firecat" brown/tan label, sounds great.

Burt Bacharach "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," Baja Marimba Band "Those Were The Day's" and A&M "Million Dollar Sound Sampler." All the above mention except the Cat Stevens, are in the original shrink wrap and look like they were made yesterday.

Now, my question regarding the "Million Dollar Sound Sampler" which is mono, cat. # A&M 9001. Was this also avaliable in stereo? Or a mono only release? Something tells me it's mono only because there is no mention of a stereo catalog number or says the 'also avaliable in stereo' lingo. What do I have here?

Thanks to all in advance.

 

[Rudy]

Joe!

I actually have this one in stereo--the catalog number is SP-19001. That's interesting, since one book I looked it up in didn't even list a 9001. It's possible it could have been released to DJs only (without any other indication--no "white label" or other promotional stampings on it).

If you like that one, there are some other A&M samplers in a similar style:

Family Portrait (SP-19002)
Something Festive (SP-19003), an Xmas album.
Music Box (SP-19006)
Burt Bacharach and Friends (SP-19007), from a TV special.

They're not too uncommon, but all of them were usually a promotional tie-in with a major corporation (like BF Goodrich, Singer sewing machines, etc.). I've come across a couple of these samplers on eBay while looking for one of the artists on them. And I actually, quite easily, found four copies of Something Festive over the past decade or so (just enough to make one good CD-R, actually).

I wonder if any of these others were released as mono LPs, now....?

 

[Harry]

If I recall correctly, the MUSIC BOX sampler has that HAECO-CSG processing on it - so there may not be a mono version.

Harry
...with his two cents, online...

 

[Mr Bill]

IIRC only Million Dollar Sound Sampler was released in both Mono and Stereo. In the early days A&M's full color front cover was printed with "Stereo" and the SP number at the top and "Mono" (or most often nothing to denote mono) and the LP number at the bottom. In the pictures posted in this thread you can see that at the top of both M$SS and Family Portrait. Depending on which version was being packaged the color front sheet was wrapped either "high" for Mono and "low" for Stereo. Later, the "A&M" logo was in a box (about 1" by 1.5 ") at the top of the cover with the SP # as shown in the covers of Something Festive and Music Box above. This occured only after all stock commercial production LPs were stereo-only (though some Monos were made for radio purposes for about a decade after).

Given this packaging concept, SP19002 could have been issued in mono as well, but since it was packaged as a single card stock sleeve (not the color front-sheet wrapped 2x12" cardboard standard in the earlier days) I'd say it's not likely...

--Mr Bill

 

[Rudy]

Bill--good point, one I'd forgotten about. One tell-tale way to see if there's a stereo version--sometimes you can see the "stereo" wrapped over the top, behind the back cover slick. Likewise, with a stereo LP, the wraparound may be visible on the bottom. (On a couple of Dad's old mono albums, the back cover slick would come slightly unglued near the top, and you'd see the stereo wrapped from the front cover.) A lot of major labels printed their front covers this way--I know Columbia, RCA and Verve did this as well.