Song4uman
Well-Known Member
http://www.ebay.com/itm/THE-CARPENT...274?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c9d6a9e4a
has anyone seen this one before??
JOnathan
has anyone seen this one before??
JOnathan
Carpenters Best Selection?
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newvillefan
I Know My First Name Is Stephen
I wonder if that's one of Richard's cars on the front cover?
Karen4ever
Well-Known Member
I don't think it is an unofficial release, as it was sanctioned by JASRAC (Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers, and Publishers). All Carpenters CDs released by A&M/Universal/Pony Canyon in Japan also bear the JASRAC trademark.
The popularity of Carpenters in Japan reached its peak in the 1980's, and during that decade there was a whole bunch of Carpenters compilation CDs released just like this one, i.e., not through A&M but nevertheless sanctioned by JASRAC. I have more than 20 such CDs in my collection, but I think there were many more. My guess is that A&M received copyright fees for these releases.
A rather unusual feature of all these CDs is that they all have very strange cover art; having a car on the cover is actually the least strange of the lot.
The popularity of Carpenters in Japan reached its peak in the 1980's, and during that decade there was a whole bunch of Carpenters compilation CDs released just like this one, i.e., not through A&M but nevertheless sanctioned by JASRAC. I have more than 20 such CDs in my collection, but I think there were many more. My guess is that A&M received copyright fees for these releases.
A rather unusual feature of all these CDs is that they all have very strange cover art; having a car on the cover is actually the least strange of the lot.
Well, it has the JASRAC logo on it. Whether or not it's official remains unclear. Anyone can print anything on a CD.
I would hope so!
I don't deny that there are many, many compilations and releases out there, ESPECIALLY in Japan, and many were quite limited. The scope of our Carpenters Recordings Resource was meant to be helpful to the vast majority of Carpenters CD owners out there. There is at present no good way of detailing these minor CDs, since they are relatively unobtainable and are quite obscure - but whenever one does make its way here, we'll take a look at it.
By the way, that BEST COLLECTION above is apparently part of a series, and whether or not they're official remains in doubt. Looking on Discogs, I found this:
which answers the question that, no, the car is not one of Richard's.
The entry for this, also from "Echo Industries":
Finally, one big tip as to what's official and what's not is to look for the CARPENTERS logo. It's only supposed to be used on official releases - but as I said, anyone with a printer these days can print anything.
Harry
Karen4ever
Well-Known Member
While it is true that it's easy to print anything today by anyone, it wasn't true back in the pre-PC era of the 1980s. Moreover, the JASRAC logo was pressed, not printed, on the discs in question, which required professional CD pressing equipment.
As regards the CARPENTERS logo, it does not appear on many supposedly official releases. In the U.S., a recent example is the ICON disc; earlier examples include the 25th Anniversary Classics Volume 2 and the Time/Life Carpenters Collection. From abroad, examples include the A&M Gold Series and A&M New Gold Series (both from Japan) and the Best of Carpenters (from the Netherlands). There are many more such examples.
I'm well aware that not all compilations feature the famous logo, but included that fact as a "clue" that this particular compilation might not be official. And regarding the date, anyone TODAY can print up a pretty official-looking pirate copy from any disc of the past - and that's often a target for the pirates and bootleggers: to create something that's out-of-print, looks official, and may be desirable and command a lot of quick cash from collectors.
We've documented in these pages before the case of Herb Alpert's BEYOND. Go ahead and look on eBay. Search for 'Herb Alpert Beyond', and the very first item that comes up is this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Herb-Alpert...217?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2803ae1d29
I myself was fooled on this one, but something about the font on the disc looked "off". There was a misspelling in the fine print: "Mae in Japan". The A&M logo on the disc was from the wrong era. And ironically, it was missing the JASRAC logo. It sounded fine. It was a great digital copy of the real thing. But it wasn't real. It was - just a copy. That auction above is from the very same seller - still selling those "rare" BEYOND discs. Obviously the seller must have cornered the market on these rare discs in order to continue selling them this way! No. Not really. They're just pirated.
I won my case against this seller through eBay, got my money back and got to keep the fake disc since they didn't want to provide me with an accurate address to which to send the disc back.
Now, regarding THE BEST SELECTION: the rules for making these kind of discs are a lot more vague in other countries. Please notice the track list. It contains MANY tracks from the HORIZON album. I'm betting that's not because the compilers were really fans of HORIZON, but HORIZON seems to have fallen into a gray area regarding copyrighst overseas. There are a number of compilations the world over that jumble up the tracks of HORIZON and usually sound pretty bad.
Furthermore, if a pirate were to choose THIS compilation to try and capture a collectors' market, I'm afraid it was a poor choice.
As I've said, without the disc to examine and listen to, I really can only guess about these things. You claim to have this disc. If so, you have the ability to critically examine it - to search for some hint of officialness - a logo - a mention of A&M - a mention of licensing - a credit of Richard Carpenter. You have the ability to compare it to others - and report about the sound quality. All I'm going on is a fuzzy picture on the Internet. Until I'm convinced, my gut reaction is to consider this either non-official, or so limited in numbers as to be unimportant in the scheme of things.
"Eventide" as an album-closer? Without "Aurora"? Does anyone think Richard would have approved THAT?
Harry
We've documented in these pages before the case of Herb Alpert's BEYOND. Go ahead and look on eBay. Search for 'Herb Alpert Beyond', and the very first item that comes up is this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Herb-Alpert...217?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2803ae1d29
I myself was fooled on this one, but something about the font on the disc looked "off". There was a misspelling in the fine print: "Mae in Japan". The A&M logo on the disc was from the wrong era. And ironically, it was missing the JASRAC logo. It sounded fine. It was a great digital copy of the real thing. But it wasn't real. It was - just a copy. That auction above is from the very same seller - still selling those "rare" BEYOND discs. Obviously the seller must have cornered the market on these rare discs in order to continue selling them this way! No. Not really. They're just pirated.
I won my case against this seller through eBay, got my money back and got to keep the fake disc since they didn't want to provide me with an accurate address to which to send the disc back.
Now, regarding THE BEST SELECTION: the rules for making these kind of discs are a lot more vague in other countries. Please notice the track list. It contains MANY tracks from the HORIZON album. I'm betting that's not because the compilers were really fans of HORIZON, but HORIZON seems to have fallen into a gray area regarding copyrighst overseas. There are a number of compilations the world over that jumble up the tracks of HORIZON and usually sound pretty bad.
Furthermore, if a pirate were to choose THIS compilation to try and capture a collectors' market, I'm afraid it was a poor choice.
As I've said, without the disc to examine and listen to, I really can only guess about these things. You claim to have this disc. If so, you have the ability to critically examine it - to search for some hint of officialness - a logo - a mention of A&M - a mention of licensing - a credit of Richard Carpenter. You have the ability to compare it to others - and report about the sound quality. All I'm going on is a fuzzy picture on the Internet. Until I'm convinced, my gut reaction is to consider this either non-official, or so limited in numbers as to be unimportant in the scheme of things.
"Eventide" as an album-closer? Without "Aurora"? Does anyone think Richard would have approved THAT?
Harry
Jeff
Well-Known Member
I haven't inspected for authenticity yet but listened about in the car today. Nice to have ONLY YESTERDAY full version. The intro to TICKET does emanate from left channel. The Singles 69-73 overture leads directly to WE'VE OJ BEGUN. Sonically sound. Will don my glasses for visual report. Buy used if at all. I couldnt resist the $4 sticker.
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