🥂 50th Compile Your Own A&M 50th Anniversary Box Set

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While I respect what's considered "The Classics" as well as the chart positions of the songs mentioned & the idea of a comp' based on that notion, I still find the irony of what's to me, recognizable not ranking that highly, but then again, I never followed BILLBOARDTM right from the time it was first formed...

Looking back at the songs suggested "I'll Be Good To You" and "The Letter", by Brothers Johnson and Joe Cocker, respectively, maybe I do want to see how a retrospective like this might do or maybe sound...

But, in regards, however, "to too many choices", anything documented by "authorities" vs. "our fav's", this should strictly be a "Do It Yourself": Just send us the packaging & some blank discs! :biglaugh:


-- Dave

Well, and one of the big problems, Dave, is that a lot of people (myself included) listened to album rock stations from 1969 onward, so there are a lot of album tracks and lower-charting singles that we heard often on those stations.

What I was trying to come up with was something that could go a bit beyond the hits (which I think 3 CDs kind of forces Uni to stick with)....and that would sell well enough to help A&M's profit picture (lest they shut it completely down). 5 discs is still restrictive for a label with A&M's variety, but much past that and the cost of the set will be prohibitive for most buyers.

Going for the biggest hits from the artists that had them bought me the room to include the Baja Marimba Band, Claudine Longet, The Parade, The Merry-Go-Round, Jimmie Rodgers, Wes Montgomery, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Roger Nichols, Phil Ochs, Shango, Milton Nascimento, George Benson, Humble Pie, Michael Murphey, Paul Williams and Herb & Lani.
 
The more I think about it, the more I'd compile a list based not only on chart performance, but on classic performances, ambitious albums and interesting rarities as well, to give an idea of A&M Records as a whole....If I gave this CD (or five or six or ten CD set) to a friend, I'd want them to get a true, fun appealing picture of what the label stood for and the range of music they did (nothing against the BEP, but my set would be in past tense and end when Herb & Jerry sold the label). With that in mind, I'm going with "Strawberry Letter 23" (still a radio staple) and Joe's "The Letter". Don't know if it's on the original list, but I'm including "River Deep Mountain High" even though it stiffed on the charts - it's become a classic in the meantime.....


If the set included a "rarities" disc, I'd definitely include "River Deep". It only barely missed the cut (time considerations) on my disc one.
 
The Bacharach Look Of Love box set on Rhino is a good example of how to do a box set. It has some obvious big hits, but also has some that flew under the radar of the charts but remain instantly recognizable. It has a couple obscurities (like Dionne's "Checkout Time"), and even has some songs that make you say, "I didn't know Bacharach wrote that one!" An A&M set could work the same way. Even as I look at some of our AOTW entries over the past few years, some of the albums I never paid much attention to, but knew a hit song from, surprised me because I didn't know they were an A&M act.

Anyway, IMHO that's how an engaging box set works. A good cross-section of tracks that touch a few bases.
 
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