Hits and Misses

[Harry]

I just missed out on a rare Claudine Longet RUN WILD, RUN FREE CD auction. One of these days...

But I did manage to snag something I'd been meaning to get for awhile and never got around to -- Burt Bacharach's old Kapp album, PLAYS HIS HITS.

Recorded originally for PYE in England as HITMAKER!, it showed up in the US under the Kapp label as BURT BACHARACH PLAYS HIS HITS, released several times, this cover being a fairly popular one:

That's the one where the young lady is often described as looking a lot like Mary Tyler Moore.

I've had the LP for years, and several tracks have shown up on a few recent A&M/PolyGram/Universal compilations, but I never managed to grab it while it was in print.

Apparently it's still available as an import with that red cover and expanded to 16 tracks, but listings online had it selling for over $40 - too much for my tastes.

But the domestic version, now out of print, released on MCA with this cover:

...I discovered could be had as a used disc from Amazon Marketplace sellers for less than $3. Perfect price.

It's got one less track than the import, but at that large a price difference, well worth it.

It arrived today, and though it's no sonic masterpiece, it'll do.

Harry
NP: Burt Bacharach PLAYS HIS HITS

 

[Rudy]

Must be coincidences.

My mother had that LP--it has some inner groove wear and needs a good cleaning, but it's not bad. Also have the same CD. Sounds like they overdid it on the limiter on some of those tracks (that distorted "pumping" sound is a giveaway).

I recently got the same Claudine album from someone I know for $3. Looks virtually unplayed--cover and vinyl are like new.

 

[daveK]

I thought it strange that the cover was changed on the Bacharach album for the CD. The CD was released after the first "Austin Powers" movie came out and the cover was shown on screen in a scene from that film. I would've thought that the original cover would have been preserved to capitalize on the exposure in the movie. Besides, it was such a great cover!