Pickwick discussion

[Rudy]

Which is where everything ends up. Polygram swallowed Pickwick, too.

Interestingly, Pickwick had a moment of legitimacy. They founded De-Lite Records as a subsidiary label and got hits from Kool & The Gang before selling De-Lite to Polygram.

That's an interesting twist! I can't think think of any other artists on De-Lite though, other than K&TG. That sounds like a label that Mercury would handle reissues for now (as it seem a lot of the R&B/funk ends up on Mercury).

 

[Rudy]

BTW, I know that some labels had their own budget imprints. Camden was RCA's budget imprint (which itself would get Pickwick-ized), and I recall the Metro label may have been an MGM budget label, as it reissued a Verve Cal Tjader LP with a couple of tracks omitted. In RCA's distant past, the Vik and X labels were also budget imprints.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

So apparently this is the way to get rich:

1. Form a record label
2. Sell it to Polygram.

Hey, Herb & Jerry did it!

 

[KentTeffeteller]

Pickwick's slogan should have been- Cheapie and darned proud of it. Or Music for Tightwads.

 

[AM Matt]

My mother bought The Lettermen "The Soft Hits Of The Lettermen" (early 1972) at a Woolworth's store in Midland, Michigan back then & the late Mama Cass "Dream A Little Dream Of Me" (from late 1974) both from Pickwick. Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[Dave]

My mother bought The Lettermen "The Soft Hits Of The Lettermen" (early 1972) at a Woolworth's store in Midland, Michigan back then & the late Mama Cass "Dream A Little Dream Of Me" (from late 1974) both from Pickwick.

So were any songs missing from them?


-- Dave

 

[AM Matt]

Hard to say if there was any songs missing in both of them. Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[audiofile]

They cut off two of the best tracks on Baja's Those Were The Days. Peru 68, and Happening To Me. My first copy of it was the Pickwick version. Luckily my dad had the real copy and later I found several sealed copies as well as the cd.

 

[Dave]

OK, get ready!

Here are two BOBBY GOLDSBORO albums Pickwick!

Yeh..., --Anyway: Honey (which thankfully does NOT have ANYTHING missing from it!--I mean how can you do that to an album which sold THREE-MILLION-COPIES three days after it was released????--and according to Bobby, the best-selling album of 1968!)

And another 1968 album, following Honey, and that's Word Pictures, the home of 'The Straight Life' and 'Autumn Of My Life'... (reissued in 1978)

The missing songs? 'Disatisfied Man' (by Alex Harvey) and 'Letter To Emily' (by Billy Ed Wheeler), the next-to-last song on the album--and the album lacks the gatefold cover (actually a Unipak, fold)...

And then there's another album by another one of my favorite artists: John Stewart, and the album is his RCA LP from 1975 Wingless Angels, which isn't massing any songs, but unfortunately is missing one thing equally important: THE LYRICS SHEET!!!!


-- Dave

But at least Bobbie Gentry's Ode To Billie Jo on Pickwick isn't missing anything...

 

[Dave]

Alas: Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds first album on ABC/Dunhill, Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds is missing the original last track: 'Nora' (...Nora, Nora, Nora...--You know I love you, Nora!/You know I need you, Nora!/You know I got to have you, Nora!...)

It end w/ the original last song on Side 1, 'Long Road', w/ Side 1 ending w/ 'Don't Refuse My Love'...

Glen Campbell's Galveston is yet another one bowdlerized, too: 'Every Time I Itch I Wind Up Scratchin' You', the original last cut on Side 2 has suffered Pickwick's stingy deletion, hence the next-to-last-track 'Oh, What A Woman' (by Jerry Hubbard /Jerry Reed) has to suffice (and w/ the former being written by Glen Campbell, himself, could that be why?

And Pickwick stoops even lower in its cheap-o treatment of great art, eliminating Glen's remake of Randy Sparks' "Today" off of Side 1...

(I suspect w/ Capitol & Pickwick going from being in cahoots to butting noggins, there might be a few other Glen Campbell LP's suffering from this hideous practice, too!)


-- Dave

 

[Dave]

OK, The Sandpipers Come Saturday Morning --

On A&M:

Side 1: Santo Domingo / The Long and Winding Road / Free to Carry On / A Song of Joy 4:22/ Where There's a Heartache / He's Got the Whole World in His Hands

Side 2: The Drifter / The Sound of Love / Autumn Afternoon / Come Saturday Morning / The Wonder of You / Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

And the Pickwick version:

Side 1: The Drifter / Where There's A Heartache / Free To Carry On / Come Saturday Morning / A Song Of Joy

Side 2: The Long And Winding Road / Autumn Afternoon / The Sound Of Love / The Wonder Of You

See the differences?


-- Dave

 

[Michael Hagerty]

OK, get ready!

BOBBY GOLDSBORO albums Pickwick!

Yeh..., --Anyway: Honey (which thankfully does NOT have ANYTHING missing from it!--I mean how can you do that to an album which sold THREE-MILLION-COPIES three days after it was released????--and according to Bobby, the best-selling album of 1968!)

There are some of us who would have bought the Pickwick version if they had deleted the title track.......

 

[dostros]

Oooh, that's harsh.

I just bought Perry Como Sings Merry Christmas Songs, for our Christmas-in-August party. It's a Pickwick version of a Camden release. Don't know which track is missing (and it's not really important).

 

[TonyCurrie]

The first Pickwick labels in the UK were Allegro and Bravo (the latter issued only EPs). Most of the releases were either obscure or reissues of very old material (like The Ink Spots), with minimal packaging (neither track listing nor sleeve notes - the record sleeves all had a standard rear that simply listed the entire Allegro catalogue) and only mono recordings. But the albums sold for 10/6 (equivalent of about 25 cents in those days) and could be found not only in record shops but shoe shops, chemist's, newsagents ... anywhere they could install a dumper bin! As a result, the majors decided to follow suit and first to do so was the highly successful Pye Records who launched their "Marble Arch" label. This specialised in reissues of deleted Pye product, but whereas the full price discs always had a dozen tracks, the Marble Arch versions usually only had ten. However, their products was very superior to Allegro - all albums shared a uniform front sleeve style which looked classy, and retained some sleeve notes. And although initially mono releases, the label started releasing stereo discs after a while. But it was surely the Marble Arch ten track tactic that Pickwick subsequently borrowed. Oh, incidentally, most people here probably know that Herb's Volume 2 appeared on Marble Arch (although with A&M labels) and not only did all twelve tracks survive, but the stereo pressings were really very good and the sleeve notes excellent!

 

[Dave]

Anne Murray is also someone, whose early Capitol albums probably are also missing a track, or two...

Jim & Ingrid Croce's Another Day, Another Town and even the rare Facets (of which an actual only FIVE-HUNDRED copies were actually made) also suffer from a couple missing songs if you buy the Pickwick versions of those, as well...


-- Dave

 

[Dave]

What's the world coming to? Here's a Pickwick copy of Billy Swan's one-time A&M outing, You're OK, I'm OK on 8 Track:

http://8tracksrback.ecrater.com/p/4570140/billy-swan-youre-okay-im-8

What's missing? 'Let The Rain Keep Falling' and '(Can't Get You Out Of My) Bloodstream'...!

Also, I believe Hagood Hardy's The Homecoming album was also reissued w/ at least one missing track, too! Not sure if it was a Pickwick version or simply a Capitol reissue 'Pickwick-ified' (to paraphrase my Capitol/Pickwick statement, above)...


-- Dave

 

[Dave]

The Pickwick short-change pirates have done it again!!!!!!

Here's Billy Vaughn's Sweet Maria on Dot Records, retitled as Guantanamera on Pickwick:

Dot version:

Side 1: Sweet Maria / If You Go Away / A Man And A Woman / There Goes My Everything / Guantanamera / Games That Lovers Play

Side 2: Wish Me A Rainbow / Cherish / The Wheel Of Hurt / Where Will The Words Come From? / Sugar Town

Pickwick version:

Side 1: Guantanamera / A Man And A Woman / It's Such A Pretty World Today / I Love You And You Love Me / It's Just A Matter Of Time

Side 2: My Special Angel / Games That Lovers Play / My Elusive Dreams / Yellow Roses Mean Goodbye

Only they merely substituted a few tracks; I really thought there were just some missing...

And I wonder why 'Guantanamera' has no lyrics? It's just sung as "La, la, la-la, la-la-la", then "Luh, luh, luh-luh, luh-luh-luh".... --Maybe no one knows Spanish!


-- Dave

 

[Bobberman]

I too owned a couple of them pickwick albums and my first experience was the 1979 reissue of the baja marimba bands those were the days minus two songs ( those being peru68 & happening to me) as a 12year old at the time i loved the music but i thought the sound quality should have been better but then i tracked down an original a&m version and thats when i discovered the 2 aformentioned songs and by that time i was on to pickwicks little scheme and from then on i made it a point to avoid them at all costs however that being said they did provide a way for some of us younger people to hear some of what we missed out on the first time until we were able to pick up the real deals

 

[Bobberman]

WE CUT CORNERS SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO

Wow now that is hilarious! Lol very clever Harry i needed a little good laugh today thank you so much i agree with everyone of you when it comes to pickwick

 

[Michael Hagerty]

The Pickwick short-change pirates have done it again!!!!!!


And I wonder why 'Guantanamera' has no lyrics? It's just sung as "La, la, la-la, la-la-la", then "Luh, luh, luh-luh, luh-luh-luh".... --Maybe no one knows Spanish!


-- Dave

I always liked it this way:

 

[Dave]

From the Boys in Ajax Ontario: It's another chintzy song shortage! My Pat Boone White Christmas Christmas Album... It has only ten songs, and from what I've seen, there are supposed to be fourteen, but if none of the four missing are 'Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer', then I am not gonna worry!

One of the missing songs however is 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen', of which he'd done it w/ his wife & daughters on The Pat Boone Family In The Holy Land, so I'm just happy to just have it there, and I believe they did 'Away In A Manger' on it as well...

Too early for Christmas music, I know, but I loved the hand-drawn picture of Pat's head on the front cover & the church in the snow on the back, and both portaits look like they're opened-gift wrapped-around, so that and the fact that this record was just $4.88--$5.00, including sales tax!--, not to mention brand new, still-sealed, (haven't bought a "new" copy of 'anything that was a record' in a STORE in a while; just only ordered Online) so I couldn't pass this up, or even wait til X-Mas to listen to!


-- Dave

 

[Dave]

Well, just when you don't think it can get any worse, there's Elvis Presley's Frankie & Johnny Soundtrack album... The track order runs different from its original RCA issue & it even omits three songs, as well...

(Some of Elvis' other albums have also been issued or reissued on Pickwick, some (Gasp!) possibly done the same way...!)

Hmmmmph! I think those guys in Ajax, Ontario ought'a start making CLEANSER!


-- Dave

 

[KentTeffeteller]

Pickwick Corner logo and motto, killer cool and witty. Why not, or have a cheapo label corner covering the genre of cheap LP discs.

 

[Dave]

Careful what you say; you'll offend Mr. Pickwick:

http://s.discogss.com/image/L-42729-1331263706.jpeg


-- Dave

 

[Bobberman]

I always liked it this way:

since the video above shows a post monkees michael nesmith. Im surprised pickwick never reissued any of the monkees albums and left out a song or two. Lol by the way i like it that way too.