Pink Ticket to Ride (MFP UK issue)*

Song4uman

Well-Known Member
i remember when I was around 9-10 (74-75) seeing a pinkish album at the local Gibson’s store. I didn’t have money to purchase it at that time. As I got older I realized that I must have just remembered it wing as there weren’t any releases that looked like that.

Several years ago now, I found it again and purchased. It is basically Ticket to Ride with WOJB as the first track and CTY as the final track.

Distributed by Music For Pleaaure in the UK. MFP 50431
I must have been a little older when I first saw it because the picture cover photo is probably 77-78.
Anyone else have this? Does anyone know anything about it? It also has the A&M logo on the front.
The link is not mine...just found it to show the picture.

The Carpenters . Ticket To Ride . MFP 50431. Sealed LP | eBay
 
I remember seeing those. It’s a great picture of Karen and I almost bought it for that reason.
 
Music For Pleasure is a budget label in the UK. They often repackaged albums or made new compilations. In this case, they sort of did both.
 
I'm playing this Vinyl LP as I type--first song, Ticket To Ride,
the version ( from Offering) which seems to provoke cries of being "out-of-tune"....
Well, I can hear none of that on this particular recording.....sounds great to me.....
I still wonder if this song has been 'doctored' for this LP ?

Bought this one in the "import section" in a K-Mart in Rockford, Illinois....early 1980's !
Still plays great......
 
A few more tidbits about this LP:
The version of Close To You on Side One, is the Single (not extended) version,
Side Two opens with the Close To You/We've Only Just Begun intro
that you hear on The Singles 1969-1973 Album opening.....
 
Ive got this one I found it in a UK charity shop for £1 a few months ago. I haven't had a vinyl player so haven't heard it yet. Having ordered the box set I'm hoping for a good deal on a vinyl player on Black Friday!
 
I'm surprised nobody has pointed out that this is just the original Ticket/Offering album with "Invocation" and "Benediction" removed, and the two big hits in their places. (Although I guess Harry did, when he posted the pic of the back cover with track listing.)

It's nice in the sense that it would add about 5 minutes to the play-time of the album. But "their very best" as the liner notes claim? Uh, not exactly, no....
 
i remember when I was around 9-10 (74-75) seeing a pinkish album at the local Gibson’s store. I didn’t have money to purchase it at that time. As I got older I realized that I must have just remembered it wing as there weren’t any releases that looked like that.

Several years ago now, I found it again and purchased. It is basically Ticket to Ride with WOJB as the first track and CTY as the final track.

Distributed by Music For Pleaaure in the UK. MFP 50431
I must have been a little older when I first saw it because the picture cover photo is probably 77-78.
Anyone else have this? Does anyone know anything about it? It also has the A&M logo on the front.
The link is not mine...just found it to show the picture.

The Carpenters . Ticket To Ride . MFP 50431. Sealed LP | eBay
I bought this in 1983. I found it at our local, Hart's Department Store, it was after Karen passed. They had 2 of the at $2.99 each, so I purchased them both. I kept one sealed and played one. I later gave the open one to a fellow Carpenters fan who didn't have a copy. I used to have multiples of each LP except "Offering" and I gave them to fellow Carpenters fans (I gave my cassettes to a lady who entertained elderly folks at a local nursing home. She said the residents loved the music)
 
I bought this in 1983. I found it at our local, Hart's Department Store, it was after Karen passed. They had 2 of the at $2.99 each, so I purchased them both. I kept one sealed and played one. I later gave the open one to a fellow Carpenters fan who didn't have a copy. I used to have multiples of each LP except "Offering" and I gave them to fellow Carpenters fans (I gave my cassettes to a lady who entertained elderly folks at a local nursing home. She said the residents loved the music)

Same here. Bought it around the same time, but in cassette form. Played the heck out of it. I have no idea where it is today.
 
Here is a promo ad for the UK Ticket To Ride LP (pink cover) which appears to have been issued in the summer of 1979 "Sail into Summer" with the Music For Pleasure (MFP) label. This was featured in Music Week UK June 23, 1979

There was some previous discussion here from Gary and Harry about this MFP LP. Harry indicated that it may have been issued in the later 70's and appears to be the case.

I had a hard time finding this album on Discogs, they indicate the release date as "Unknown"
Maybe this ad confirms the date.


It appears to have been released on LP and Cassette according to Discogs.



Interestingly, if you look at the discogs pics of both the LP and cassette, the release date is no where to be found, only the original LP dates of 1969 and 1970 show on the LP labels and cassette.

Music Week UK
June 23, 1979
fD7tRyL.jpg
 
Just to clarify, this TICKET TO RIDE release was issued on LP, on the budget mfp label in the UK under licence from A&M. The label removed the "invocation/Benediction" bookends and replaced them with:

"We've Only Just Begun" - as heard on THE SINGLES 1969-1973 complete with the "Close To You" opening and orchestral intro. This starts off the album.

"(They Long To Be) Close To You" concludes the album in its single mix.

The rest of the OFFERING / TICKET TO RIDE album remains as originally heard on that album. In other words, the song "Ticket To Ride" is the original 1969 version, as are all of the others.
 
I guess A&M UK thought this compilation would sell better with replacing the first and last track. So they must have used 2 different master tapes to source from or created a new master from 2 different masters. Pretty odd. I’d seen this cover just never really knew anything about this release.
 
Sure, by adding Carpenters' two big early hits, it was instantly a better bargain of an album. And the cover art was instantly better than the original two albums.

MFP was in the business of issuing reconfigured albums at discount prices. And the copy I have sounds pretty good, well pressed vinyl.
 
One thing that you can really hear with this album is just how rough sounding the 1967-69 recordings sound versus the two 1970 recordings. I’ve got the LP, and the “Offering” tracks seem to have tape hiss and other background noise on them, including the distortion that is present on the original “Offering”. I wonder if the “Offering” tracks were recorded and mixed with Dolby A, or if they were done with no Dolby, hence why they sound rough, versus the 70 tracks that were probably recorded with Dolby A. (Dolby A only hit the market in 1965, so would Magic Lamp have had it, or A&M in all their studios by 69?)
 
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