Thank you! That was the most informative video on K-Tel that I've ever seen. I'm 51 now, and the first K-Tel album I ever bought back in the day (at the Shamokin Dam, PA Kmart... Kmart was always a good source for K-Tel) was "Super Hits of the Superstars" (the blue one). My 3 all-time favorite K-Tel albums (meaning, the 3 that I have the most nostalgia for) are "Disco Rocket" (1978), "Spotlight" (1979) and "After Hours" (1982). I believe the very last K-Tel album I ever purchased (at Boscov's, I think, in approximately 1984) was "Masters of Metal". "Hit Express" (1982) was another good one. K-Tel compilations were always good to play during summer pool parties, with the Sears speakers propped gingerly on the window sills, facing out to the backyard. 😊
I had/still have a whole bunch of these records. I was a disco freak at age 8 in 1977 and played the shit out of these K-Tel records. I loved the novelty records as well. Mine was called Funny Bones and it also had My Ding-A-Ling (Unbelievably Chuck Berry’s only number one hit.) on it as well as what turned out to be my absolute favorite song of all time, Alley Oop by Hollywood Argyles. I later bought the full length LPs from the artists I dug the most like Parliment, BT Express, Kool and the Gang and all that good stuff. I laughed when you busted out High Energy! I loved that one. I think Rock 80 was the last one I bought and still own. I bought a few a second time around later on at flea markets to get that nostalgic groove on, but man…the fidelity on these records is pretty weak. Great video. Thanks for bringing back some good memories!
I remember the K-Tel commercials in those days. Radioactive was animated with voiceover! Sears and Korvettes carried them too. I owned The Queen Collection on K-Tel/Warner Special Products. The Heavy Metal compilations looked amazing.
K-Tel and Ronco were popular in the 80s in the UK. Despite often being loaded with tracks that needed editing and a quiet groove, they lured us away from the soundalike albums that we were duped into buying. Even in 1983 they were issuing albums with 9 or 10 songs per side, often with ridiculous edits performed. It was the advent of *Now That's What I Call Music* in 1983 that finally convinced these labels to stop palming us off with edited songs.
We can do that ourselves now with I tunes accounts which we can rip and burn onto CDs. At the end of the day, however, I prefer the entire LP - the rest of the songs are even better than the "hit".
These were a large part of my childhood growing up in Britain in the 1970s. Couldn't afford loads of singles so their compilations were good value. Of course, quality wise, many were shit microgroove things, but they served their purpose. But later they were better when they ditched the microgroove stuff, and when I DJed in the 1980s, I picked up quite a few to get tracks I couldnt' find elsewhere. Some were quite surprising though. Not just good compilations, but sometimes actually reasonable quality. Anywho, My Ding-a-ling was my very first single I bought. The song that was number when I was born was Englebert Humperdinck's "Release me" - not only a vile song, but the very tune that broke the Beatles unbroken number 1 run and kept Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane off the top. A crime on both counts.
Release Me by Engelbert Humperdinck is one of the very first songs I can remember, when I was four in 1967. Apparently Wayward Wind by Frank Ifield was number 1 when I was born, with Please Please Me by The Beatles at number 2.
i’ve got one called “soundwaves” from 1980 with the later label and it’s got at least 10 tracks per side, way compressed. of course, it also has a kiss song, “i was made for lovin’ you.”
Ahh great memories. I have a huge collection of K-tel albums, I remember back when I was a teenager in the 90's going to various charity shops and car boot sales and picking up a lot of these compilations. They were everywhere. A lot of the early ones from the 70's didn't have great sound quality due to cramming so many songs together and having to edit most of the songs down to under 3 minutes or so, but by the late 70's to early 80's they did start getting better in sound quality with a few less tracks on each side. I have both of the Rock Anthems compilations, released sometime around 1986 I think, one album cover is red the other is blue. They are my favourite K-tel albums, they have only 6 tracks each side and they sound pretty darn good. K-tel records weren't always the best and certainly not for audiophiles, but they were a great way to buy collections of songs together on one record if you didn't want to buy lots of singles and I love some of the wacky titles they gave them. Night Moves, Star Traks, Mounting Excitement, Souled Out, Super Bad and Headline Hits are a few of my favourite ones. I have a bit of a soft spot for K-tel and still love listening to them.
Again, a very nice and informative video! I remember K-Tel, even if the covers were different than yours, here in Germany. Your video brings back some very nice memories. I think, I have to look for some albums I owned on cassette as a kid. It is nice to relive a part of my early life through music. Thanks for the video!
Being from Canada K-Tel was so much a part of records in the 70’s and early 80’s. They did Canada artist only albums and there are songs I’ve never found otherwise.
I was born in 77 and I didn't start collecting records until I was about 12 or 13. What I appreciate about the K-Tel albums was that I was able to find several at various seap meets, garage sales and estate sales and get them relatively cheap, a buck or 2 apiece. Therefore I was able to get a taste of several different bands for very little money. Then, if I liked the sound of the band or the song, I would go seek out the actual albums by the artists. Therefore, K-tel, Ronco and Adam VIII compilations helped set me on the path of discovering song of my favorite artists, songs and albums. Therefore, like you, I have a huge soft spot and wax nostalgic when it comes to those albums. I still have pretty much all the copies I first came across and bought over 30 years ago. Great video as always. Thank you.
I worked at a small radio station in the 70's. A girl called one night and requested a song. I told her I didn't know if we had it but that I would look. She said "oh you have it, it's on one of your K-Tel albums". My evening was glamorous until that moment.
I’m a collector/connoisseur of many different “various artists” albums, and K-tel definitely had their niche. They were a good way to get a good sampler of a certain period, especially if you didn’t want to be buying stacks of singles. Yes, they were not for audiophiles. But as I said, for sampling radio hits, they did the job. I thought that the edit of “Small Beginnings” by Flash on “22 Explosive Hits” was brilliant. The prog rockers always did need a stopwatch.
I had the "Fantastic" 22 track LP. 1972 I think... Loved it, had Foster Sylvers "Misdimeanor", The Sweet "Little Willy", Focus "Hocus Pocus" and many more!
I remember receiving these during the mid-70s as Christmas or birthday gifts. A great way to be introduced to new artists. Yes, they were heavily edited and the sound quality probably wasn't the greatest. But for $1.99? I had $1,099.00 worth of fun and memories. Great video. Thanks for taking us down memory lane.
The best overview of K-Tel on UA-cam ! Great job Robert. The forerunner to the K-Tel records were the regional radio station compilations. I had WBBF and a WKBW set that had a lot of oldies on them. I bought That Believe in music LP when it came out and that is exactly how I first heard of Slade. My favorite Warner special products record was the box set “Superstars of the 70s”. The sound is great on it.
Some of the hard rock and metal comps definitely helped introduce me to new music back then.some interesting cover art too🤘😁 manythnx! Edit: your collection is impressive
Back when I worked at a radio station in the 90's, we had what we called "GoldDiscs." They were like mix discs of various artists, all of which were hits or good radio fodder. Those KTel albums were pretty much the civilian version of those.
The GoldDiscs even had Beatles tracks. Basically a way for radio stations to have an instant music library. The rock station I worked for in the 90's had a lite rock sister station that had those.
@@RobertFithen Yep, I loved those things. When our station when to automation, we wanted to grab 'em, but apparently they're not owned, they're rented... so they're really hard to find now. I remember being on the air one day and heard something snapping behind me, and I looked back and it was BBs. Some guy in the apartment complext next door was shooting through our open side door with a BB gun, and he was trying to hit the GoldDiscs. I was like, "Can't you aim for that Crash Test Dummies CD we've got instead?" :)
ROCK 80 is the best K-Tel album of all times!!! U.S. Version. When I found out there was a Canadian version I had to look to Lithuania for a copy. It's awful except for RUSH's Spirit Of Radio which is the reason I needed it. Also has the best cover in K-Tel history!!!
Great video Robert. As an 8 year old kid whenever my mom let me get a k-tel on a shopping trip I was thrilled. The best comp album I ever got was in '73 from Warner Special Products called Superstars Of The '70s, Sabbath, Allman, Faces,Alice Cooper, The Dead, Doors, Stones & many many more. On my Discogs wishlist lol
Warner Special Products has another comp called "Heavy Metal" its definitely not all heavy metal,mostly mainstream rco, but the song selection is really good.
Goofy Greats and Wacky Westerns were two of my faves when I was a kid! Here in Seattle, the grocery store Safeway had a little record section ( bought Deep Purple Deepest Purple at Safeway) and most drug stores ( Payless, Pay-N-Save, etc.) and there were always K-Tel at those places.
K-Tel was my default find for resale/yardsale picks when prices are thick or selections were thin.I have maybe 146 in my collection so far in 7 years.Your video really is great and I see maybe 30 (at least) from your tail end of the video I still need.This is fun,my Ronco is maybe at 5 but we won't need to expand.Ginsu was the knife that cuts pop cans and tomatoes if my memory serves me.Thanks Robert!
I love that story about the Slade track. The struggle continues to this day, as I always feel the need to tell people how they need to hear the brilliant original versions of that track and "Cum On Feel The Noize." I can't stand the Quiet Riot versions. It doesn't surprise me that the album was reissued without the track since America just never gave Slade the time of day until "Run Runaway" in the 80s.
Run Runaway was the first song I ever heard Slade sing. Fortunately I "discovered" more of their stuff through my love of the Sweet, and now I'm a Slade fan. Better late than never right?! 😊
I'm a CD and digital guy these days so when I look for these kind of comps my go to is Time Life and as you mentioned Rhino to some extent. In my vinyl collecting days I didn't pile up that big a collection of K-Tel or similar label comps but I did have a few. They're really cool as time pieces, sort of like having a bit of AM or FM radio preserved on vinyl along with the packaging. I discovered with Discogs that the track listings on K-Tel and Time Life comps vary in different parts of the world. I like the versions of Star Flight and Super Bad 2 I had from Canada a lot more than some of the international versions I looked up on Discogs. Some of the 80's K-Tel comps are great playlists I found. Dave Thomas from SCTV narrated a documentary on K-Tel, it used to air on Canadian TV and you can sometimes find it on UA-cam.
When you said that one album had Train Train I had to laugh. I was about 15 when it came out, and my dad fell in love with it. He played it so much that my mom said if he played it one more time she would take it and sail it out the window like a frisbee.😂
In 1981, Lisa Popeil (Ronco) performed in lingerie with Frank Zappa at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and sang Lisa's Life Story, Dangerous Kitchen, and Teenage Prostitute. I have a FZ album where there is a song Ms. Popeil appears on, but I can't remember which one. I'm amazed at the huge number of K-Tel records. Fascinating stuff, Robert.
Slade's biggest hit in England was 'Merry Xmas Everybody' which has been released and re-re-re-released every year since 1973. In fact I saw Slade at the Reading Festival in the 80's and they had 70,000 rockers singing 'Merry Xmas Everybody' on a hot August day.
Memories!!!!! Thanks for doing this one!! I loved KTEL “Southern fried rock”. I remember we also had the American and Canadian “Rock 80” back in the day. I think the reason they were different, was Canadian records had to contain Canadian songs/artists as part of legislation. (a certain percentage I believe?). So the Canada version had Rush, Doug and the Slugs, April Wine etc.
“Slices, dices and circumcises” KTel…😂. Introduced me to ZZTop’s “La Grange” back in ‘ 74. And I still love it. Just about the same time I had my Brit Milah…😂Love your work, Dude. Cheers from Oz
Great video! I own at least 22 of those K-Tels from your montage and perhaps another 4 or 5. They introduced a lot of good, and overlooked, songs to me in my youth. This brought back lots of great memories. Thank you.
I have quite a few in my collection - The Best of Bowie is a great record with some rare edits - edits which worked in the records favour. 20th Century Boy: Marc Bolan and T-rex - was and remains a fairly definitive best of ..... 28 tracks over 4 sides of vinyl. In the spirit of the original thread, I have a fondness for the compilation albums because they were a great way to get great pop music at an affordable price.
cool. unfortunately those two weren't issued in North America. I would pick those up if I saw them. My younger self would have been too cool to buy those.
Such an EXPLOSIVE video! Impressive collection of KTel's. I stack 6 wax on my turntable and it's better than todays oldies radio stations (and I was a Dj in 77). Don't even need to hear the full song..these were all made with hooks, and your memory is the true record player. You can never have enough K Tel's! Whole lotta Andy Gibb. I will say Ronco had them beat for album covers. Bravo !
I loved K-Tel. Pure Gold was the first one I ever got. Maxine Nightingale. Loved that song. I was around 11 when I heard that. Disco Fire. Dimensions. I had like a dozen or so of those records.
I have a K-tel album from 85' that I found at the Goodwill 13 YEARS AGO and it still had the chart booklet on how to do all of the latest dances from that era. I was living in my old apartment YEARS AGO the last time that I've played it when I was with my ex. I can't find it on discogs but the tracks were Jesse Johnson - I want to be your Man, The Temptations- treat her like a lady, Jermaine Stewart - the word is out, some other tracks that I can't remember from 40 YEARS AGO.
Thanks for the great K-Tel video. I have 4 of those. I host a poker game every summer and dj the whole time. I was playing “Love Grows” and “Ooh Child” and told the guys this was a K-Tel album and all the guys were very impressed. I’m a couple months older than you and definitely heard the albums. Great records. Rock On!
Oh god ... I'd forgotten (or my mind had deleted) that bloody "Let's Disco" album with the book. The horror! I loved those disco albums that cut mix quickly into the next track. Some were quite good for sticking on while warming up, but sometimes they were a bit questionable either in their cuts or choice of next tracks. Though, thinking about it, I think they were the knock-offs like Ronco and Arcade.
@14:59 I had Hitline on two 8 tracks. Many great songs. I became a Michael Jackson fan from this album. Program was would end with Don't Stop and skip to Program 1 w/ Rock with You, great 1-2 punch. Thanks for bringing back great memories!
I want to commend you on a great production effort for this video. Fast paced, informative, and hilarious every time you sang. Nice music selection and segueing to accompany your album cover montage at the end. Good voiceover segment, too. Thanks much.
Hi Robert -- thanks for another enjoyable trip in the Wacky Wayback Machine! I was tickled by your rendition of "I Got My Mind Made Up" by Instant Funk,,,always wondered if that song was actually a sly parody of disco. I have an Instant Funk CD compilation with a 9+ minute version of the song, but think the single version is better. I've purchased a couple dozen K-Tel records over the years -- some new when I was a teenager and others used. The arbitrary edits on most tracks were always a source of disappointment (along with lacking of low end because of the narrow groove width), although I found the 2-LP sets generally contained unedited versions of songs. Interestingly, around 1996 the company released 8 compilations on CD reusing the titles and artwork of the original LPs -- albeit with only 10 tracks per disc instead of 20-22. I bought a couple of these secondhand (DYNAMITE and MUSIC EXPRESS) and was pleased they contained full-length versions of the songs and the sound quality was pretty good; however, the track lineup wasn't exactly faithful to the original releases. My guess is this was due to licensing issues. In case no one else mentioned it: The person doing the duet with Suzi Quatro on "Stumblin' In", Chris Norman, was the lead singer of the band Smokie. You probably remember their top-30 hit "Living Next Door To Alice" from 1977 (two years prior to "Stumblin' In"). Chris is easily recognized by his distinctive "smokey" voice. Additional trivia: Both songs were penned by Chapman and Chinn, one of the more prolific 70s songwriting duos. "Virginia (Touch Me Like You Do)"...When I bought the single I noticed the catalog number was NEB 0001 (NEB = Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart's initials), so it was indeed the label's first release. That song didn't even make the top 40 in the US, but it was likely a big hit in Canada for citizen Bill Amesbury -- so of course it found its way onto a K-Tel collection. Strangely, it's the full-length version that appears on the K-Tel album I have instead of the edited single version!
Another great video that had me laughing out loud. The only K-Tel album I ever owned was "Fantastic" and I played the hell out of it. I didn't realize the songs were edited until years later when I would hear the tracks on the radio like "Crocodile Rock" by Elton John and "Hocus Pocus" by Focus and I'd think "Hey, my copy would have been over by now." This also reminds me of a series of TV record offers that were sold in the 1970's with titles like "Summer '75" that consisted of all the current hits but they were rerecorded by a group called "The Sound Effects".
The Pickwick label used to put out those awful albums, too, called "Million or More in [year]". All of the songs were performed by some group called King's Road.
7:22 As a nine-year-old visiting Grandpa's house, Music Express was my absolute favourite 8 track tape from my uncle's collection. "Philadelphia Freedom", "Love Will Keep....", "Chevy Van" : WOW!! Best track was the "Rockford Files" TV theme instrumental. Because you can't cue up a song on an 8 track player, had to spend equal time having to listen to the other four songs on the same program to finally hear "Rockford" roll around again.
Well, this turned into an unexpected emotional roller-coaster ride! Laughed like hell when I spotted the teaser but by the end you sucker-punched me right in the feels! 🤣Shopping with Mom ... begging and pleading for the next record .... Thanks Robert - this was a lot of fun!
I've had 43 of those albums. Of course, the Canadian versions of them. I never even knew that other countries had different tracks on them until maybe 5 years ago when i found my first UK pressing of a K-Tel album. I forget what one, but looked damn near the same, other then different bands in the bubbles on the artwork. And i must say, for the shitloads of albums i have found. Very rarely have i found anything other then Canadian versions in stores. The problem is condition. I know because I've been on the hunt still for certain ones, but usually check out whatever i find in the dollar bin. And the albums are always trashed to some degree. So i try to snag up all the ones in mint shape. But some titles seem to be harder to find. Starflight is one i loved as a kid. Haven't seen a copy in maybe 15 years now. And yes, our Canadian version is way different. And i wondered if it had to do with CanCon, as in Canadian Content (not the Kan Kon band) so your American version was probably free of Anne Murray. And besides, ours would sound as weird as me listening to yours. It may have 8 of the 12 songs, in a different order. But just wouldn't sound right. Which means I will have to go look up CircuitBreaker to see how different the U.S. presssing is. I love that album, and luckily was one of the mint albums i have found. Same with another one I grew up with (which wasn't shown in the montage, so maybe its a Canadian only pressing) Streetwave. Which was nothing but new wave music. It might be from 1979, but is probably 1980. But good chance thats where I first heard punk bands like Ramones & Teenage Head. Keep in mind, they were awful ballads. Yeah, must be 1980 because Baby I Love You is on it. But damn, another killer album. Speaking of those metal ones. The same store that has probably 328 K-Tel albums in the dollar bins. They do, or did have the 2 Masters Of Metal albums, but damn. $25 each? Why can't they be like $25 for Volume 1 and you can get Volume 2 for a penny? White Hot, i don't think that was released under K-Tel here in Canada. That was on the compilation label that Polydor or Polytel did in the 80's. Another release they did along those same lines was called Rock Sizzlers. Had someone light matches that spelled it out. Probably had Heavens On Fire by Kiss and something off Pyromania by Def Leppard on it. Another sorta off shot label, maybe also Canadian only was Tee Vee Records. They did a lot of weird competition albums as well. Like, who needs a double album of trucker hits? And why they always put some hot woman on the covers? Think they were trying to say something in the marketing department. Something that wasn't mentioned was The K-Tel 45 that came with some board game. Chance-A-Tune? It was a triple grooved 45 and you either got, It's A Hit. It's A Flop. Or, Break Even Break Even Break Even Break Even...and what is even more messed up is that maybe a couple weeks ago, i found out that the Break Even song is actually a real thing. Of course I dont remember who, but that just freaked me right the fuck out. I remembered the 45 from my babysitters from when i was maybe 4. I know because i wasn't in school yet. And would love watching that 45 play on repeat on her record player. Because it was always gonna play something different. It would end up taking over 30 years before i found that 45 again. And you damn right i left it on repeat for maybe a few minutes. Or until i got sick of hearing It's A Flop too many times. Damn, what a great video. Thanks Robert.
Great video, very informative and lots of fun! I had several of these (including some of those Ronco discs) as a kid. They led me into a continuing fondness for compilations; a good chunk of my collection consists of them.
Super Bad is my favourite compilation of all time - I now have all of the originals because they introduced me to them as a 12-year-old - I love K-Tel Ronco and Arcade (In the UK). Love this video - thanks! We had our own versions of these in the UK as well (well the 70s ones at least) I really enjoyed that! Thanks!
I love how in the days before the internet you had to bring your record to school to prove that Slade did the song first. I don't have any K-Tel, but i bought "Dreamin'", a double album from I and M Teleproducts, back in 1979.
Another great video, Robert. I seem to remember having one with No Regrets by The Walker Brothers which managed to edit out the whole of the big 70s guitar solo, which was the best part of the song. I have to say "Maybe they weren't so bad" is about as ringing an endorsement as I'd give them!
I was alive when K-Tel was on TV, but I never delved into their products. I did bite on a TV ad back in '66 for "24 Groovy Greats," pressed by Columbia Special Products in mono -- a great selection of songs, but like K-Tel. the tracks were truncated to run not more that 2 minutes each (more like 1:30). It enticed me to get the original 45s for the complete songs. While I was in the UK, I bought from the "Golden Hour" lp series from Pye -- "Golden Hour of The Searchers Volumes 1 & 2", and "Golden Hour of Donovan." The songs run their complete length but the grooves are so minute that you don't get true fidelity. Much of it is rechannelled stereo. The Donovan material was pre-"Sunshine Superman" -- the good folky stuff released by Hickory Records in the US, like "Universal Soldier", "Hey Gyp (Dig the Slowness)," et al.
Hi Rob, K Tell, were big in Aus....They were rel as ''''Magestic' records....I have over 100 copies of Aus rels from 1970-1980....And yes the Aus and US Version had tot different songs.
12:01 - I snagged a Ronco compilation from the UK once: "Street Level" (1980). It featured the Plasmatics, Boomtown Rats, Stranglers, Ian Dury, Generation X (early Billy Idol), Buzzcocks, Dickies, and... THE SEX PISTOLS!! You would NEVER see any of those guys on a US Ronco- or K-Tel- comp!
K-Tel released the soundtrack fo the film AM, essentially a Steely Dan album. They also released a re-recoreded version of it almost simultaneously. I have a live Venom album that was also on K-Tel
I got the UK version of K-tel Believe in Music from 1972, and it's got a lot of reggae on the B side like Dave & Ansel Collins, The Pioneers, Judge Dread, Dandy Livingstone, Greyhound, and Johnny Nash, interspersed with Lesley Duncan, Matt Davis, T-Rex, and Johnny Pearson Orchestra. . Completely different songs to the American and Canadian versions, yet the cover is the same.
As a prime buyer of K-Tel and Ronco LPs going back to the early 1970's, I got them because they were a cheap way to get a bunch of AM radio hits I liked. Cheaper than buying the 45s, if you could even get them. Most stores only had the current top 40 in stock and once the hit was off the charts - the 45 was no longer available. 'Sound quality' was not an issue. No one buying these was an audiophile. No one buying 45s back then were audiophiles. Most teenagers had inexpensive Panasonic compact or similar systems. I still play these Adam, K-Tel, & Roncos on my garage stereo because they are the closest thing you can get to hearing what AM radio sounded like for a given season of a year. 15 to 20 minutes of nostalgic fun while I'm working, then flip it over. Repeat.
Mr.Robert i am not a "record guy" i prefer cds, however my hat is off to you because your video touched my heart. Your story about your mom brought back memories of my mom buying me comics at the grocery store. I was a comic book fan. That story was so close to my childhood i had to smile. My mom was THE BIGGEST FAN of Mr. Conway Twitty. She collected 45's but Mr.twitty was her man. Lol She sold her 45 collection years ago. But great video loved it🎉🎉🎉
Robert, thank you for informing us on those marvelous marketing wizards, K-Tel! Hey, I remember seeing an ad for a similar album called "Instrumental Gold" that I have found nothing on. I think that one of its tracks was "Wipe Out". Do you know that one? Do keep posting.
I had a disco dancing box set with booklet with the moves and in the booklet, it said that by the time Saturday Night Fever came out it was already out of style, so I guess the disco era had different phases even though we lump it all into one. Makes me wonder why in the world is that finger pointing the only "dance move" that is remembered from that era. Look at any video of the Soul Train dancers and they rip it up.
I'll admit I had a bunch of these including the godawful Hooked on Classics. It was a great way to get a bunch of one hit wonders without spending a lot of money. Southern Fried Rock is a great collection. I also loved Goofy Greats!
I had the Masters of Metal and White Hot comps and a couple others as a kid and I thought it was great but listening to them now the sound quality is lacking... but I liked getting the albums cheap and being able to hear a lot of different bands that I wouldn't have heard otherwise.... great when you're like 14 years old.
The late 1970’s & early 1980’s K-Tel records were great. K-Tel’s “Night Flight” (1982) had the Pointer Sisters, Hall + Oates, Eddie Rabbitt, Commodores, Kool & The Gang, Juice Newton, and the theme from “The Greatest American Hero”. K-Tel’s “Radio Active” (1982) had The Police, Moody Blues, REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, The Who, Rick Springfield, Hall + Oates, The Go- Go’s, Blondie, and Rick James. “Rock 80” is also a great record.
My soft spot is the "Loss Leaders" that you could mail order from Warner Brothers, Columbia, Atlantic and Reprise. Jam packed with great stuff and only a buck per LP. My long lost favorite is Warners 3 disc "Looney Tunes And Merry Melodies" box.
YES!!! Looney Tunes Merrie Melodies was my favorite one too! It has Alice Cooper, Frank Zappa, Black Sabbath, Captain Beefhaert, The Kinks - Apeman, JImi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac, Faces, and a bunch of other great stuff!!
Fun fact about Kids Incorporated, they were covers of current music done by kids. They used to have a TV show. Stacey Furguson got her start in this band (you probably remeber her as Fergie from Black Eyed Peas. Martika did a good version of Scandal's The Warrior on this album. Along with the group songs, each kid got a solo too. Now I'm gonna have to dig it out. :-)
The first album I ever bought was K-Tel's FANTASTIC! in 1973, so I have a soft spot for K-Tel. I never minded the Blue Label stuff. I listened to music on an AM transistor radio (a Toshiba, IIRC), so the sound quality from the early offerings was right in my wheelhouse. I buy them when I see them, but I stay clear of the country stuff, because I'd never play them. Most of the stuff I collect is the early stuff.
If you read the liner notes of Rhino's Have A Nice Day series, they thank K-tel Records "for inspiration". I have two milk crates full of K-tel albums, and I've recreated about 60 of them on my iTunes, with the original artwork (front only) AND the full-length songs. But I love the 11 songs on each side because they exposed me to music I otherwise would never have heard, ut for being on the K-tels.
Souled Out, Super Bad and Super Bad Is Back were the ones I grew up with in the early '70's that featured soul, disco and funk tracks that didn't get airplay on AM pop radio channels. Yeah, compressed and edited but they led me to track down the 45's and albums from the groups they featured.
Dancing Madness is my favorite, my mom bought me the cassette while shopping a our local Woolworth store 1983, I found a nice copy on vinyl at a flea market a couple yrs ago
Your cat woke up and did a big yawn, then headed off. He's talking about K - Tel records thought your cat. I remember those K- Tel records in the 1970s. I live in New Zealand. You are right about how certain songs would be edited down. You mentioned some old songs from the past. I like that song Skyhigh from Jigsaw back in 1975. It featured on the soundtrack to the movie Man from Hong Kong.
K-Tell records came out with an excellent rock compilation in England, in 1980, called 'Axe Attack'. Sure, it was a terrible name with an even worse sleeve, but the music featured all the major heavyweights of the day such as AC/DC, Whitesnake, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, UFO and a band I'd never heard of at the time called Aerosmith. I loved their song, 'Sweet Emotion' so much I became an Aerosmith junkie searching for any album from them, which was kind of hard at the time because they were virtually unknown at that time in the UK so it was hard finding their albums. Think Status Quo's popularity here in America and you'll get the idea of how known Aerosmith were in England. I found out about them all thanks to K-Tell.
"You're having my baby" by Paul Anka and Odia Coates. That was the number 1 song in England the day I was born. Which I guess is pretty apt. I did not know that until 2 minutes ago lol. Hope you're well dude.
I am from the U.K I collect all this type of record including the k Tel and all the copies where people mimic the original recording like the top of the pops series I’ve got about 200 great video
Tee Hee! I have a K-Tel 2 album set - Donny Osmond Superstar, it has a massive big poster of Donny. It's on the blue K-Tel label so they crammed as much Donny on there as they could!
Hey Robert, great video! Kinda reminds me of the compilation LP's local radio stations would put out. In my area (Dallas-Ft. Worth) that would have been KLIF and KBOX and later on KZEW. I'm pretty new to your UA-cam channel...have you done a review of movie or TV soundtrack records? Thanks!
Thanks to those records I discovered so much music and so many bands I never would have bothered or dared to play. They made a lot of money on the sale of those records, as cheesy as they look now ( not as much then, if you compare the typical select artwork of the day ) but all good things come to an end.
Thank you! That was the most informative video on K-Tel that I've ever seen. I'm 51 now, and the first K-Tel album I ever bought back in the day (at the Shamokin Dam, PA Kmart... Kmart was always a good source for K-Tel) was "Super Hits of the Superstars" (the blue one). My 3 all-time favorite K-Tel albums (meaning, the 3 that I have the most nostalgia for) are "Disco Rocket" (1978), "Spotlight" (1979) and "After Hours" (1982). I believe the very last K-Tel album I ever purchased (at Boscov's, I think, in approximately 1984) was "Masters of Metal". "Hit Express" (1982) was another good one. K-Tel compilations were always good to play during summer pool parties, with the Sears speakers propped gingerly on the window sills, facing out to the backyard. 😊
Thanks! The only one of those I have is "Hit Express".
I forgot to say you’re spot on I brought them as I had no money I couldn’t afford 20 singles but could afford £1.99 for these albums
I had/still have a whole bunch of these records. I was a disco freak at age 8 in 1977 and played the shit out of these K-Tel records. I loved the novelty records as well. Mine was called Funny Bones and it also had My Ding-A-Ling (Unbelievably Chuck Berry’s only number one hit.) on it as well as what turned out to be my absolute favorite song of all time, Alley Oop by Hollywood Argyles. I later bought the full length LPs from the artists I dug the most like Parliment, BT Express, Kool and the Gang and all that good stuff. I laughed when you busted out High Energy! I loved that one. I think Rock 80 was the last one I bought and still own. I bought a few a second time around later on at flea markets to get that nostalgic groove on, but man…the fidelity on these records is pretty weak.
Great video. Thanks for bringing back some good memories!
Great video Robert. I do have a few K-tel records. My favorites in my collection is Starflight, The Rock Album, and Southern Fried Rock.
Those are some of the best.
I remember the K-Tel commercials in those days. Radioactive was animated with voiceover!
Sears and Korvettes carried them too.
I owned The Queen Collection on K-Tel/Warner Special Products.
The Heavy Metal compilations looked amazing.
K-Tel and Ronco were popular in the 80s in the UK. Despite often being loaded with tracks that needed editing and a quiet groove, they lured us away from the soundalike albums that we were duped into buying. Even in 1983 they were issuing albums with 9 or 10 songs per side, often with ridiculous edits performed. It was the advent of *Now That's What I Call Music* in 1983 that finally convinced these labels to stop palming us off with edited songs.
We can do that ourselves now with I tunes accounts which we can rip and burn onto CDs. At the end of the day, however, I prefer the entire LP - the rest of the songs are even better than the "hit".
These were a large part of my childhood growing up in Britain in the 1970s. Couldn't afford loads of singles so their compilations were good value. Of course, quality wise, many were shit microgroove things, but they served their purpose.
But later they were better when they ditched the microgroove stuff, and when I DJed in the 1980s, I picked up quite a few to get tracks I couldnt' find elsewhere. Some were quite surprising though. Not just good compilations, but sometimes actually reasonable quality.
Anywho, My Ding-a-ling was my very first single I bought. The song that was number when I was born was Englebert Humperdinck's "Release me" - not only a vile song, but the very tune that broke the Beatles unbroken number 1 run and kept Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane off the top. A crime on both counts.
Wow I didn't know that about that awful "Release Me" song.
Release Me by Engelbert Humperdinck is one of the very first songs I can remember, when I was four in 1967. Apparently Wayward Wind by Frank Ifield was number 1 when I was born, with Please Please Me by The Beatles at number 2.
i’ve got one called “soundwaves” from 1980 with the later label and it’s got at least 10 tracks per side, way compressed. of course, it also has a kiss song, “i was made for lovin’ you.”
ok, it’s 8 on one and 7 on the other. still too many.
Ahh great memories. I have a huge collection of K-tel albums, I remember back when I was a teenager in the 90's going to various charity shops and car boot sales and picking up a lot of these compilations. They were everywhere. A lot of the early ones from the 70's didn't have great sound quality due to cramming so many songs together and having to edit most of the songs down to under 3 minutes or so, but by the late 70's to early 80's they did start getting better in sound quality with a few less tracks on each side. I have both of the Rock Anthems compilations, released sometime around 1986 I think, one album cover is red the other is blue. They are my favourite K-tel albums, they have only 6 tracks each side and they sound pretty darn good. K-tel records weren't always the best and certainly not for audiophiles, but they were a great way to buy collections of songs together on one record if you didn't want to buy lots of singles and I love some of the wacky titles they gave them. Night Moves, Star Traks, Mounting Excitement, Souled Out, Super Bad and Headline Hits are a few of my favourite ones. I have a bit of a soft spot for K-tel and still love listening to them.
Again, a very nice and informative video! I remember K-Tel, even if the covers were different than yours, here in Germany. Your video brings back some very nice memories.
I think, I have to look for some albums I owned on cassette as a kid. It is nice to relive a part of my early life through music. Thanks for the video!
Being from Canada K-Tel was so much a part of records in the 70’s and early 80’s. They did Canada artist only albums and there are songs I’ve never found otherwise.
it was a good way to sample songs from a band without committing to a whole album
I was born in 77 and I didn't start collecting records until I was about 12 or 13. What I appreciate about the K-Tel albums was that I was able to find several at various seap meets, garage sales and estate sales and get them relatively cheap, a buck or 2 apiece. Therefore I was able to get a taste of several different bands for very little money. Then, if I liked the sound of the band or the song, I would go seek out the actual albums by the artists. Therefore, K-tel, Ronco and Adam VIII compilations helped set me on the path of discovering song of my favorite artists, songs and albums. Therefore, like you, I have a huge soft spot and wax nostalgic when it comes to those albums. I still have pretty much all the copies I first came across and bought over 30 years ago. Great video as always. Thank you.
Thanks!! Yeah, they were mini-snapshots of an era.
I worked at a small radio station in the 70's. A girl called one night and requested a song. I told her I didn't know if we had it but that I would look. She said "oh you have it, it's on one of your K-Tel albums". My evening was glamorous until that moment.
I’m a collector/connoisseur of many different “various artists” albums, and K-tel definitely had their niche. They were a good way to get a good sampler of a certain period, especially if you didn’t want to be buying stacks of singles. Yes, they were not for audiophiles. But as I said, for sampling radio hits, they did the job. I thought that the edit of “Small Beginnings” by Flash on “22 Explosive Hits” was brilliant. The prog rockers always did need a stopwatch.
I had the "Fantastic" 22 track LP. 1972 I think...
Loved it, had Foster Sylvers "Misdimeanor", The Sweet "Little Willy", Focus "Hocus Pocus" and many more!
I remember receiving these during the mid-70s as Christmas or birthday gifts. A great way to be introduced to new artists. Yes, they were heavily edited and the sound quality probably wasn't the greatest. But for $1.99? I had $1,099.00 worth of fun and memories. Great video. Thanks for taking us down memory lane.
The best overview of K-Tel on UA-cam ! Great job Robert. The forerunner to the K-Tel records were the regional radio station compilations. I had WBBF and a WKBW set that had a lot of oldies on them. I bought That Believe in music LP when it came out and that is exactly how I first heard of Slade. My favorite Warner special products record was the box set “Superstars of the 70s”. The sound is great on it.
Thanks!! Yeah, the Warner Special Products albums always sound great.
Rock 80 was the first album I ever bought with my own money. To me it sounded pretty good.
Some of the hard rock and metal comps definitely helped introduce me to new music back then.some interesting cover art too🤘😁 manythnx! Edit: your collection is impressive
Hold The Line is the ultimate guilty pleasure ! 🎸 " Love Isn't Always On Time " Turn It Up ! 📻
Back when I worked at a radio station in the 90's, we had what we called "GoldDiscs." They were like mix discs of various artists, all of which were hits or good radio fodder. Those KTel albums were pretty much the civilian version of those.
The GoldDiscs even had Beatles tracks. Basically a way for radio stations to have an instant music library. The rock station I worked for in the 90's had a lite rock sister station that had those.
@@RobertFithen Yep, I loved those things. When our station when to automation, we wanted to grab 'em, but apparently they're not owned, they're rented... so they're really hard to find now.
I remember being on the air one day and heard something snapping behind me, and I looked back and it was BBs. Some guy in the apartment complext next door was shooting through our open side door with a BB gun, and he was trying to hit the GoldDiscs. I was like, "Can't you aim for that Crash Test Dummies CD we've got instead?" :)
@@nunyabidness4220 My God some sicko was shooting at your RECORDS??? Everyone's a critic!
ROCK 80 is the best K-Tel album of all times!!! U.S. Version. When I found out there was a Canadian version I had to look to Lithuania for a copy. It's awful except for RUSH's Spirit Of Radio which is the reason I needed it. Also has the best cover in K-Tel history!!!
Great video Robert. As an 8 year old kid whenever my mom let me get a k-tel on a shopping trip I was thrilled.
The best comp album I ever got was in '73 from Warner Special Products called Superstars Of The '70s, Sabbath, Allman, Faces,Alice Cooper, The Dead, Doors, Stones & many many more. On my Discogs wishlist lol
Warner Special Products has another comp called "Heavy Metal" its definitely not all heavy metal,mostly mainstream rco, but the song selection is really good.
Goofy Greats and Wacky Westerns were two of my faves when I was a kid! Here in Seattle, the grocery store Safeway had a little record section ( bought Deep Purple Deepest Purple at Safeway) and most drug stores ( Payless, Pay-N-Save, etc.) and there were always K-Tel at those places.
K-Tel was my default find for resale/yardsale picks when prices are thick or selections were thin.I have maybe 146 in my collection so far in 7 years.Your video really is great and I see maybe 30 (at least) from your tail end of the video I still need.This is fun,my Ronco is maybe at 5 but we won't need to expand.Ginsu was the knife that cuts pop cans and tomatoes if my memory serves me.Thanks Robert!
and Mr. Microphone!
I love that story about the Slade track. The struggle continues to this day, as I always feel the need to tell people how they need to hear the brilliant original versions of that track and "Cum On Feel The Noize." I can't stand the Quiet Riot versions. It doesn't surprise me that the album was reissued without the track since America just never gave Slade the time of day until "Run Runaway" in the 80s.
Run Runaway was the first song I ever heard Slade sing. Fortunately I "discovered" more of their stuff through my love of the Sweet, and now I'm a Slade fan. Better late than never right?! 😊
I'm a CD and digital guy these days so when I look for these kind of comps my go to is Time Life and as you mentioned Rhino to some extent. In my vinyl collecting days I didn't pile up that big a collection of K-Tel or similar label comps but I did have a few. They're really cool as time pieces, sort of like having a bit of AM or FM radio preserved on vinyl along with the packaging.
I discovered with Discogs that the track listings on K-Tel and Time Life comps vary in different parts of the world. I like the versions of Star Flight and Super Bad 2 I had from Canada a lot more than some of the international versions I looked up on Discogs. Some of the 80's K-Tel comps are great playlists I found. Dave Thomas from SCTV narrated a documentary on K-Tel, it used to air on Canadian TV and you can sometimes find it on UA-cam.
This is pure gold! Thanks for the deep dive into K-Tel, had a great time all through the video.
Thanks!! Good to hear.
When you said that one album had Train Train I had to laugh. I was about 15 when it came out, and my dad fell in love with it. He played it so much that my mom said if he played it one more time she would take it and sail it out the window like a frisbee.😂
In 1981, Lisa Popeil (Ronco) performed in lingerie with Frank Zappa at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and sang Lisa's Life Story, Dangerous Kitchen, and Teenage Prostitute. I have a FZ album where there is a song Ms. Popeil appears on, but I can't remember which one. I'm amazed at the huge number of K-Tel records. Fascinating stuff, Robert.
Slade's biggest hit in England was 'Merry Xmas Everybody' which has been released and re-re-re-released every year since 1973. In fact I saw Slade at the Reading Festival in the 80's and they had 70,000 rockers singing 'Merry Xmas Everybody' on a hot August day.
The Don't Cry Out Loud part killed me 🤣🤣🤣 My favorite K-Tel album was Star Track in '76. Amazing cover too.
lol I never did get that Star Track album, maybe someday.
Memories!!!!! Thanks for doing this one!! I loved KTEL “Southern fried rock”. I remember we also had the American and Canadian “Rock 80” back in the day. I think the reason they were different, was Canadian records had to contain Canadian songs/artists as part of legislation. (a certain percentage I believe?). So the Canada version had Rush, Doug and the Slugs, April Wine etc.
You're probably right. I didn't even think of the Canadian artists rule.
As someone who lives in the Canadian city where K-Tel had their HQ, I enjoyed the hell out of this video 😂
Pravda Records released a series of K-tel tribute albums, featuring performances by various indie rock bands. "Jackie Blue," "Convoy," etc. etc.
“Slices, dices and circumcises” KTel…😂. Introduced me to ZZTop’s “La Grange” back in ‘ 74. And I still love it. Just about the same time I had my Brit Milah…😂Love your work, Dude. Cheers from Oz
Thanks!!
Great video! I own at least 22 of those K-Tels from your montage and perhaps another 4 or 5. They introduced a lot of good, and overlooked, songs to me in my youth. This brought back lots of great memories. Thank you.
I have quite a few in my collection - The Best of Bowie is a great record with some rare edits - edits which worked in the records favour.
20th Century Boy: Marc Bolan and T-rex - was and remains a fairly definitive best of ..... 28 tracks over 4 sides of vinyl.
In the spirit of the original thread, I have a fondness for the compilation albums because they were a great way to get great pop music at an affordable price.
cool. unfortunately those two weren't issued in North America. I would pick those up if I saw them. My younger self would have been too cool to buy those.
Star flight was my favorite I got it for Christmas on cassette! It still plays all these years later!
Such an EXPLOSIVE video! Impressive collection of KTel's. I stack 6 wax on my turntable and it's better than todays oldies radio stations (and I was a Dj in 77). Don't even need to hear the full song..these were all made with hooks, and your memory is the true record player. You can never have enough K Tel's! Whole lotta Andy Gibb. I will say Ronco had them beat for album covers. Bravo !
I loved K-Tel. Pure Gold was the first one I ever got. Maxine Nightingale. Loved that song. I was around 11 when I heard that. Disco Fire. Dimensions. I had like a dozen or so of those records.
I have a K-tel album from 85' that I found at the Goodwill 13 YEARS AGO and it still had the chart booklet on how to do all of the latest dances from that era. I was living in my old apartment YEARS AGO the last time that I've played it when I was with my ex. I can't find it on discogs but the tracks were Jesse Johnson - I want to be your Man, The Temptations- treat her like a lady, Jermaine Stewart - the word is out, some other tracks that I can't remember from 40 YEARS AGO.
"Dance Trax"... www.discogs.com/release/7830160-Various-Dance-Trax
Thanks for the great K-Tel video. I have 4 of those. I host a poker game every summer and dj the whole time. I was playing “Love Grows” and “Ooh Child” and told the guys this was a K-Tel album and all the guys were very impressed. I’m a couple months older than you and definitely heard the albums. Great records. Rock On!
Oh god ... I'd forgotten (or my mind had deleted) that bloody "Let's Disco" album with the book. The horror!
I loved those disco albums that cut mix quickly into the next track. Some were quite good for sticking on while warming up, but sometimes they were a bit questionable either in their cuts or choice of next tracks. Though, thinking about it, I think they were the knock-offs like Ronco and Arcade.
@23:15 You had me laughing out LOUD on the floor!!!! I needed a good laugh today. THANK YOU!!!
You're welcome!
I had one of their 8-tracks. It was very high quality and out lasted all my other 8 tracks. As a matter of fact, it never broke.
@14:59 I had Hitline on two 8 tracks. Many great songs. I became a Michael Jackson fan from this album. Program was would end with Don't Stop and skip to Program 1 w/ Rock with You, great 1-2 punch. Thanks for bringing back great memories!
It was my introduction to Michael Jackson, too.
I want to commend you on a great production effort for this video. Fast paced, informative, and hilarious every time you sang. Nice music selection and segueing to accompany your album cover montage at the end. Good voiceover segment, too.
Thanks much.
Thanks!! I appreciate that you noticed things like that.
Hi Robert -- thanks for another enjoyable trip in the Wacky Wayback Machine! I was tickled by your rendition of "I Got My Mind Made Up" by Instant Funk,,,always wondered if that song was actually a sly parody of disco. I have an Instant Funk CD compilation with a 9+ minute version of the song, but think the single version is better.
I've purchased a couple dozen K-Tel records over the years -- some new when I was a teenager and others used. The arbitrary edits on most tracks were always a source of disappointment (along with lacking of low end because of the narrow groove width), although I found the 2-LP sets generally contained unedited versions of songs. Interestingly, around 1996 the company released 8 compilations on CD reusing the titles and artwork of the original LPs -- albeit with only 10 tracks per disc instead of 20-22. I bought a couple of these secondhand (DYNAMITE and MUSIC EXPRESS) and was pleased they contained full-length versions of the songs and the sound quality was pretty good; however, the track lineup wasn't exactly faithful to the original releases. My guess is this was due to licensing issues.
In case no one else mentioned it: The person doing the duet with Suzi Quatro on "Stumblin' In", Chris Norman, was the lead singer of the band Smokie. You probably remember their top-30 hit "Living Next Door To Alice" from 1977 (two years prior to "Stumblin' In"). Chris is easily recognized by his distinctive "smokey" voice. Additional trivia: Both songs were penned by Chapman and Chinn, one of the more prolific 70s songwriting duos.
"Virginia (Touch Me Like You Do)"...When I bought the single I noticed the catalog number was NEB 0001 (NEB = Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart's initials), so it was indeed the label's first release. That song didn't even make the top 40 in the US, but it was likely a big hit in Canada for citizen Bill Amesbury -- so of course it found its way onto a K-Tel collection. Strangely, it's the full-length version that appears on the K-Tel album I have instead of the edited single version!
Yeah I was quite disappointed with those CD reissues. Thanks for the info on Chris Norman. I had no idea.
Another great video that had me laughing out loud. The only K-Tel album I ever owned was "Fantastic" and I played the hell out of it. I didn't realize the songs were edited until years later when I would hear the tracks on the radio like "Crocodile Rock" by Elton John and "Hocus Pocus" by Focus and I'd think "Hey, my copy would have been over by now." This also reminds me of a series of TV record offers that were sold in the 1970's with titles like "Summer '75" that consisted of all the current hits but they were rerecorded by a group called "The Sound Effects".
The Pickwick label used to put out those awful albums, too, called "Million or More in [year]". All of the songs were performed by some group called King's Road.
7:22 As a nine-year-old visiting Grandpa's house, Music Express was my absolute favourite 8 track tape from my uncle's collection. "Philadelphia Freedom", "Love Will Keep....", "Chevy Van" : WOW!! Best track was the "Rockford Files" TV theme instrumental. Because you can't cue up a song on an 8 track player, had to spend equal time having to listen to the other four songs on the same program to finally hear "Rockford" roll around again.
Ah yes, the days of waiting through sub-par songs just to get to the good one on the 8-tracks
Well, this turned into an unexpected emotional roller-coaster ride!
Laughed like hell when I spotted the teaser but by the end you sucker-punched me right in the feels! 🤣Shopping with Mom ... begging and pleading for the next record ....
Thanks Robert - this was a lot of fun!
Yes, one of the reasons I'll always have a soft spot for K-Tel.
Just Don't Cry Out Loud
I've had 43 of those albums. Of course, the Canadian versions of them. I never even knew that other countries had different tracks on them until maybe 5 years ago when i found my first UK pressing of a K-Tel album. I forget what one, but looked damn near the same, other then different bands in the bubbles on the artwork. And i must say, for the shitloads of albums i have found. Very rarely have i found anything other then Canadian versions in stores. The problem is condition. I know because I've been on the hunt still for certain ones, but usually check out whatever i find in the dollar bin. And the albums are always trashed to some degree. So i try to snag up all the ones in mint shape. But some titles seem to be harder to find. Starflight is one i loved as a kid. Haven't seen a copy in maybe 15 years now. And yes, our Canadian version is way different. And i wondered if it had to do with CanCon, as in Canadian Content (not the Kan Kon band) so your American version was probably free of Anne Murray. And besides, ours would sound as weird as me listening to yours. It may have 8 of the 12 songs, in a different order. But just wouldn't sound right. Which means I will have to go look up CircuitBreaker to see how different the U.S. presssing is. I love that album, and luckily was one of the mint albums i have found. Same with another one I grew up with (which wasn't shown in the montage, so maybe its a Canadian only pressing) Streetwave. Which was nothing but new wave music. It might be from 1979, but is probably 1980. But good chance thats where I first heard punk bands like Ramones & Teenage Head. Keep in mind, they were awful ballads. Yeah, must be 1980 because Baby I Love You is on it. But damn, another killer album.
Speaking of those metal ones. The same store that has probably 328 K-Tel albums in the dollar bins. They do, or did have the 2 Masters Of Metal albums, but damn. $25 each? Why can't they be like $25 for Volume 1 and you can get Volume 2 for a penny?
White Hot, i don't think that was released under K-Tel here in Canada. That was on the compilation label that Polydor or Polytel did in the 80's. Another release they did along those same lines was called Rock Sizzlers. Had someone light matches that spelled it out. Probably had Heavens On Fire by Kiss and something off Pyromania by Def Leppard on it.
Another sorta off shot label, maybe also Canadian only was Tee Vee Records. They did a lot of weird competition albums as well. Like, who needs a double album of trucker hits? And why they always put some hot woman on the covers? Think they were trying to say something in the marketing department.
Something that wasn't mentioned was The K-Tel 45 that came with some board game. Chance-A-Tune? It was a triple grooved 45 and you either got, It's A Hit. It's A Flop. Or, Break Even Break Even Break Even Break Even...and what is even more messed up is that maybe a couple weeks ago, i found out that the Break Even song is actually a real thing. Of course I dont remember who, but that just freaked me right the fuck out. I remembered the 45 from my babysitters from when i was maybe 4. I know because i wasn't in school yet. And would love watching that 45 play on repeat on her record player. Because it was always gonna play something different. It would end up taking over 30 years before i found that 45 again. And you damn right i left it on repeat for maybe a few minutes. Or until i got sick of hearing It's A Flop too many times.
Damn, what a great video.
Thanks Robert.
I've never even seen any of the metal albums anywhere. I've never heard of the Chance-a-Tune 45, it sounds really interesting.
Great video, very informative and lots of fun! I had several of these (including some of those Ronco discs) as a kid. They led me into a continuing fondness for compilations; a good chunk of my collection consists of them.
Super Bad is my favourite compilation of all time - I now have all of the originals because they introduced me to them as a 12-year-old - I love K-Tel Ronco and Arcade (In the UK). Love this video - thanks! We had our own versions of these in the UK as well (well the 70s ones at least) I really enjoyed that! Thanks!
I love how in the days before the internet you had to bring your record to school to prove that Slade did the song first. I don't have any K-Tel, but i bought "Dreamin'", a double album from I and M Teleproducts, back in 1979.
TOO funny I literally just scored a copy of Hit Express at an antique store, came home and this is the first vid that came up in my recommendations 😂🤣
Another great video, Robert. I seem to remember having one with No Regrets by The Walker Brothers which managed to edit out the whole of the big 70s guitar solo, which was the best part of the song. I have to say "Maybe they weren't so bad" is about as ringing an endorsement as I'd give them!
I was alive when K-Tel was on TV, but I never delved into their products.
I did bite on a TV ad back in '66 for "24 Groovy Greats," pressed by Columbia Special Products in mono -- a great selection of songs, but like K-Tel. the tracks were truncated to run not more that 2 minutes each (more like 1:30). It enticed me to get the original 45s for the complete songs.
While I was in the UK, I bought from the "Golden Hour" lp series from Pye -- "Golden Hour of The Searchers Volumes 1 & 2", and "Golden Hour of Donovan." The songs run their complete length but the grooves are so minute that you don't get true fidelity. Much of it is rechannelled stereo. The Donovan material was pre-"Sunshine Superman" -- the good folky stuff released by Hickory Records in the US, like "Universal Soldier", "Hey Gyp (Dig the Slowness)," et al.
Hi Rob, K Tell, were big in Aus....They were rel as ''''Magestic' records....I have over 100 copies of Aus rels from 1970-1980....And yes the Aus and US Version had tot different songs.
12:01 - I snagged a Ronco compilation from the UK once: "Street Level" (1980). It featured the Plasmatics, Boomtown Rats, Stranglers, Ian Dury, Generation X (early Billy Idol), Buzzcocks, Dickies, and... THE SEX PISTOLS!! You would NEVER see any of those guys on a US Ronco- or K-Tel- comp!
My only K-tel album was DISCO by MANIA. It was priced incorrectly for $1.99 at Target. At time it was a new release still being advertised on TV.
K-Tel released the soundtrack fo the film AM, essentially a Steely Dan album. They also released a re-recoreded version of it almost simultaneously. I have a live Venom album that was also on K-Tel
Cool! I had most of those in the 70's. I think my mom sold them at a garage sale. We had a K-Tel record selector too.
I got the UK version of K-tel Believe in Music from 1972, and it's got a lot of reggae on the B side like Dave & Ansel Collins, The Pioneers, Judge Dread, Dandy Livingstone, Greyhound, and Johnny Nash, interspersed with Lesley Duncan, Matt Davis, T-Rex, and Johnny Pearson Orchestra. . Completely different songs to the American and Canadian versions, yet the cover is the same.
My 1st album was a Canadian K-Tel one. I remember 'Vanilla Fudge - You Keep Me Hanging on' was on it, great tune.
As a prime buyer of K-Tel and Ronco LPs going back to the early 1970's, I got them because they were a cheap way to get a bunch of AM radio hits I liked. Cheaper than buying the 45s, if you could even get them. Most stores only had the current top 40 in stock and once the hit was off the charts - the 45 was no longer available. 'Sound quality' was not an issue. No one buying these was an audiophile. No one buying 45s back then were audiophiles. Most teenagers had inexpensive Panasonic compact or similar systems. I still play these Adam, K-Tel, & Roncos on my garage stereo because they are the closest thing you can get to hearing what AM radio sounded like for a given season of a year. 15 to 20 minutes of nostalgic fun while I'm working, then flip it over. Repeat.
Fun show! I never got into collecting K-tel, but I liked their commercials. "Featuring super-rocker , Pat Benetar!...Billy Squier! ...etc., "
Mr.Robert i am not a "record guy" i prefer cds, however my hat is off to you because your video touched my heart.
Your story about your mom brought back memories of my mom buying me comics at the grocery store. I was a comic book fan.
That story was so close to my childhood i had to smile.
My mom was THE BIGGEST FAN of Mr. Conway Twitty. She collected 45's but Mr.twitty was her man. Lol
She sold her 45 collection years ago. But great video loved it🎉🎉🎉
Thanks!! I did an entire video about my mom for mother's day.
Love K-Tel. Hundreds sit amongst my collection
Hundreds of compilations
Robert, thank you for informing us on those marvelous marketing wizards, K-Tel! Hey, I remember seeing an ad for a similar album called "Instrumental Gold" that I have found nothing on. I think that one of its tracks was "Wipe Out". Do you know that one? Do keep posting.
i have a few of those records. i always thought the k-tel logo looked like a croquet ball.
great video as always.
I notice the one I used in the thumbnail kind of looks like a basketball.
I had a disco dancing box set with booklet with the moves and in the booklet, it said that by the time Saturday Night Fever came out it was already out of style, so I guess the disco era had different phases even though we lump it all into one. Makes me wonder why in the world is that finger pointing the only "dance move" that is remembered from that era. Look at any video of the Soul Train dancers and they rip it up.
I grew up on Soul Train.
I'll admit I had a bunch of these including the godawful Hooked on Classics. It was a great way to get a bunch of one hit wonders without spending a lot of money. Southern Fried Rock is a great collection. I also loved Goofy Greats!
I had the Masters of Metal and White Hot comps and a couple others as a kid and I thought it was great but listening to them now the sound quality is lacking... but I liked getting the albums cheap and being able to hear a lot of different bands that I wouldn't have heard otherwise.... great when you're like 14 years old.
The late 1970’s & early 1980’s K-Tel records were great. K-Tel’s “Night Flight” (1982) had the Pointer Sisters, Hall + Oates, Eddie Rabbitt, Commodores, Kool & The Gang, Juice Newton, and the theme from “The Greatest American Hero”. K-Tel’s “Radio Active” (1982) had The Police, Moody Blues, REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, The Who, Rick Springfield, Hall + Oates, The Go- Go’s, Blondie, and Rick James. “Rock 80” is also a great record.
I still need to get "Rock '80"
Want the Canadian version? I got two copies.
Top notch television here folks. Thanks Robert.
My soft spot is the "Loss Leaders" that you could mail order from Warner Brothers, Columbia, Atlantic and Reprise. Jam packed with great stuff and only a buck per LP. My long lost favorite is Warners 3 disc "Looney Tunes And Merry Melodies" box.
YES!!! Looney Tunes Merrie Melodies was my favorite one too! It has Alice Cooper, Frank Zappa, Black Sabbath, Captain Beefhaert, The Kinks - Apeman, JImi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac, Faces, and a bunch of other great stuff!!
Not too long ago I found one in a thrift store but it was in really bad shape, box crushed and disc's trashed. I will keep looking.@@popfanatic1
Fun fact about Kids Incorporated, they were covers of current music done by kids. They used to have a TV show. Stacey Furguson got her start in this band (you probably remeber her as Fergie from Black Eyed Peas. Martika did a good version of Scandal's The Warrior on this album. Along with the group songs, each kid got a solo too. Now I'm gonna have to dig it out. :-)
Thanks for this walk down memory lane. I have most of those albums and that crappy Let Your Yeah be Yeah version 😆
The first album I ever bought was K-Tel's FANTASTIC! in 1973, so I have a soft spot for K-Tel. I never minded the Blue Label stuff. I listened to music on an AM transistor radio (a Toshiba, IIRC), so the sound quality from the early offerings was right in my wheelhouse. I buy them when I see them, but I stay clear of the country stuff, because I'd never play them. Most of the stuff I collect is the early stuff.
Hahaha “it slices it dices it circumcises “. You’re the best Fithen!!!
Thanks!!
If you read the liner notes of Rhino's Have A Nice Day series, they thank K-tel Records "for inspiration". I have two milk crates full of K-tel albums, and I've recreated about 60 of them on my iTunes, with the original artwork (front only) AND the full-length songs. But I love the 11 songs on each side because they exposed me to music I otherwise would never have heard, ut for being on the K-tels.
this was interesting I always just thought they were junk, but they did have some good music on them. the cover art alone makes them interesting.
Souled Out, Super Bad and Super Bad Is Back were the ones I grew up with in the early '70's that featured soul, disco and funk tracks that didn't get airplay on AM pop radio channels. Yeah, compressed and edited but they led me to track down the 45's and albums from the groups they featured.
That was great. Love your rapping. Did not know they had rock or heavy metal. Really great. Thanks A lot of work!
Thanks!!
Dancing Madness is my favorite, my mom bought me the cassette while shopping a our local Woolworth store 1983, I found a nice copy on vinyl at a flea market a couple yrs ago
Your cat woke up and did a big yawn, then headed off. He's talking about K - Tel records thought your cat. I remember those K- Tel records in the 1970s. I live in New Zealand. You are right about how certain songs would be edited down. You mentioned some old songs from the past. I like that song Skyhigh from Jigsaw back in 1975. It featured on the soundtrack to the movie Man from Hong Kong.
I was going to put some text on screen about the cat yawning but forgot.
K-Tell records came out with an excellent rock compilation in England, in 1980, called 'Axe Attack'. Sure, it was a terrible name with an even worse sleeve, but the music featured all the major heavyweights of the day such as AC/DC, Whitesnake, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, UFO and a band I'd never heard of at the time called Aerosmith. I loved their song, 'Sweet Emotion' so much I became an Aerosmith junkie searching for any album from them, which was kind of hard at the time because they were virtually unknown at that time in the UK so it was hard finding their albums. Think Status Quo's popularity here in America and you'll get the idea of how known Aerosmith were in England. I found out about them all thanks to K-Tell.
Same with me and Slade. They weren't really popular in the US until 1983 with the "Run Runaway" song.
The best David Bowie compilation ever was the 'Best Of Bowie' which came out on K-Tel. It even had 'Breaking Glass' on it!
I have at least a dozen of those K'tel records, they were classic.
"You're having my baby" by Paul Anka and Odia Coates. That was the number 1 song in England the day I was born. Which I guess is pretty apt. I did not know that until 2 minutes ago lol. Hope you're well dude.
I am from the U.K I collect all this type of record including the k Tel and all the copies where people mimic the original recording like the top of the pops series I’ve got about 200 great video
BEAUTIFUL cat!
You REALLY didn’t wanna hear that Donny Osmond song 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Yes, I did not. lol
Tee Hee! I have a K-Tel 2 album set - Donny Osmond Superstar, it has a massive big poster of Donny. It's on the blue K-Tel label so they crammed as much Donny on there as they could!
Hey Robert, great video! Kinda reminds me of the compilation LP's local radio stations would put out. In my area (Dallas-Ft. Worth) that would have been KLIF and KBOX and later on KZEW. I'm pretty new to your UA-cam channel...have you done a review of movie or TV soundtrack records? Thanks!
Not yet
Thanks to those records I discovered so much music and so many bands I never would have bothered or dared to play. They made a lot of money on the sale of those records, as cheesy as they look now ( not as much then, if you compare the typical select artwork of the day ) but all good things come to an end.
That moody slow jams/soft sounds voice you did was a bit like Rick Moranis' doing the Gerry Todd Show DJ spoof on SCTV.
As to that one with the "Don't cry out loud": maybe it's placement on the record was intended as a coitus interruptus moment? :D