In the mid to late 1980s (probably around 1987 when the Parlophone mono and stereo cassettes were issued), Capitol Records (EMI) in Mississauga quietly brought the Apple logo back to the humble cassette. The logo appears on the spines of at least six Canadian Beatles cassettes from that time, including one of the gold Parlophone reissue cassettes (Help). I have seen a number of cassettes from this period and not all of them carry this logo. The oddest release to date was probably the Rock And Roll Music Volume 1 cassette tape of which I have only verified one. Most cassette releases of that album from the time do not carry the Apple logo. What prompted the return of the Apple ? If anyone has any further examples of these Canadian cassette oddities, please drop us a line!
"I didn't buy a lot of Beatles cassettes by the time the CD's started coming out, but I did buy a few. Here's the ones I have with the Apple logo on them, including ROCK 'N' ROLL MUSIC - VOLUME 2. I also have BEATLES VI and RUBBER SOUL (with the North American track line-up) from the same era and the Apples are nowhere to be found. Weird. "
Scott Relf
'Tis the seaon of record show again! For all the people in Moncton, don't forget today's Record Expo at the Crown Plaza downtown! I have found many awesome records in Moncton, and I am sure plenty of those rarities will find their way to the Expo again this year; don't miss it! There is also a record show in Toronto tomorrow on the 25th, and one in Hamilton in a few weeks. Gear up and check out these fantastic events!
This is a brief update to our recent article "Back To MONO". Quality Records in Toronto began to phase out product of mono albums towards the end of 1967. To do this, its pressing plant on Birchmount Road had to gear up to press more stereo albums than mono albums for a given release. As a result, for a given release there began to be more stereo copies available in stores than mono copies. Some terrific examples of this are the following two albums.
Mono Atco labels omit the SD prefix used on their stereo counterparts. The rear cover has the "BUY CANADIAN" logo at the bottom right.
The Velvet Underground were indeed an "underground" band and their albums were pressed in limited quantities in Canada by Quality Records. Mono labels are blue. Oddly, some initial stereo labels of White Light, White Heat from early 1968 are tourquoise not blue. The mono covers have the text "PRINTED IN CANADA" at the bottom left of the front cover. The rear cover has the "BUY CANADIAN" logo at the bottom right.
Canadian mono pressings of these two albums are very difficult to find in any condition.
Many thanks to our regular CAPITOL6000 visitors/contributors Frank Manley and Brian Schofield who have generously provided "label scans" and mono cover images of the two very rare mono albums show above.
So now we can add two more rare Canadian MONO first pressing albums to our "records wanted" lists !
For this first spring edition of the Recent Sales column, we thought it would be fun to introduce a new themed category featuring a new artist or type of pressing each time (on top of the regular Beatles and 6000 series sales overview). We thought this month, it would be great to start with one of the most mythical bands of the 70s: Pink Floyd. So we have kept a close eye on Floyd sales since last time, and some awesome stuff has changed hands!
First off, a hard to find red target pressing of Pipers At The Gates Of Dawn sold for 25$, while its very hard to find Capitol pressing from 1983 on the retro rainbow label counterpart sold for 35$. The band's second opus, A Saucerful Of Secrets also saw one of its green target pressings sell for 20$ - these are probably even harder to find than original pressings. The original Canadian MGM pressing of the Zabriskie Point soundtrack sold for 5$, while Canadian pressings of their later Columbia albums The Final Cut and A Momentary Lapse Of Reason both sold for 6$. Pink Floyd has not released many singles in Canada, and those early swirls are very hard to come by, even on a global market like ebay, but their later more obscure singles do change hands from time to time. Indeed, Canadian pressings of On The Turning Away and Not Now John, both with picture sleeves sold for 10$ each.
It would seem that this year's Record Store Day reissue of the Yardbird's Little Games has not prevented collectors from investing in an original pressing because one lucky collector has found a stereo copy for 75$. At the other end of the 6000 series spectrum, the jazz album Ken Jones Plays Galt MacDermot sold for 12$ while Matt Monro's Great Songs From The Movies reached an impressive 74$! An awesome jazz album called Fela Ransome-Kuti And The Africa ‘70 With Ginger Baker sold for 12$, while Wild In The Streets sold for 6$ and the soundtrack to Born Losers sold for 20$. The Kinks album Kinks Kingdom reached 15$ and their Arthur album sold for 20$.
As for the Beatles, a hard to find Capitol pressing of Twist And Shout on the retro rainbow label, with the larger typeface (2.12.1) ** has been sold for 32$ in a 17 bid war, while another identical copy has sold for 28$ a few days later. Another interesting item that often goes unnoticed was the scarce Canadian label design Compo pressing of the White Album (24.3.1). Most Canadian copies bear a US design label; this one sold for 90$ and was housed in an imported US numbered sleeve in the A2000000s. The Let It Be box set usually sells for a few hundred dollars, but this week one copy has not reached the Ontarian seller's reserve price and saw bids top at 56$... Another seller from Montreal was a little more fortunate and saw his pristine sealed copy go for a whopping 1500$! (29.BX.1). The box set was an original copy without the sticker on the shrink wrap. More common records also always sell well even though they go for much more affordable prices, this is the case of the red target Second Album for example, a lucky collector got it for 10$ (20.5.2). Finally a cool sealed copy of Beatlemania from around 1974-1976 sold for 71$. The copy had a front slick construction with a tight shrink (1.7.2).
A later pressing of Please Please Me on the yellow swirl label has sold for 25$, while the cool 1980s reissue of All My Loving on the retro rainbow, with the unique Canadian sleeve has sold for 34$. Love Me Do original pressings with no dash & number always reaches a premium, and this time is no different: a VG+ copy sold for 282$. The buyer might just have found a rare original 1963 copy!. Another scarce 45 that sold this month was a Capitol pressing of Obladi Oblada from 1983 on the retro rainbow label, the lucky buyer got it for 15$. A target label pressing of Can't Buy Me Love also sold for 40$, while. Last but not least, a copy of the extremely sought after Canadian Compo pressing of the Decca My Bonnie 45 sold last week for 3049$ USD, which makes around 3350$ Canadian dollars when looking at today's exchange rate!
Once again, if you are aware of interesting sales like these ones happening in your area and would like to share them, please email me and we will include it in our next edition of the recent sales column.