New Picture Sleeve Blog

I have created a new blog which might be of interest to you.

It is called "Picture Sleeves A Go Go!" and it can be reached at http://picturesleevesagogo.blogspot.com/.

This will be a vehicle for me to post scans of all of my 45 single picture sleeves onto the Web for everyone to enjoy.

I plan on posting everything I have from the 1960s to the current time, and with the photos, I will also provide short capsules on the performer and the sleeve.

This will be a picture sleeve site only; no music will be featured at the site. However, I may try to cross-pollinate where appropriate. I have so many sites now that I feel that I can do this flawlessly.

Right now, I am just into the letter A, from AC/DC to the Association. That being said, you will see and eclectic mix of material, and sleeves not just from the U.S., but from around the world.

I think looking at these sleeves will give you--and myself--a glimpse into both what was popular during the past five decades as well as seeing what I was into through the years.

I hope you find it as interesting as I have in starting it up.

Again, no music but all sleeves, all the time.

And by the way, please contribute to the site in the form of comments. There is a comment area under each section for you to leave your comments. I will do my best to answer them.

New Colgems Upload - The Monkees Greatest Hits

Here is the latest Colgems upload, "The Monkees Greatest Hits." Released at a time when the Monkees were fading away into the sunset as a recording and TV act, the album serves as little more than an artifact of a different time and place.

You can access this album at http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/albumania/.

The TV series was over, the movie "Head" bombed, NBC balked on having another Monkees TV special after "33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee" tanked, and Colgems Records was pretty much in disarray with their headlining act nearing the end.

What's a poor record label to do?

The Monkees had had numerous hits three years into their existence,and the show was now being run on Saturday mornings on CBS, where an even younger generation of kids was experiencing what their older brothers and sisters had experienced just a few years earlier.

Colgems decided that the time was right for a formal Greatest Hits album. They took 14 of the most popular Monkees tracks of the past three years and crafted an LP out of these tunes.

It featured all the big hits, from "Last Train to Clarksville" to "Valleri," and a couple of international hits, such as "Randy Scouse Git."

But for the true Monkees fan like me, this album was pretty much barren of any semblance of something that I really needed. I had all the tracks, and even with the first stereo and LP appearance of "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You," this LP was not a necessity in my collection.

It was also made on the el cheapo, which didn't help matters. The cover doesn't feature any photos of the Monkees at all, and for a band that was so visual and that had its own TV series, well, you have to scratch your head at whoever decided to let this one go.

Also, the vinyl is probably the cheapest vinyl that was ever used by Colgems. It is flimsy, and you can hear the effects on a modern turntable.

I could have pieced together this album using better sounding tracks, but I decided to go with the original vinyl, so you could hear what I mean.

Anyway, the LP made it into the Top 100 albums chart, so Colgems still had hopes that the Monkees could make a go at it again. Two more original studio albums and two more greatest hits albums followed, and we will visit them in the future.