Entertainment For Lively Minds
The HJHs on the "Music For Pleasure" label
Posted by Dr Volume on 10 January 2010 - 2:13am.
In 1980 my parents bought me both volumes of The HJH's 'Rock and Music' compilation on cassette. These were released on the budget 'Music For Pleasure' label as a sort of poor mans Red & Blue album but what an interesting way to discover the 'Yellow Submarine' hitmakers.
No hits, just obscure album tracks and b-sides..but all good stuff.
I think this pretty much shaped my appreciation of music to this day..good job they didn't get me "The Beatles Ballads"
Check volume 2, side 2...a brain frazzling selection for any 7 year old!
- More from Dr Volume.
- Login or register to post comments
-
These bring back so many memories for me...
I never owned them myself but my closest friend as a kid had them and they were played a lot. Great cover too... how could you not fall in love with a band that looked like that?!
Excellent selection...
I'm guessing you were surprised by the soppy, sloppy, Saturnine and psychedelic side of the Fabs when you found it. None of which is intended as an insult to them.
Thanks for this
I think this, through a friend, is how I first heard the music of The Beatles.
It's now a playlist!
Ditto. Track one, side two, vol one was my first exposure.
Ah, such memories. Those scans are excellent. Good days, dolby hiss and all that......
Me too.
I had the Beatles Ballads as well, with artwork by legendary Scottish playwright and artist John Byrne, who also did Gerry Rafferty's City to City.
Thanks for posting this. Sadly I've lost the originals (I had the vinyl versions). Great memories.
Had This
on double vinyl along with "A Collection of Oldies" (with the weird cover) They were my introduction to the group.Might have to dig them out now.
Me too,
But in vinyl form. My parents had 'Love Songs' also. It's funny how these compilations' tracklistings (and expectations of what song was coming next) shaped how you learned about the band, created favourites that stuck with you, etc.
Nice post
I think I bought #2 for Hey Bulldog as it seemed better value than Yellow Submarine at the time, then got #1. I remember the double album was originally out in mid 70s, on looking it up
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_'n'_Roll_Music_(The_Beatles_album)
was interested to see the story of how the George Martin remixes only found their way onto the later single album releases (and presumably the MfP versions). Still a bit of a mystery to me why these compilations were made.
Actually struck by how much stuff found its way onto MfP and CfP and what bargains they were, I had Steely Dan's "Countdown" in think on MfP, and Britten's recordings of the Brandenbergs and Barbirolli's Mahler 6 for example. Nice to see CfP survives as a label, at least
edit: somewhat puzzled as to why a Dan record was ever on MfP, can't find a clue on web, but did find this:
the wonderfully titled "Spirit of Rock: The probe family sampler"
This too
The first Beatles album I ever personally owned was this, on tape, bought in Autumn 1982:
picture not showing, lucas...
but if that's the beatles 20 greatest hits, kicking off with Love me do and ending with Ballad of John and Yoko (white cover, Beatles written in the 'drumkit logo' style and the colouring being a collage of images of them) then I'm in the same boat as you. First Beatles album i owned. In fact first album i actually chose myself in a shop. I was 8. I'm kinda proud of this.
Oh
It was there earlier. But yes, 20 Greatest Hits is the one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_Greatest_Hits_(The_Beatles_album)
And in 20 years' time...
... if we're still writing on message boards and not all plugged into The Matrix by then, people will be writing about the first time they got into the HJHs from this CD, the biggest-selling album of the noughties, believe it or not:
Is that the most boring and pedestrian album cover...
ever? Certainly must be a contender.
Well, bearing in mind...
... how easy it would have been to just plonk on a nice portrait of the band and call it "The Very Best of The Beatles," it's a triumph of left-field minimalism (would've been even better without the Beatles' logo, though.)
What interests me...
...is the foresight The Beatles had in naming their albums. It's as if they knew that, one day, all our music would be alphabetically sorted on a computer and that either Abbey Road or 1 should ensure that they were usually top of the list.
Tape Beatles
I can't take credit for the scans, found them on this interesting site:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/carousel/BtleCas.html
I'd forgotten about the old 'gold top' tapes, and the fact they used to rearrange the track listings, presumably to make the album fit evenly on each side of the tape.
Rubber Soul opens with 'Norwegian Wood' for example, neither 'Help' nor 'Hard Days Night' open with their respective title tracks and bizarrely the White Album ends with 'Revolution No.9' with 'Goodnight' squeezed in the middle of side B. The whole thing is on one 'Double Play' tape which presumably got chewed up pretty quickly:
Those gold tops...
...bring back real memories. I owned tapes of The Beatles' first seven albums in that format - bar A Hard Day's Night, for some inexplicable reason - and Abbey Road. I used to line them up and dream of getting the whole lot, although then lost interest at Revolver: too weird, I thought (!)
On the note of that curious rearranging track order thing, I remember Please Please Me started with 'Misery' and With The Beatles with...God, was it 'All My Loving'? I think so.
The worst example I recall of this was on the tape of Jackson Browne's Running On Empty, where 'The Load Out' and 'Stay' were split: one closed Side 1 and one closed Side 2, I think. Beggars belief.
re-arranging tracks
It was done to try and make both sides of the tape the same length so you didn't have to spool forwards (or backwards) when flipping it over.
Yes, I realise...
...why it was done. Doesn't stop it being very silly on occasion, though.
Takes me back where I came from
I had that cassette, and just looking at it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. It lasted for years unlike many other 'double play' jobs.
Vol 2
Is one hell of a compilation, isn't it? It's the dark side of the blue album.
Dark Side of the Fabs
Very much so, its the definitely the heavy stuff. I recall being quite startled by Helter Skelter, Bulldog and Birthday and trying to equate this freaky, queasy sounding hard rock with the cheeky looking mop-top fellas on the front of the tape.
Strange
I was thinking of the MFP label earlier today and starting a blog on it. I had The Beatles cassettes too bought very cheaply from Woolworths!
Am I right in thinking two very early T Rex albums were released on MFP and what happened to the lable?
You are indeed correct
The very first album I ever bought was Ride A White Swan by T-Rex, which was, I think, a compilation of old Tyrannosaurus Rex stuff with the song Ride A White Swan bolted on at the front. King Of The Rumbling Spires enjoyed heavy rotation on the front room radiogram chez Johns in early 1972. According to this http://www.connollyco.com/discography/trex/ride.html it was the first album Johnny Marr owned, too.
Reel Music Anyone?
I was 8, it was 1983 and we were on holidays in Almeria, Spain. A restaurant was playing a video of The Beatles being screamed at in colour, so probably Shea Stadium and I was amazed. I was told it was The Beatles, who I'd heard of but had never experienced. I was surprised from watching the tape that Paul McCartney was in the band, as I knew who he was.
I had an early non-Sony Walkman and not many tapes, so got Reel Music, a compilation of soundtrack songs. I was frightened of I Am The Walrus for a long time after that, I thought it was the strangest thing ever. In the airport going home I remember getting the Love Songs compilation with a blue, misty cover.
Eventually did the proper albums when I was 14.
Today I listened to the mono Revolver remaster for the first time while my 16 month old daughter danced around to it. Ain't life grand?
I had MFP Volume 2 on vinyl
My first LP by the Hey Jude Hitmakers, to give them their full title.
The first one I remember buying, though, was a MFP compilation of The Monkees Greatest Hits. I was familiar with most of the songs already thanks to the TV show, but Listen to the Band was a new one to my ears and the one that I particularly liked.
Lest we forget
the Floyd's 'Relics' on MfP (MFP50397) - the one with the white cover and pencil drawing. Floyd logo in bubblegum pink. A Syd Barrett sampler, if you like.
Bought both the Rock n Roll ones
on cassette from a shop opposite Bognor coach station.Excellent stuff