Kenneth McKellar - Skye Boat Song/Lewis Bridal Song, Decca 45-F 10901

Kenneth McKellar (23 June 1927 – 9 April 2010) was a Scottish tenor. McKellar studied forestry at the University of Aberdeen, after graduation working for the Scottish Forestry Commission. He later trained at the Royal College of Music as an opera singer. He did not enjoy his time with the Carl Rosa Opera Company and left them to pursue a career singing traditional Scottish songs and other works. His albums of the songs of Robert Burns (now digitized) are considered by musicologists to be definitive interpretations.

He frequently toured the USA and Canada 1959-1977 with other Scottish entertainers such as Helen McArthur, often appearing in small local venues. McKellar made the majority of his recordings on the Decca Records label. He also recorded several classical works, including Handel's Messiah alongside Joan Sutherland in a performance conducted by Sir Adrian Boult.

McKellar also recorded the musical Kismet with Robert Merrill. He was also notable for his recordings of Gaelic songs in translation such as the Songs of the Hebrides arrangements by Marjory Kennedy-Fraser.

 
Company sleeve

P J Harvey - White Chalk, Island 1740335 (UK)

White Chalk is the seventh studio album by English alternative rock musician PJ Harvey, released on 24 September 2007 on Island Records.

Work on the album started in 2006, with producer Flood and John Parish, who also worked on her To Bring You My Love and Is This Desire? albums. Other collaborators on White Chalk are Eric Drew Feldman and Jim White from Dirty Three.

The first single to be released from White Chalk was "When Under Ether" on 17 September 2007 on digital download and 7" vinyl. A second single, "The Piano," was released on 26 November 2007. A third, "The Devil," was released on 7", download, and CD formats in March 2008.

  

Front cover                                                                          Back cover

Ned Miller - From A Jack To A King/Parade Of Broken Hearts, London 45-HL 9658

From a Jack to a King is a country music song. Originally a crossover hit for artist Ned Miller, who also wrote "Dark Moon," "A Falling Star," and many other country songs. The original version was recorded by Ned Miller. First released in 1957, Ned's version was unsuccessful, until he persuaded his label to re-release it five years later. Upon re-release, the song became a crossover hit, charting in the Top 10 on the Billboard U.S. country (#2), pop (#6), and adult contemporary (#3) charts. In addition, Miller's version reached #1 on the Irish Singles Chart, while peaking at #2 on the UK Singles Chart. Furthermore, it was the sixth most-played single of 1963 in the United Kingdom. Ned's chart success was limited after the song, however, and by the 1970s he stopped recording entirely.

The song was also recorded in 1962 by Jim Reeves on the occasion of his tour to South Africa in August and charted there that year.

 
Original company sleeve

Eddie Cochran - Weekend/Cherished Memories, London 45-HLG 9362

"Weekend" is a song by Eddie Cochran. The song was written by Bill and Doree Post and recorded in April 1959. The song was released posthumously as a single in the UK on London HLG 9362 in June 1961, with "Cherished Memories" as the B side, and rose to number 15 on the charts. In the US it was released on Liberty Records 55389 (with the song "Lonely" as a B side) in December 1961 and did not chart. This was the last single with original material by Eddie Cochran released in the US.
It was covered in 1968 by The Move and appears on their eponymous album.

   
Original company sleeve                                            Demo release with yellow label

Tom Jenkins and The Palm Court Orchestra - The Laughing Violin EP, HMV 7EG 8035

Tom Jenkins was born in Leeds in 1910 and at twenty-five joined the Hastings Municipal Orchestra at their conductor, Julius Harrison’s request. For the next few years he played the odd concerto engagement with the orchestra and followed the usual migratory travels for British orchestral musicians of the time; seasonal spa work and light music. In 1936 he joined J.H. Squire’s very popular Celeste Octet, a launching ground for many string talents, and his employer arranged for him to take lessons from the now London resident Carl Flesch (Jenkins had earlier studied with Edward Maude, leader of the Leeds Symphony Orchestra and with Charles Woodhouse, the long time leader of Henry Wood’s Proms). Jenkins was appointed to lead the orchestra of the Grand Hotel Eastbourne in 1938, which typically comprised a solo violin, two violins, viola, cello, bass, piano and organ/celeste. Prestigious positions followed with the BBC Salon Orchestra and the Grand Hotel, after Albert Sandler’s miserably early death, but the biggest move was a projected one to lead Beecham’s RPO, thwarted by Jenkins’ illness – a lung was removed and, weakened, he took a position as an orchestral player. He died in 1957, like Sandler before him still in his forties.

 

Dave Edmunds - I Knew The Bride/Back To Schooldays, Swan Song SSK 19411

"I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock 'n' Roll)" is a song written by Nick Lowe and first popularized by Dave Edmunds. It was released on Edmunds's 1977 album Get It and a year later in a live version by Nick Lowe's Last Chicken in the Shop on Live Stiffs Live, a compilation released by Stiff Records.

 

Single sold in company sleeve                         Plain sleeve issue

The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane, Parlophone R 5570

1. First pressing, February 17, 1967. The initial 250,000 copies of the single were packaged with a wavy cut at top full-color picture sleeve. Additional copies of the sleeve were manufactured for EMI for export to foreign countries, including Ireland, Sweden and Denmark.

  

The Beatles - I Want To Hold Your Hand/This Boy, Parlophone R 5084

1. First pressing, November 29, 1963. The records were housed in the Type 3 company sleeves. Black label with silver print. The publishing year was printed on the label, as “RECORDING FIRST PUBLISHED 1963″. The beginning of the perimeter print was written with a fully capitalized “PARLOPHONE CO. LTD.”. Tax code KT. Push-out center. Matrix numbers: Side A: 7XCE 17559-1N, Side B: 7XCE 17560-1N.

Type 1 labels do not have “NCB” at the end of the publishing credit:

  

Parlophone R 5084 - I Want To Hold Your Hand/This Boy (First pressing, with "The Parlophone Co. Ltd" in upper-case only, Matrixes: 7XCE 17559-1N/7XCE 17560-1N, in Type 1 sleeve)... 15 GBP

Maxi Priest - Wild World/On And On, Ten TEN 221

Max Alfred "Maxi" Elliot (born 10 June 1961) is a British reggae vocalist of Jamaican descent. He is best known for singing reggae music with an R&B influence, otherwise known as reggae fusion, and became one of the first international successes who regularly dabbled in the genre and one of the most successful reggae fusion acts of all-time. Priest's musical career began with him singing on the South London reggae soundsystem Saxon Studio International, after which some independent single releases followed. His first major album was the self-titled Maxi Priest (1988) which, along with his cover of Cat Stevens' "Wild World", established him as one of the top British reggae singers.

  

Kate Bush - Wow/Fullhouse, EMI EMI 2911, 72803 (Canada)

The single version is an edited version of "Wow", although it is not labelled as such. On all European "Wow" singles, the first 12 seconds of synthesiser chords have been removed. Brazil and Canada used the full-length LP version. The Canadian single featured a unique sleeve and was pressed on transparent yellow vinyl. The song was a moderate hit on Canada's Adult Contemporary singles chart in RPM Magazine.

The song was released in the UK on 9 March 1979 and peaked at number 14 in the UK Singles Chart, remaining on the chart for ten weeks. This was an improvement on Bush's previous single, "Hammer Horror" which had stalled at No.44 a few months earlier. A video was filmed for the release, featuring Bush performing the song in a darkened studio, and then backed by spotlights during the chorus. She also made a guest appearance on the TV Special ABBA in Switzerland, where she performed this song in April 1979. Also around the time of this release, Bush embarked on her only live concert tour. Due to this and the release of the single, Bush's second album Lionheart saw a resurgence of interest in the UK albums chart, by making a re-entry into the top twenty for several weeks. The song became a hit in other countries such as Ireland where it reached No.17.

  
Original first issue picture sleeve

Various Artists - Porgy and Bess, Bravo BR 341

Porgy and Bess is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward. All three works deal with African-American life in the fictitious Catfish Row (based on the area of Cabbage Row) in Charleston, South Carolina, in the early 1920s.

Originally conceived by George Gershwin as an "American folk opera", Porgy and Bess premiered in New York in the fall of 1935 and featured an entire cast of classically trained African-American singers—a daring artistic choice at the time. Gershwin chose the African-American musician Eva Jessye as the choral director for the opera.

John Lennon, Yoko Ono - Happy XMas/Listen The Snow Is Falling, Apple R 5970

Apple Records released "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" and "Listen, the Snow Is Falling" in the U.S. on 1 December 1971 (APPLE 1842). Issued in 7" single format on transparent green vinyl with a card-stock picture sleeve, the pressing bore two label variations, one of which displayed a sequence of five images that showed Lennon's face transforming into Ono's that was originally featured on the reverse cover of the exhibition catalogue for Ono's career retrospective This Is Not Here, presented October 1971 at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York.

A legal dispute between music publisher Northern Songs and Lennon over royalties from Ono's co-writing credit on his songs delayed the release of "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" in the UK until 24 November 1972 (APPLE R 5970). The initial British run was issued in 7" single format on opaque green vinyl with the picture sleeve and variant label, but it sold out quickly and had to be repressed on standard black vinyl.

 
Original issue with picture sleeve.

Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas/ Feed The World, Mercury FEED 1

"Do They Know It's Christmas?" is a song written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in 1984 to raise money for relief of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The original version was produced by Midge Ure and released by Band Aid on 29 November 1984.

In October 1984, a BBC report by Michael Buerk was aired in the UK, which highlighted the famine that had hit the people of Ethiopia. Irish singer Bob Geldof saw the report and wanted to raise money. He called Midge Ure from Ultravox and together they quickly co-wrote the song, "Do They Know It's Christmas?".

Carol Deene - Norman / On The Outside Looking In, His Master's Voice 45 POP 973

Carol Deene (born Carole Carver, 3 August 1944, Thurnscoe, Yorkshire, England) is an English former pop singer.

After appearing on Joan Regan's BBC TV programme Be My Guest in 1961, when she was 16, Deene was signed to the HMV label, and scored three Top 40 hits on the UK Singles Chart in 1962. "Norman" reached number 24 in January 1962, "Johnny Get Angry" reached number 32 in July, and "Some People" hit number 25 in August. Her first chart hit was "Sad Movies (Make Me Cry)", a number 44 entry in the UK chart in October 1961.

In 1962, Deene briefly hosted her own show on Radio Luxembourg. Despite a serious car accident in 1966, Deene continued to record throughout the 1960s and into 1970, and regularly toured the northern clubs. After another car crash in 1974, she only recorded sporadically for a number of labels until the late 1970s.

   

The Bachelors - No Arms Can Ever Hold You/Oh Samuel Don't Die, Decca F 12034

The founding members of the group were Conleth (Con) Cluskey (born 18 November 1941), Declan (Dec) Cluskey (born 23 December 1942), and John Stokes (Sean James Stokes) (born 13 August 1940). In 1957 they formed their first band together: "The Harmonichords" (also seen as "The Harmony Chords"), a classically styled instrumental harmonica-act.

As The Harmonichords, they appeared on Hughie Green's 'Opportunity Knocks' on Radio Luxembourg and on the 'Ed Sullivan' TV Show St. Patrick's Day Special (filmed in Dublin, broadcast 15 March 1959), where they played "Danny Boy." They also played background music plus featured pieces in a 25 week radio comedy series called 'Odd Noises' on Radio Éireann featuring Eamonn Andrews. They changed their name to "The Bachelors" in 1962 at the suggestion of Dick Rowe, A&R at Decca Records, who reportedly recommended the name "because that’s the kind of boy a girl likes."

Russ Conway - Conway Capers No.2, Columbia DB 7312

Conway was born Trevor Herbert Stanford in Bristol England. He won a scholarship to Bristol Cathedral Choir School and was largely self-taught on piano as he whiled away hours as a youngster during a three-year term in borstal. His father then let him join the Merchant Navy. Conscripted into the Royal Navy in 1942, he served in the Merchant Navy from 1942 to 1948, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal as signalman in a minesweeping flotilla "for distinguished service, efficiency and zeal" in clearance of mines in the Aegean and operations during the relief of Greece 1944-45. During his Navy service, he lost the tip of the 3rd finger of his right hand while using a bread slicer. He was discharged on health grounds because of a stomach ulcer.

Conway was talent-spotted while playing in a London club, signed to EMI's Columbia label and spent the mid-1950s providing backing for artists on their roster, including Gracie Fields and Joan Regan. He recorded his first solo single "Party Pops" in 1957, a "medley of standard songs" which included "Roll the Carpet Up" and "The Westminster Waltz".

Between 1957 and 1963, Conway had 20 U.K. chart hits, achieving a cumulative total of 83 weeks on the UK Singles Chart in 1959 alone. This included two self-penned number one instrumentals, "Side Saddle" and "Roulette", the latter deposing Elvis Presley's "A Fool Such As I". He was a fixture on light entertainment TV shows and radio for many years afterwards, appearing at the London Palladium on a number of occasions and becoming a regular on the Billy Cotton Band Show for several seasons.