big-label LPs that are impossible to find/unknown

akoako https://soundcloud.com/a-ko 3,413 Posts
edited November 2018 in Record Collecting
i cant think of any off the top of my head, but what are some big-label LPs that are pretty much completely impossible to find? seems like i read about some record on ABC that some dude could find no info on once...the unknown shit is even more interesting, have you found any heat on a big label that nobody knew about?
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  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    i cant think of any off the top of my head, but what are some big-label LPs that are pretty much completely impossible to find? seems like i read about some record on ABC that some dude could find no info on once...

    ...let's start with ABC! The Natural Four and Maximillian, for starters...(and please don't tell me "those records are common, because I see them cheap at $70 at conventions all the time!") And I never see the James Luther Dickinson (on Atlantic) or Moloch (on Enterprise) turn up either...

    BTW, just 'cause albums were on major labels doesn't mean they're gonna automatically be easy to find. If nobody bought 'em, naturally these elpees are gonna fade away fairly quickly...

    the unknown shit is even more interesting, have you found any heat on a big label that nobody knew about?

    Sweet Apple's 1971(?) album on Columbia...really good rockish funk.

  • hammertimehammertime 2,389 Posts
    BTW, just 'cause albums were on major labels doesn't mean they're gonna automatically be easy to find. If nobody bought 'em, naturally these elpees are gonna fade away fairly quickly...

  • NiteKrawler45NiteKrawler45 1,062 Posts
    There will certainly be alot of psych and brazilian mentions.

  • The_Hook_UpThe_Hook_Up 8,182 Posts
    BTW, just 'cause albums were on major labels doesn't mean they're gonna automatically be easy to find. If nobody bought 'em, naturally these elpees are gonna fade away fairly quickly...


    I think it is documented that this is the wort selling LP of all time..I think it "offically" sold something like 150 copies...

    AKO- we have both the James Luther(sealed OG) and Moloch (VG+ OG) at the shop...they arent cheap though...($150 and $80 respectively)

    The major label LP I want but that doesnt seem to exsist, outside of the one copy that shingaling has, is that ILL Peter Ivers LP on Epic, I have a so-so 45 from another(1975) LP, but the early 70s joint by him is Its called "Night of the....(something...I cant remember)"

    Also the Terry Manning on Enterprise is always scarce, shoula took one on the chin and bought that one at another shop here in town for $125....

  • Phill_MostPhill_Most 4,594 Posts
    The major label LP I want but that doesnt seem to exsist, outside of the one copy that shingaling has, is that ILL Peter Ivers LP on Epic, I have a so-so 45 from another(1975) LP, but the early 70s joint by him is Its called "Night of the....(something...I cant remember)"

    Knight Of The Blue Communion.

    Dag, are the records mentioned in this thread really all that impossibly rare these days? Woo Hah, I'm gonna maybe clean up when I get done putting my rap records up on Ebay and then move on to the rock section.

  • The major label LP I want but that doesnt seem to exsist, outside of the one copy that shingaling has, is that ILL Peter Ivers LP on Epic, I have a so-so 45 from another(1975) LP, but the early 70s joint by him is Its called "Night of the....(something...I cant remember)"

    Knight Of The Blue Communion.

    Did that one come out in the U.S.? I've only seen the Canadian press.

    Sweet Apple = not

  • DrWuDrWu 4,021 Posts
    this thread is making me really regret not picking OAR up for $125 in NM at the local spot a few months back.

  • Mike_BellMike_Bell 5,736 Posts
    Sons Of Champlin-Loosen Up Naturally on Capitol.
    The one with the cursewords on the front cover.
    I don't think it's impossible to find, just hard as hell to find it.

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    Sons Of Champlin-Loosen Up Naturally on Capitol.
    The one with the cursewords on the front cover.
    I don't think it's impossible to find, just hard as hell to find it.

    Same thing either way?

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    Sweet Apple = not

    Well, I never see it turn up in Reckless, Hi-Fi, Dave's, or other similar used record stores here in Chicago on a regular basis for $8 or less, so as far as I'm concerned, Sweet Apple may as well be . Maybe it's cheap and common on eBay? 'Cause it never shows up in a brick-and-mortar STORE. At least not 'round here.

    (And I bought mine in London, England, oddly enuff...)

  • dCastillodCastillo 1,963 Posts
    hookup, moloch is fetching $80+ these days?

    hey, I have a mint one.

  • wooshiewooshie 490 Posts
    most times I find it's a case of the bands getting no promotion even though they're being put out on a major label, If i remmber correctly United Artists have done stuff like, with that pookah record and this other prog rock jimi influenced record i have i can't remember the name of right now - they both came out on UA at the same time and sold fuck all.

  • luckluck 4,077 Posts
    For some reason, the 2 of the 3 Stepney/Ashby LPs on Cadet often go for $150+ (Rubiyat and Dorothy's Harp, and Afro Harping gets loot, too). And then there's the Archie Whitewater and Terry Callier stuff.

    Enterprise has some tough LPs to come by (esp. 24k Black), and Capitol took some late 60s all-or-nothing risks on groups like Brothers Unlimited, Gandalf, and Food.

  • bull_oxbull_ox 5,056 Posts
    I think it is documented that this is the wort selling LP of all time..I think it "offically" sold something like 150 copies...

    The Hampton Grease Band claims their first album (a double with no singles, natch) was the 2nd worst selling album on Columbia, the first being a yoga record

    Moloch normally gets around half of $80 which would explain why its sitting there... but I didn't find it at all impressive the one time I listened

  • akoako https://soundcloud.com/a-ko 3,413 Posts
    For some reason, the 2 of the 3 Stepney/Ashby LPs on Cadet often go for $150+ (Rubiyat and Dorothy's Harp, and Afro Harping gets loot, too). And then there's the Archie Whitewater and Terry Callier stuff.

    Enterprise has some tough LPs to come by (esp. 24k Black), and Capitol took some late 60s all-or-nothing risks on groups like Brothers Unlimited, Gandalf, and Food.

    so should i be saying "ouch" about passing up a $20 copy a couple years ago?

  • wooshiewooshie 490 Posts
    you mean "who's for the young"? ..Not a bad record...

  • GamleOleGamleOle 508 Posts


  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts

    The Hampton Grease Band claims their first album (a double with no singles, natch) was the 2nd worst selling album on Columbia, the first being a yoga record

    I think the story got mixed up...the way the story came down to me, the worst-selling Columbia album was not a yoga record, but it was an album by Swami Satchinada, an Indian YOGI who was a ubiquitous presence at rock festivals back during the hippie era. His album came out roughly around the same time as the HGB and was produced by Felix Cavaliere from the Rascals.

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    AKO- we have both the James Luther(sealed OG) and Moloch (VG+ OG) at the shop...they arent cheap though...($150 and $80 respectively)

    Ako...that was me who originally mentioned those two albums. I was actually at Shangri-La two months ago, and sure enuff, Dickinson and Moloch were on the wall framed in plastic bags with huge price tags...

  • hcrinkhcrink 8,729 Posts

    The Hampton Grease Band claims their first album (a double with no singles, natch) was the 2nd worst selling album on Columbia, the first being a yoga record

    I think the story got mixed up...the way the story came down to me, the worst-selling Columbia album was not a yoga record, but it was an album by Swami Satchinada, an Indian YOGI who was a ubiquitous presence at rock festivals back during the hippie era. His album came out roughly around the same time as the HGB and was produced by Felix Cavaliere from the Rascals.

    I don't think that yogi record is that rare. I've seen it many times.

    But seriously, there are SOOOO many obscure major label lp's on the really big labels like Capitol that you could be at this forever. People just don't care about a lot of them cause they aren't of a "hot genre".

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    there are SOOOO many obscure major label lp's on the really big labels like Capitol that you could be at this forever.

    Not to hijack the thread, but this is sorta related...what's the opinion on that Brian Cloud California Soul elpee on Capitol (ca. 1969)? This could be one of the classic Capitol soul records that people are always big-upping on this list, but I've seen it pop up a few times, and it looks pretty loungey. Since I was never a Nancy Wilson fan (or even SPANKY Wilson), I usually let that one slide.

  • catalistcatalist 1,373 Posts

    The major label LP I want but that doesnt seem to exsist, outside of the one copy that shingaling has, is that ILL Peter Ivers LP on Epic, I have a so-so 45 from another(1975) LP, but the early 70s joint by him is Its called "Night of the....(something...I cant remember)"

    My dad was good friends with Peter Ivers, they went to college together in Massachusetts, so I have the LP but as a bonus I also have the test pressing/acetate of the album (two 1 sided, heavy as fuck slabs of vinyl, but there is metal on the edges). Tragic story with Peter Ivers, he was murdered in California in 1982 by a burglar who shot him in the head.


    back to the thread, I want Waltel Branco - Meu Balanco (on CBS brasil)

  • The_Hook_UpThe_Hook_Up 8,182 Posts
    I think it is documented that this is the wort selling LP of all time..I think it "offically" sold something like 150 copies...

    The Hampton Grease Band claims their first album (a double with no singles, natch) was the 2nd worst selling album on Columbia, the first being a yoga record

    Moloch normally gets around half of $80 which would explain why its sitting there... but I didn't find it at all impressive the one time I listened

    our Moloch records dont sit around very long...they sit there for about 4 months or so...we get a lot of tourists from all over the world that come to memphis specifically for music tourism in our shop, the type that "cant believe we have that record", so we charge that for it, because it always sells...We get $100 all the time for Bobby Bland Duke LPs, even though you can get them on ebay for $20...never under estimate the spending power of the music tourist.

  • pickwick33pickwick33 8,946 Posts
    We get $100 all the time for Bobby Bland Duke LPs, even though you can get them on ebay for $20...

    ...and what's more, those Bobby Bland Duke LP's stayed in print a long-ass time and were always available in some form (even after Duke was bought out by ABC, then ABC was sold to MCA, then MCA stopped making vinyl). So with that in mind, even twenty bucks seems like a lot to pay for Bobby Bland.

  • luckluck 4,077 Posts
    For some reason, the 2 of the 3 Stepney/Ashby LPs on Cadet often go for $150+ (Rubiyat and Dorothy's Harp, and Afro Harping gets loot, too). And then there's the Archie Whitewater and Terry Callier stuff.

    Enterprise has some tough LPs to come by (esp. 24k Black), and Capitol took some late 60s all-or-nothing risks on groups like Brothers Unlimited, Gandalf, and Food.

    so should i be saying "ouch" about passing up a $20 copy a couple years ago?

    It's not as hard to come by as Gandalf and Food, say, but you can probably pull about a hundo for a sealed copy.

  • DORDOR Two Ron Toe 9,896 Posts


    Love this record. I've seen it come around 4-5 times, but never see the OG go for cheap tho

  • Jonny_PaycheckJonny_Paycheck 17,825 Posts
    For some reason, the 2 of the 3 Stepney/Ashby LPs on Cadet often go for $150+ (Rubiyat and Dorothy's Harp, and Afro Harping gets loot, too). And then there's the Archie Whitewater and Terry Callier stuff.

    Enterprise has some tough LPs to come by (esp. 24k Black), and Capitol took some late 60s all-or-nothing risks on groups like Brothers Unlimited, Gandalf, and Food.

    so should i be saying "ouch" about passing up a $20 copy a couple years ago?

    It's not as hard to come by as Gandalf and Food, say, but you can probably pull about a hundo for a sealed copy.

    Word...

    It's also a really, really, really good record.

  • Mike_BellMike_Bell 5,736 Posts
    Sons Of Champlin-Loosen Up Naturally on Capitol.
    The one with the cursewords on the front cover.
    I don't think it's impossible to find[/b], just hard as hell to find it[/b].

    Same thing either way?
    I guess so.

  • The label in dicussion when it comes to this topic is CAPITOL.

    One of the three largest record companies in the world in the late 60's and early 70's actually putting out records that sold 1000 copies at best.

    Karen Dalton 1st LP
    Food Forever is a Dream
    Brothers Unlimited...

    and a bunch of garbage that sucks that you never see... Primo People? Shit that that.... Rare Mel Torme records from the late 60's that sold like shit. I mean how many titles did they put out a month in the early 70's.... Like 200 releases a month?

    on and on...

    It is absurd. Some of that shit is scarcer than a lot of private presses.

  • SoulOnIceSoulOnIce 13,027 Posts
    Radio-station digging has turned up all kinds
    of major label stuff that probably never got
    past promotional pressings. Tons of late-60's
    early-70's hard rock and rural rock sloss on
    Epic, Warners, Atlantic...

    Even commercial relases...like Motown, through all
    the affiliates they had pumping in that era,
    were turning out scores of titles every month.
    There's all kinda crap on Rare Earth and Mowest
    and such that NOBODY was buying.

    All the Old Headz record dudes talk about
    is the "Golden Age" of the "cutout bin."
    I remember the cutout bins from when I was
    really young, seeing piles of the sealed KISS
    solo LP's*, the ones where each had his own album,
    for 79 cents at Woolworths in like 1979...these
    dudes talk about the same thing but with 13th Floor
    Elevators and Bobby Byrd albums, buying handfuls
    in 1974 at 5-for-$2!


    (*actually just the Peter Criss and Paul Stanley ones...
    Gene and Ace did alright with theirs...)
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