Do Do Do Do Do You Remember??

I had to stay in today as we were having our conifers trimmed, and as Mrs IU was out to doing something important, I had to keep the tea and coffee supplies available for those with the cutting tools. 


So, between keeping the refreshments supplied and wondering what I could offer up for today’s photo and something a little unusual, I came up with this, which was inspired by those who have featured book spines on a shelf for their Blip, and for this upload, it may even be a first on BlipFoto……so here's the story...


Several months ago whilst up in the loft going through one of my many boxes of albums (known as LPs when I bought albums back in the 60s), I came across a few of these Top of the Pops albums which had been given to me as Christmas or birthday presents toward the end of the 60’s. I think the last one I was given was around 1970/71 as the message must have got out that as a record collector, I really wanted the “original” recordings. But I digress.


Top Of The Pops was the name of a series of LPs issued by Pickwick Records on their Hallmark label, which contain anonymous cover versions of recent and current hit singles and fortune really ensued for the label when the company noted that the term 'Top of the Pops', despite being used by BBC television, was not legally protected.


From 1968 to 1985, Hallmark Records released nearly 100 albums consisting of covers of Top 40 hits. Hallmark generally released a volume every three months – the first one appearing in June 1968. According to session singer Tony Rivers, who also sang on albums by Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, Roger Daltrey, Shakin' Stevens and Cliff Richard,  "In those days, more often than not, you had to do three songs in three hours then you were out of there!!”.


The recordings were intended to replicate the sound of the original hits as closely as possible. and were recorded by a studio group comprising session musicians and singers who remained uncredited, although along with Tony Rivers, they included Tina Charles and Elton John before they became famous in their own right – and the albums were quite popular by those who just wanted the songs rather than the originals and why not, after all, there were twelve songs for the price of under £1 and two of the albums even reached No. 1 in the UK Albums Chart. In fact, some (note the word “some”) of them were very good depending though on how familiar you were with the original…although many were pretty bad, especially the Elvis copies.


Now some of you might recall seeing these, but for those who are a lot younger than I am, these albums were generally found in UK branches of Woolworths, W.H Smith and Boots in high profile displays - I cannot recall finding or should I say seeing them in shops like HMV – anyhow, apologies to young and overseas readers who have looked at this upload and who probably have no idea what these records are all about or are wondering if I have lost my mind.


Anyhow, after my find in the loft, my curiosity about the series of albums was raised and since then, I have managed to get all of these albums, either physically or by way of “needle drops” courtesy of other collectors and they now reside on my laptop together with the original artwork.


So I pulled out a selection of nine of the colourful album sleeves issued between June 1968 and August 1974 and placed them on the floor to take one big photo, which incidentally meant climbing up a small step ladder to get the distance.  Why did I stop at Volume 40?  Well, it was the songs listed on the sleeve that was the trigger…it was the month and year I got married, (which I thought I would just throw in)…but of course, deep down, I have fond memories of the music from that time.


PS the title of this upload comes from the first line lyrics from the hit single Do You Remember by The Scaffold in March 1968. Just another bit of worthless trivia...lol