K-tells Vol. 33 RETURNS!

K-tells RETURNS!

Vol. 33 The Sequel.

So, after three long years the much loved and much requested K-tells series returns with a whole slew of 'new' music drops.

These new sets will comprise of not only K-tel releases, but other similar TV advertised compilation albums mostly from the 70's, such as Ronco, Arcade, Warwick and others.

K-tel, Ronco, and Arcade Records were all companies known for selling compilation albums and other products through various channels, including television advertising and direct mail.

K-tel, founded in 1962, is the original compilation company, selling over half a billion records worldwide. Ronco was known for promoting products like the Superstars music collection through television commercials and direct mail. Arcade Records was another company that focused on selling music through various channels.

Here's a more detailed look at each company:

K-tel:

K-tel's main focus was on producing and selling compilation albums, featuring popular music hits from various genres. They also expanded into selling other products like video games, toys, and kitchen appliances. K-tel is based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and has subsidiaries in the US and UK.

The K-tel Commercials Collection! 38 Original TV ads! Original Stars! Watch It Today!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7G_XF48h9g

Ronco:

Ronco was known for its distinctive television commercials, often featuring unusual or outlandish products. One of their most famous products was the Record-Vacuum which was supposed to 'clean' your valuable records, but probably did more damage than good!

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-ronco-record-vacuum.338125/

The Record Vacuum by Ronco (Commercial #1, 1977)

https://youtu.be/KVpwXSjBZ48?si=8XCCEdGx5le13-bt

The Record Vacuum by Ronco (Commercial #1, 1978)

https://youtu.be/Egx7QzjvNBY?si=XZ4iKhE-wdI4V3w2

Arcade Records:

Arcade Records was another company that focused on selling music through direct mail and other channels. They offered a wide variety of albums, often featuring compilation albums or unique music selections.

Arcade Records was a British record company specialised in multi-artist compilation albums (often in the mid-price or budget price ranges), founded in 1972. In the 1970s, it found itself in direct competition with K-tel and other compilation labels. Some Arcade albums reached Number 1 but have never had an official UK release on CD. These are 20 Fantastic Hits, The Best of Roy Orbison & Jim Reeves 40 Golden Greats. In the 1980s, the original company was sold to Dutch entrepreneur Herman Heinsbroek, who expanded it into a worldwide multi-media company.

Arcade Records was founded in 1972 by Laurence Myers, a British music industry professional who had been working in music management and production for various top British artists such as The Animals, David Bowie and The Rolling Stones. In the early 1970s, he realised that many music consumers were hometaping their favourite songs in order to create a mixtape of current top hits or the best songs by one artist. Myers copied this trend by releasing multi-artist and one-artist compilation albums.

While other budget labels like Hallmark and Music for Pleasure had been relatively successful, they often contained versions of hits by soundalikes. Myers decided to only pick original artists and songs for his albums.

Like K-tel and Ronco, Arcade relied heavily on TV and radio advertising.

Arcade’s first release was 20 Fantastic Hits and it spent a total of six weeks at No 1 in the UK albums chart in 1972, when it replaced K-tel’s first No 1 album, 20 Dynamic Hits.

Arcade currently serves as a digital platform which compiles playlists for Spotify based on Arcade's catalogues.

Music on a Budget in the 1970s:

https://www.woolworthsmuseum.co.uk/1970s-musiconabudget.htm

Like many who grew up in the 70's and 80's, K-tel, Ronco and Arcade compilation albums were very much a staple in my record collection. 20 hit tracks for little more than the cost of a couple of singles, they always seemed like great value for a little pocket money. Many hit the number 1 spot in the UK charts, often completely outselling major name artists.

For instance: 20 Dynamic Hits is a compilation album released on vinyl by K-tel in 1972. It reached number 1 in the UK and was the first album put together specifically for telemarketing in that country. At a time when various artists' compilations were eligible for inclusion on the UK's Official Album Chart, this was the biggest selling album of 1972.

The company built the business of releasing compilation albums that combined material from a number of popular artists onto a single theme album using the tag line "20 Original Hits! 20 Original Stars!". The company negotiated directly with artists and labels for the rights to reproduce their original recordings, in the process also securing a long-term asset through adding those recordings to their catalogue.

Canadian Philip Kives began K-tel in the 1960's, and his biggest selling product was the Miracle Brush, which sold 28 million in the late 1960's. In 1966, K-tel released its first compilation album, 25 Country Hits. It quickly sold out and prompted the follow-up, 25 Polka Greats. This one sold 1.5 million copies in the United States alone. The hits kept coming and included the Super Hits series, the Dynamic Hits series and the Number One Hits series. K-tel assembled the greatest hits from the latest, greatest artists in one single package. There were even thematic compilations like Goofy Greats, Super Bad, Super Bad Is Back, Souled Out, Summer Cruisin’ and a 1950's look-back, Rock ’n’ Roll Show. K-tel grew exponentially in the 1970's and by the early 1980's, the company had sold more than half a billion albums worldwide.

K-tel "Record Selector" commercial:

https://youtu.be/9Ja3NxeLhWg?si=ooicC37GXsWLPi15

These albums for me, as I'm sure for others, hold very dear memories, and for many were the very first albums they ever bought.

I decided to compile many of these albums from scratch using the very latest and highest quality CD digital remasters with many tracks taken from the original master tapes (rather than ripping from the original vinyl), as these classic compilation albums from K-tel, Ronco, Arcade, etc. were often very badly mastered with poor sound quality along with some tracks being severely edited due to vinyl time constraints in order to squeeze on as many tracks per side as possible.

I've made absolutely sure through exhaustive and extensive research to use all the original complete 7" 45 single versions (which were originally used on the albums, but cut short), from my own music collection, so as to make these compilations completely authentic and true to the originals, along with the best sounding audio quality possible. I've spent a considerable amount of time fine tuning, editing and adjusting the levels to be consistent across each album.

What makes these albums most interesting is that each one contains, even to this day, a few extremely rare, obscure and hard to find tracks. Not one of these compilation albums has ever been officially released on CD.

Hope they bring back many happy memories.

K

20 Star Tracks - Original Stars! - Original Hits! (Ronco ‎PP 2001 UK) (2025 Remaster) (1972)

20 Star Tracks was originally released in the UK by Ronco in 1972 and reached number 2 on the Official Albums Chart on 28th October 1972, where it stayed for two weeks.

New CD running time of 72:42

Power Hits - 43 Original Hits - 43 Original Stars (K-tel TE 297 UK - TG 102 GER - TN 102 NLD - TG 121 GER) (2025 Expanded Edition) (2CD) (1973-1975)

20 Power Hits was originally released in the UK by K-tel in 1973. It was subsequently issued in Germany, also in 1973, but with a different track listing. It was later released in Europe in 1974 and once again in Germany in 1975, but again with different track listings.

This new 2CD compilation now combines 43 of the very best selections from the UK (1973), Germany (1973), Europe (1974) and Germany (1975) editions.

CD1: 22 tracks - running time: 79:39

CD2: 21 tracks - running time: 78:39

20 Top Speed Hits - 20 Original Artists - 20 Original Hits (Arcade ADE G5 GER - ADE H7 NLD) (2025 Remaster) (1975)

20 Top Speed Hits was originally released in Germany and the Netherlands by Arcade in 1975. They each contained different track listings.

I have selected the very best songs from each album to compile this now 22 track compilation with a new CD running time of 79:18.

This is the first post of many new K-tells to come over the next year or so, so keep checking back for the latest installment.

The previous 32 K-tells posts can be found here:

http://butterboycompilations.blogspot.com/search/label/K-tells

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Track lists

20 Star Tracks - Original Stars! - Original Hits! (Ronco ‎PP 2001 UK) (2025 Remaster) (1972)

1 Cat Stevens - Morning Has Broken 3:19

2 Middle of the Road - Samson and Delilah 3:05

3 Mott the Hoople - Midnight Lady (Original 1971 7" Single Version) 3:29

4 Greyhound - I Am What I Am 2:44

5 The Sweet - Poppa Joe 3:06

6 Atomic Rooster - Stand by Me 3:46

7 Buffy Sainte-Marie - Soldier Blue (Original 1971 7" Single Version) 3:22

8 Jethro Tull - Life Is a Long Song 3:16

9 Laurie Styvers - Beat the Reaper 3:34

10 Lindisfarne - Lady Eleanor (UK A2U 1972 Re-release Full Length 7" Single Version) 4:12

11 Procol Harum - Conquistador (Live in Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra) (Original 1972 7" Single Version) 4:16

12 Joan Baez - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down 3:23

13 The Pipes & Drums & The Military Band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers & Greys) - Amazing Grace (Original 1972 7" Single Version) 3:19

14 Free - Little Bit of Love 2:34

15 Labi Siffre - Get to the Country 2:59

16 Mungo Jerry - In the Summertime (Original 1970 7" Single Version) 3:32

17 Traffic, Etc. - Gimme Some Lovin', Pts. 1 & 2 (Original 1971 7" Single Version) 9:03

18 Blue Haze - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes 3:13

19 Scott English - Brandy 3:12

20 Olivia Newton-John - Banks of the Ohio 3:16

Power Hits - 43 Original Hits - 43 Original Stars (K-tel TE 297 UK - TG 102 GER - TN 102 NLD - TG 121 GER) (2025 Expanded Edition) (2CD) (1973-1975)

CD1

1 Elton John - Crocodile Rock 3:56

2 Mungo Jerry - Alright, Alright, Alright 2:50

3 Nazareth - Bad Bad Boy 3:58

4 Mud - Hypnosis 2:47

5 The Who - Join Together 4:22

6 Eric Clapton - I Shot the Sheriff (Original 1974 7" Single Version) 3:32

7 Free - All Right Now (Original 1970 7" Single Version) 4:11

8 The Edgar Winter Group - Frankenstein (Original 1973 7" Single Version) 3:27

9 Faces - Cindy Incidentally 2:36

10 Guy Darrell - I've Been Hurt 2:06

11 Barry White - I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby (Original 1973 7" Single Version) 4:10

12 New York City - I'm Doin' Fine Now 2:50

13 Hot Chocolate - Brother Louie 4:59

14 Suzi Quatro - Can the Can 3:36

15 The Rubettes - Tonight 3:41

16 Electric Light Orchestra - Showdown (Original 1973 7" Single Version) 4:09

17 Focus - Hocus Pocus (Original 1971 7" Single Edit) 3:18

18 Bachman-Turner Overdrive - You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet (Original 1974 7" Single Version) 3:27

19 Roger Daltrey - Giving It All Away 3:28

20 The Carpenters - Yesterday Once More (Original 1973 7" Single Version) 3:59

21 Clifford T. Ward - Gaye 3:35

22 Elton John - Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long, Long Time) 4:42

CD2

1 Electric Light Orchestra - Roll Over Beethoven (Original 1973 7" Single Version) 4:33

2 Wizzard - See My Baby Jive 4:58

3 The Rubettes - Juke Box Jive 3:03

4 Suzi Quatro - 48 Crash 3:55

5 Barry White - You're the First, the Last, My Everything (Original 1974 7" Single Version) 3:32

6 George McCrae - I Can't Leave You Alone (I Keep Holdin' On) 3:12

7 The Hues Corporation - Love Corporation 3:22

8 Mud - Rocket 4:07

9 Suzi Quatro - Too Big 3:18

10 Cozy Powell - Na Na Na 3:28

11 Barry Blue - Dancin' (on a Saturday Night) 3:11

12 Mud - Crazy 3:11

13 Linda & The Funky Boys - Shame, Shame, Shame (Original 1975 7" Single Version) 4:00

14 Carol Douglas - Doctor's Orders (Original 1974 7" Single Edit) 3:00

15 Mac & Katie Kissoon - Sugar Candy Kisses 3:17

16 Hot Chocolate - Emma 3:50

17 Mud - Tiger Feet 3:50

18 Free - Wishing Well 3:35

19 Nazareth - Love Hurts 3:53

20 Hurricane Smith - Oh, Babe What Would You Say? 3:27

21 Slade - How Does It Feel? 5:55

20 Top Speed Hits - 20 Original Artists - 20 Original Hits (Arcade ADE G5 GER - ADE H7 NLD) (2025 Remaster) (1975)

1 The Rubettes - I Can Do It 3:19

2 Linda & The Funky Boys - Shame, Shame, Shame (Original 1975 7" Single Version) 4:00

3 B. T. Express - Do It ('Til You're Satisfied) (Original 1974 7" Single Edit) 3:15

4 Golden Earring - Radar Love (Original 1973 7" Single Edit) 3:43

5 Nazareth - Shanghai'd in Shanghai 3:44

6 Albert Hammond - Everything I Want to Do (Original 1973 7" Single Version) 2:35

7 The Hollies - I'm Down 4:14

8 Dana - Please Tell Him That I Said Hello 3:21

9 Gary Shearston - I Get a Kick Out of You 3:39

10 George McCrae - I Can't Leave You Alone (I Keep Holdin' On) 3:12

11 MFSB feat. The Three Degrees - T.S.O.P. (The Sound of Philadelphia) (Original 1974 7" Single Version) 3:29

12 Status Quo - Break the Rules 3:40

13 Slade - Far Far Away 3:37

14 Bachman-Turner Overdrive - Takin' Care of Business 4:49

15 ABBA - So Long 3:10

16 Bimbo Jet - El Bimbo (Version 1) (Original 1974 7" Single Version) 2:30

17 Ralph McTell - Streets of London 4:08

18 Charlie Rich - The Most Beautiful Girl 2:42

19 Fox - Only You Can (Original 1975 7" Single Version) 3:05

20 The Three Degrees - Get Your Love Back 3:24

21 Sweet - The Six Teens 4:03

22 Elton John - Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me (Original 1974 7" Single Version) 5:37

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