Oddity Archive: Episode 283 - Record Ripoffs Vol. 14 (The 70’s Strike Back!)
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- Опубликовано: 25 ноя 2024
- Record Ripoffs gets back to its roots…man.
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Ben, this was absolutely PAINFUL, and utterly hilarious - OMG, the liner notes....we tried reading them out loud in various DJ styles, and the punctuation on them was horrific, of course leave it to my wife to notice that. You are truly a SAINT to get through most of this garbage...loved it! Cheers!
It would be both awesome and terrible to see an internet radio station composed entirely of rip-off records.
And we know just the radio host for the job
I shit you not, there actually IS (or was) a Muzak channel consisting of soundalikes. I heard it at the McDonald's at Warm Springs and Las Vegas Blvd in Las Vegas. Don't know if it's still there, as this was back in 2007, but it was. I could easily tell the songs weren't the originals.
How many of these rip-off records have made it to Spotify? I'd unironically listen to such a playlist.
@@TheKnobCalledTone. They in fact are on streaming but scattered. Both old sessions and new recordings from old hits. It's possible to hear classic Countdown Media rip-offs on their own website.
Apple Music has a bunch from Crown Records that seem to range from the 50s to the 70s.
That first album, I'm guessing the target audience would have been too stoned to notice the difference.
Hey a Skip shout out too!
If you hadn’t done so in the past, try to find “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Blue Suede Shoes” by a “Hank Smith”. They were on Tops Records on a 45 EP. Why that one? Well, you may know his real name; George Jones.
You can tell a quality label when it veers side to side when on the turntable.
We here in the UK never got any of the early Pickwick/Hallmark "soundalike" compilations. However we did get the Pickwick cover versions compilations. Most of the British albums had scantily clad young ladies on the covers. These are well collected albums due to the cover art and nostalgic novelty values. The Pickwick compilations of the 80s even came with a poster of said cover model. However they did sell pretty well over here in the Uk back in the day
Oh yeah the Top of the Pops albums that Ben covered (albeit briefly) back in the very first Record Rip-offs episode.
To be fair, UK Pickwicks are of an excellent quality in comparison to the North American ones. Usually the sound is horrible, and the vinyl itself is crap at best.
I suspect some of the songs came off Top of the Pops and the Marble Arch collections.
That Frankenstein really made me laugh, its just so pathetic
My favorite OA series returns! Loved that stock footage in the beginning too. I'm always happy when you show a "not all that bad: track and then follow it up with utter trash.
14:50 Wounded chihuahuas? Sounds more like the background singer chickens from the Muppet Show.
Or the pink puppets from "Mana-Mana"
New from Roncom it is the Pickwick alarm clock. Just set the alarm and the soundalike backing singers from the infamous Tom Jones ripoff will wake you up from a sound aslepp, even if you are dead. (Any deaths involved in use of this product is purely coincidental).
Roncom? Perry Como's company, named after his son Ronnie?
It cracked me up. I suspect these were American pressings of songs off the British "Top of the Pops" series that ran from 1968 to 1981 (And a one off in 1984). It was 84 albums released every 2 or 3 months and had end of year collections. These were iconic records and some even hit #1 on the album charts. However I also suspect several of the cuts were recorded by American performers too as they were songs that did not hit in the UK. Kings Road was another name for the "Poppers" who did the Top of the Pops records. The quality was surprisingly good for most of them and the group had a revolving line of up performers including a "Reggie Dwight" who recorded vocals and organs on various 1969/70 soundalike records. He later found fame as Elton John and advised the Poppers on how to do covers of his songs.
It was at a time when these soundalike records cost 14/- (Before 1971) and then 88p or 99p afterwards for 12 to 20 songs and a standard album cost £2.50 to £4, at a time when many poorer people and teens were paid as little as £4 for a week's work. Hence they found a ready market.
Very good job Ben, this is much more like your older work...Thanks
Record ripoffs are my favorite. Can’t believe I missed this episode.
You know when an episode starts off with a piss poor excuse of a popular song, you know a good episode of oddity archive is coming.
19:04 - That scratchcard remark made me nearly hurt myself! 😂
YES! You covered the SING DANIEL album! “Reelin’ in the Years” is so hilarious on that.
I love it when you publish these. Such amazing finds! FunHouse Radio is a novelty station. One thing we do are weird covers. I would love to add some of the more bizarre example of knock-off rock that you've discovered. Would you have a moment to recommend or list a few to me to consider?
I can’t imagine why they even bothered to record this in stereo.
I was a early 1970's kid. with many TV memories of iconic (but also crappy) K-tel, Ronco, TeeVee int ect compilation albums I also recall seeing many of those spinning Pickwick/33 discs with the silver, hexagonal logo being played at school. What I recall? which music of significance was on these records was anyone's guess, until once again hearing and seeing silver label Pickwick/33's on the Archive and I was promptly reminded why I forgot.
Tumbling Dice is my favorite Rolling Stones song and that performance was so unbelievably wrong it took me a second to even figure out that's what it was.
I remember seeing these albums in the $1.99 bargain bin at Woolworth's back in the 70's.
Fun program. Tie a Yellow Ribbon was covered in Mexican-Spanish as "Amarra un Liston Amarrillo" by Jaime Moreno.
8:28 it sounds like he's saying "you know i believe in hell"
yeah, i believe i'm in hell too
In 1968 I saved up my allowance and birthday money to purchase an album called "26 Top Hits." It was on the Nashville based Hit label, whose stock in trade was fake versions of pop songs fo' cheap. Yes, I have actually lived the dream.
For what it’s worth, I covered that one on the 60’s RR installment.
Lou Reed started his career writing & recording songs for Pickwick Records. A budget label specializing in similar albums.
Elton John recorded some of these also.
that Tumbling Dice has to be one of the worst ever on here, jeez louise lol
It’s funny to finally hear “Treat Her Like A Lady” in one of these after I mistook one of the infamous Godspell Musak Tracks for it.
22:42 "Listen to us rip it off Ringo"? A rip-off album that's actually self-aware?
27:30 R.I.P Keith Wood's toaster
Aside from that, it's hardly surprising these rip-off albums botch Steely Dan (my favorite group of all time) so badly. Considering they worked with a lot of the best musicians in the business at the time and demanded absolute perfection from them, the rip-off "artists" didn't stand a chance. And even the Climax Blues Band would have been hard to copy. I'm no expert, but I've watched a lot of Climax Blues Band performances on RUclips, and they really made some incredible music syncing up the saxophone with the guitar. Couldn't Get it Right was the first single I ever bought with my own money, and I played it so much it's burned into my brain. This version is like NyQuil by comparison.
8:45 He's hallucinating the tambourine man by the sound of it.
23:16 "OH ARCHIE, they're commercializing us!"
27:42 They're singing over musak!
32:21 Ah, so the joke about tiny spindle holes was true...
Record Ripoffs our old friend that keeps stealing the snacks from the party, or stealing all the left-over BBQ after the cookout.
19:10 Fun fact, the lead on “Mother and Child Reunion” (the real one, not this sonic homunculus) was played by Toots & the Maytals’ longtime guitar player Hux Brown.
All these early 1970’s singer songwriter knock offs, and the Carole King song doesn’t even come from Tapestry? Do you know how long I wanted to hear a 13 year old tone deaf girl doing a cover of “Smackwater Jack”
Wonder if anyone wrote to that address telling them how much these albums sucked?
I help out at an online radio station and wanted to swap everything with rip-off versions for April Fool’s Day but was vetoed.
I'd love to see you do an international special of record rip-offs from the British, Hot Hits, To Of The Pops and Stereo Gold Award series of LPs
I have a few British TOTP discs, but they’re really not that bad. I do have some other UK and otherwise European ones to cover at some point. Sergei played an Amen Corner knockoff last time around, for what it’s worth.
@@OddityArchive If I ever succeed in obtaining all seven cassettes from Chevron Records' *This Is Music* series, then mark my words they are headed your way - whether you want them or not! 😁
'Played & sound liked' Trademark of quality.
Episode 14 already? Might be time for a Record Ripoffs box set. Available on U-Matic, VX, Video 2000 and 1/2" EIAJ-1 tape
Another good title for this: "Pickwick: Picked Over . . . Again".
Those Super Hits liner notes reek of LSD
Yeah, hey did anyone try to write in for the Archie Bunker shirt? 23:08
These are driven by impulse buying. Homes that had them also had the Miracle Slicer.
An all-new Record Ripoffs, and from the 70s to boot! I laughed the whole time.
Pickwick, the former employer of Lou Reed.
Metal Machine Music is more listenable than these bogus records.
After years of watching these Record Rip-off videos, I've nicknamed Pickwick as Nitwit.
Another knocked-it-out-of-the-park, or is that ripped-it-out-of-the-jacket (or even off the turntable when its just-too-small center hole stuck on the spindle), Record Ripoffs episode. As always, so many comedic gems... I think the one that got me the most was 'unlubricated 8-track'. A perfect Archivism, seasoning the humor with memories of the 8-track repair episode, and all the other episodes that 8-track failures and repairs rained into. I'm not familiar with the Frankenstein song... I'll have to check out the original on that, this cover really piqued my interest.
"Stay With Me" as sung by a poor man's Joe South
Even though these are KO recordings, they/you taught me that Westside Connection cribbed "Chicago" for their "Gangsta Nation" beat at 14:43. Thanks! :D
Yeah, I thought that's what that was.
That rendition of "Treat Her Like a Lady" is one of the absolute worst things I have ever heard.
Let's see. Concerning "Rainy Days and Mondays", I didn't know Lana Del Rey's previous life was that of a cheesy 1970s cover band singer.
"Stay With Me" as sung by Joe Cocker.
"Mother and Child Reunion", which is about committing suicide, makes some actually want to.
Btw, some of us are going to find you that volume 1 copy.
Also, for Volume 2, that was an accident, unlike "Monty Python's Matching Tie and Handkerchief".
EDIT: And don't worry. 99 cents back then is probably $2.99 today.
28:39 I think I liked the LaserKaraoke cover of this song better.
Hahaha love the Heathers reference in the rip-off Andy Kim song.
One Pickwick you may want to keep an eye out for is for the 1978 movie FM. I found one of the tracks on yt and yup its bad. GM also did some record ripoff cassettes in the late 70s, I remember a strange rerecord on an Olds cassette from 78 or 77 of Dancing Queen that qualify for record ripoffs
I covered the Pickwick FM one of the early installments.
Funny enough, I think I have the first volume of Super Hits
I grew up in a small town in NW Montana where the only record store in town sold mostly bootlegged/pirated records and 8 track tapes. As you might imagine, these “Super Hits” LP’s were also available there. My sister bought several. If you wanted a real record/tape from the real artists that WASN’T bootlegged, you had to drive to Missoula or Spokane. I don’t know if they ever got prosecuted or sued….but they should have been.
I grew up in a town so small
One small fact from Super Hits Volume 10 is that The New Seekers covered "Pinball Wizard"... coupled with "See Me, Feel Me" in a medley. Surprisingly, the See Me track is missing...
It wasn't a hit in the US, so the inclusion is baffling (it did the 20 in the UK, btw)
puppet man!! give me more of it....
On the orange cover…is that Goldie Hawn on the cover?
And you’re right, that version of pinball wizard is tight af!
I saw a local band, Strung Out, at Railroad Fest in Franklin Park, Illinois in June. They did a much better cover of Frankenstein and Still the One. Plus I got to ride Metra for free..
"It don't come easy" sounds better than the original somehow?
Loved the opening fake ad, where did you get that footage from?
Mostly AV Geeks (YT or archive.org).
Nice one... I have bins full of rip off exploitos.. check out the alternative lyrics on the rip I put on my channel called " KINGS ROAD play ROLLING STONES "TUMBLING DICE" 1972 alternate lyrics ! LOL (from Volume 6) ... "... the word flubs are astounding.
Pinball wizard, and Frankie solo were too good for these records.
Subscribing! ❤😊
27:51 If anything, they're too damn *close* to the mic...!
BEN! It's gonna be a good day...
It's pronounced "Fronk-en-steen."
Except it predates Young Frankenstein by two years.
Is the bong included? :D
18:13 So they took requests... I do sincerely hope nobody requested Dark Side of the Moon, because why cover an entire 1972 album by Medicine Head?
Pinball Wizard by the Who-cares?
"When You're Hot, You're Hot" was just BUTCHERED, I think. Any more butchered, and it'd either be ground round or tripe, depending on what part of the world one's in.
14:16 “I believe this works, and I want your feedback.” Is Keith trying to sell us a record or a fad diet?
Nnnnggghhhhhhh...OK, yes, Pickwick's crap IS horrid. But there's more offenders besides them...Crown Intl., for example.
BUT! Both Pickwick and Crown did involve themselves with some rather...odd...releases. Others have mentioned Lou Reed's involvement with Pickwick; if you doubt the cool factor there, check The Beechnuts' "Cycle Annie" and the mayhem that IS "The Ostrich". By the time that chonk got cut, John Cale was tagging along and you can hear the impending Velvet Underground's havoc in full flower.
But Crown tossed out a few discs of madness...which you would expect out of the likes of Bruce Haack. Haack would go on to create one of the great "Moogsploitation" albums with "The Electric Lucifer" and some very twisted records "for kids" that lean more in the "kids programming" department toward "Peewee's Playhouse" a couple of decades later.
But then again...that "bridge" in "Frankenstein" is GOLD. 24 karat, baybee! So sometimes Pickwick could bring it...but the results are never what you'd expect.
And now...the QUESTION: who in the hell IS Keith Wood? Is he still with us? Could make for an interesting search, given that he invariably appears as what one might call the "producer" for these slabs-o-crap. He'd have to be ancient if he's still around, but the stories living in his head about these would be a total win IF you could find out more.
See "RR Vol. 5: Pickwick: Picked Over" for some of the Lou Reed stuff.
I love your videos man, I really do. But please, never ever play that Carpenters song from that album again. I love the Carpenters and that made my brain hurt.
Just wondering, if you play enough of these shitty rip-off records in a row, does RUclips reverse copyright strike you and pay you money to stop playing them instead?
Wouldn't break my heart.
Apollo 1 is the name of Ben’s hound dog he’s planing to get a bigger apartment the. He plans to get a cat named big sally and say give to segai a Russian blue of course and say she’s his new side kick .
Once again, Benny unleashes more poorly conceived covers of popular songs from the 70's.
Curse You, Benny...😅
👍🏻