Today’s #TuesdaysWithJerry topic: samplers!
I wish more labels had kept up with this promotional practice, tossing together gateway tracks as a means of enticing ears to seek out more from their rosters, while sometimes slipping in a rarity or two to help such things become collector’s items.
Warner Bros. did it best in the ‘70s via their ‘Songbook’ annuals, 2LP gatefold yearbooks teeming with odds ‘n’ ends from their catalog. New wave havens like Sire and I.R.S. and a raft of punk outlets relied on similar repackaging in the ‘80s. But A&M was savvily setting the pace in the mid > late ‘60s, issuing compilations like these keepsakes in conjunction with sponsors of Herb Alpert’s occasional TV specials.
In the case of the ‘69 platter ‘Music Box’ — half of which is comprised of Tijuana Brass tunes, the rest a smattering of choice cuts from Sérgio Mendes, Wes Montgomery, Claudine Longet and others — that advertiser (emblazoned on the upper left corner) was then-decade-old BankAmericard, which by ‘76 changed its name to Visa. Look closely at the bunting swirling around all the faces on this cover and you’ll notice the charge card’s blue-white-tan color scheme.
Incidentally, my still-mint copy was acquired for less than $5 on Discogs. Might post an unsealing clip on my story.
The previous yuletide, not long after Nixon was elected in ‘68, Jerry Moss and the A&M gang issued ‘¡Something Festive!’ as a giveaway at BFGoodrich tire showrooms. Bookended by TJB numbers that had just appeared on the group’s beloved ‘Christmas Album,’ it also boasts bits from Burt Bacharach, Liza Minnelli, We Five, Ms. Longet again — plus a find not included on other albums at the time, Mendes’s rendition of ‘The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire).’
I know: it isn’t even Halloween yet. I apologize to all my spooky friends. But these covers complement each other too well stylistically and thematically to wait until December.