Friday, June 7, 2013

Ramones and the record clubs

There are at least two Ramones albums that have been pressed exclusive for record clubs.
The first one is the debut album that was made for the Australian World Record Club in 1977. WRC started in England and operated i Australia from 1957 to the late 70's. The subscribers of the record club got a magazine each month, the World Record News, with articles on music and order forms for the new releases.
The sleeve of the Ramones LP is based on the australian release on Philips but with a small WRC logo on the front, a different catalog number and some information about WRC on the back. The labels are totally different.

The other club-release I have found is a version of Subterranean Jungle for the Columbia. The mail order service started in the early 1970's in USA by the Columbia Records division of CBS and was really big in the 1980's and early 1990's.
One of the records with a unique sleeve and labels on Columbia House was Subterranean Jungle. Unlike the standard US pressing this one don't have a barcode. The sleeve is marked with "Manufactured by Columbia House under license" and the labels has a different number. The record has the same inner sleeve with lyrics as the standard US pressing.

Album: Ramones
Number: W.R.C. R 90324
Year: 1977
Country: Australia




Album: Subterranean Jungle
Number: Sire W1-23800
Year: 1983
Country: USA