More fake sleeves coming up?

Two of the fake sleeves. The other two you find here.

I guess most of you have seen them by now – the fake sleeves for Ramones singles that someone is selling on Ebay. And it is not only Ramones sleeves that are coming from this seller.
One thing is for certain, this is not official sleeves. On the other hand the seller don't say that, they are called "special limited edititon picture sleeves" on the Ebay auctions.
Anyway, they have the Sire logo and the record number and it's easy to imagine that someone thinks this is "real" stuff.
These records have been discussed on the net and on teminal-boredom.com someone has posted a comment from the seller. As I have written before he's saying that he got the sleeves at the record fair in Utrecht:

I went to the Utrecht Holland record fair last year and purchased a box of over 300 sleeves. Some were reissues and had identical pictures as the original sleeve. Some like this one had diff. pictures than the original but had the original record number on it. The sleeve is made on a less glossy paper than an original issue. The inside fold is a little wider than an original. The inside color is a true white color and not the off white usually found. There were 7 different Ramones slvs in the box. I'm not an expert on the group so I really don't know if there were sleeves originally with them. I've listed two of them and sold both copys I had and now I'm listing this one which I have 3 copys of the sleeves. There is a p/s book thats made in Belgium that lists two of the Ramones sleeves. It says they were made in Belgium for export use only and manufactured in the late 80's. I just think by listing it as a special edition is clearer than listing as a Belgium export issue. Thats all the information I have on this and I hope it helps. I've sold over 75 of these and only had one returned, which I refunded fully including the postage to ship and return it. I also try to get an original record to match up with the sleeve. Thanks and good luck. XXX

Apparently there will be three more Ramones sleeves coming up. Stay away from them if you're not into fakes!

Needles and pins – all versions

As I have written before, the record company in the UK tried to please the more traditional Ramones fans with the the follow up She's The One after the mocked "country & western"-single Don't Come Close.
But in the U.S. the record company used another strategy. Sights were set on the american radio stations and in february 1979 Sire released another tearjerker, Needles And Pins, as the second single from Road To Ruin.
The cover of The Searchers smash hit from 1964 was first cut for Rocket To Russia but ended up on Road To Ruin.
Besides the U.S. version the single was released in Italy, New Zealand, Australia and Japan. The japanese edition has a great picture sleeve – but it looks like the designer of the sleeve have missed to put color to Joeys left hand!
Read more about the italian version with the DJ-sleeve here.

Title: Needles And Pins/I Wanted Everything

Number: Sire SRE 1045

Year: Feb 1979 (1978 on label)

Country: US

Title: Needles And Pins/Needles And Pins

Number: Sire SRE 1045

Year: Feb 1979 (1978 on label)

Country: US

Notes: Promo, mono and stereo

Title: Needles And Pins/I'm against it

Number: Sire SFL-2358

Year: 1979

Country: Japan

Title: Needles And Pins/I'm against it

Number: Sire SFL-2358

Year: 1979

Country: Japan

Notes: Promo

Title: Needles And Pins/I Wanted Everything

Number: Sire SRE 1045

Year: 1979

Country: Australia

Title: Needles And Pins/I Wanted Everything

Number: Sire SRE 1045

Year: 1979

Country: New Zealand

Title: Needles And Pins/She's the one (promo)

Number: Sire SRE 1009

Year: 1978

Country: Italy

Notes: DJ-sleeve

Title: Needles And Pins/She's the one (promo)

Number: Sire SRE 1009

Year: 1978

Country: Italy

Leave Home – The australian pressings

Last year I tried to list all the original pressings of Leave home. Today I stumbled into a different pressing of the australian version on Philips. The record have the same laminated and glossy front and the non-laminated back, the only difference is the line at the bottom to the left of the Philips logo. The first copy is marked with "Distributed in Australia by Phonogram Pty. Limited", the other with "MANUFACTURED AND DISTRIBUTED IN AUSTRALIA UNDER LICENSE". My guess is that the first copy is the first press and that the other was released between Phonogram and Warner distribution.
The labels on the second press looks a little bit different with an extra number, MX184408.
Leave Home was released a third time i Australia as SR 6031 on Sire label and with Warner distribution in 1978. This time with Sheena is a Punk Rocker. The two versions on Philips both have Carbona Not Glue.
This never ends...
By the way, The two australian pressings on Philips are the only ones I have seen with a black part in the picture in the upper left corner on the front cover. I guess everyone else made it sky-blue to make the Ramones-logo look better.

Album: Leave Home

Number: Philips 6370 809

Year: 1977

Made in: Australia

Matrix number: 6370809-1 / 6370809-2  (Hand written)

Notes: Australian first press on Philips, no inner sleeve.

Album: Leave Home

Number: Philips 6370 809

Year: 1977

Made in: Australia

Matrix number: MX184408  6370809-1 / MX184408  6370809-2  (Machine stamped)

Notes: Australian second press on Philips, no inner sleeve.

Front and back of the australian pressing on Philips.

Record of the week – the South African album

"We ain't gonna play Sun City", Joey Ramone declared with Artist United Against Apatheid in 1985. And the Ramones never did. But they released at least one album in South Africa.
Warner Bros gave out End of the Century in the country in the 80's. There is no country of origin on the sleeve but it is marked with Interpak, a big printing company in South Africa. Thats about all I know about this release. The record has, unlike most other versions, no inner sleeve with lyrics.

Album: End of the Century

Number: Warner Brothers WBC 1460

Year: 1980

Made in: South Africa

 

Record of the week – She's The One

Don't Come Close, the first single from Road to Ruin, was disliked by many fans – and Johnny Ramone hated the "country & western"-song.
In the UK Sire tried to repair the damage with the release of the follow-up, the far more typical Ramones track She's The One.
The single was released on January 10, 1979 and was backed up with what today must be one of the most well-known Ramones songs ever, I Wanna Be Sedated. Two good tracks – and a really boring picture sleeve.
The second UK press was only released in the Sire company sleeve and has a different label with the big A on side one.
If the UK sleeve is a disappointment the german cover is one of the greatest. Read more about that one here.
And the 2011 Rhino reissue of the UK single is here.

 Songs: She's The One/I Wanna Be Sedated

Number: Sire SIR 4009

Year: 1978

Country: UK

Notes: The second press (below) with different label.

Subterranean Jungle – the european pressings

In april it's 30 years since the release of Subterranean Jungle. The album was an odd one in many ways, it starts with two cover versions, the Music Explosion's Little Bit O'Soul and The Boyfriends I Need Your Love. Joey Ramone is suddenly called Joe Ramone on the credits. Dee Dee is singing a whole song (Time Bomb). And it's the last album with Marky on the drums before he was replaced with Richie Ramone. Marky plays on all tracks besides the third cover on the album, Time Has Come Today. Billy Rogers from Johnny Thunders band replaced Marky on that one.

Still it's a great album, in fact I don't think Ramones did a better album after this one.
The record was released in april 1983 and once again it didn't became the success the band had hoped for. Subterranean Jungle reached number 83 on the Billboard album music chart.
I have tried to sort out the different pressings of the record (no re-releases) and start with the european releases. Here we have another new thing, most of the versions are pressed at the Record Service GmbH in Alsdorf, Germany. The sleeves are the same and they all have the same inner-sleeve with lyrics but to the right of the STEREO mark on the labels you can see for which market the record is pressed.
This is the different versions I have found:

Album: Subterranean Jungle

Number: Sire 92.3800-1

Year: 1983

Made in: Germany

Notes: Marked SACEM for the french market.
SACEM: Société des Auteurs Compositeure et Editeurs de Musique 

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Album: Subterranean Jungle

Number: Sire 92.3800-1

Year: 1983

Made in: Germany

Notes: For the UK market.

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Album: Subterranean Jungle

Number: Sire 92.3800-1

Year: 1983

Made in: Germany

Notes: Marked ncb for the scandinavian market.

Ncb: Nordisk Copyright Bureau

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Album: Subterranean Jungle

Number: Sire 92.3800-1

Year: 1983

Made in: Germany

Notes: Marked STEMRA for the dutch market.

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Album: Subterranean Jungle

Number: Sire 92.3800-1

Year: 1983

Made in: Germany

Notes: Marked GEMA/BIEM for Spain and probably some other countries. 

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Album: Subterranean Jungle

Number: Sire 92.3800-1

Year: 1983

Made in: Germany

Notes: Marked GEMA for the german market.

GEMA: Gesellschaft für musikalische auffürungs- und mekanische Vervielfältigungsrechte

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Besides the german editions at least three european countries have their own unique pressing of the album:

Album: Subterranean Jungle

Number: Sire 23800

Year: 1983

Country: Italy

Notes: Stock version and white label promo. No barcode.

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Album: Subterranean Jungle

Number: Sire W3800

Year: 1983

Country: Ireland. 

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Album: Subterranean Jungle

Number: Sire 923800-1

Year: 1983

Country: Greece

Notes: Marked with WEA on the front of the cover and no barcode.

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I will be back with the pressings from the rest of the world.

Sheena is a Punk Rocker – the U.S. single

When Joey Ramone played Sheena is a Punk Rocker for Seymour Stein the Sire president flipped out and said, "We gotta record that song now!"
And so they did. The track was recorded at Sundragon Studios in Manhattan, New York the first week of april, 1977. The same studio that was used for Leave Home the year before.
”It was like back in the Fifties; you'd rush into the studio because you thought you had a hit, then you put it right out", Joey recalls in the booklet to the Hey Ho Let's Go-compilation.
Sheena is a Punk Rocker was released four months later, in august 1977. The single reached number 81 on the U.S. single chart.
"To me, "Sheena" was the first surf/punk rock/teenage rebellion song. I combined Sheena, The Queen of the Jungle, with the primalness of punk rock. Then Sheena is brought into the modern day: "But she just could't stay/She had to break away/Well, New York City really has it all", Joey continues.
The engineer Ed Stasium are playing the extra guitar parts "for the Beach Boys feel" and the song was later re-mixed with a heavier sound and in wider stereo for the Rocket to Russia-album.
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle was a popular comic book and TV series in the 40's and 50's. And after Joey wrote the surf/punk anthem Sheena really moved to the city:
"It was funny because all the girls in New York seemed to change their name to Sheena after that song. Everybody was a Sheena."
But not only the New York-girls appreciated the song. This is what Chuck Berry told the punk zine Jet Lag in 1980 when the reporter played songs for him "that kids are listening to these days":
"A good little jump number. These guys remind me of myself when I first started, I only knew three chords too."

The U.S version of the single was originally released with ABC distribution and soon after re-released when Warner took over Sire. The sleeves have the same front but slightly different back sides. There exists a stock version with I don't care on the flip as well as a mono/stereo promo edition to both the ABC and the Warner 7". Four different records if you want to have them all.
Here they are:

Songs: Sheena is a Punk Rocker/I don't care

Number: Sire SA-746

Year: 1977

Country: US

Notes:  Promo version has Sheena on both sides, mono and stereo.

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Songs: Sheena is a Punk Rocker/I don't care

Number: Sire SRE 1006

Year: 1977

Country: US

Notes:  Promo version has Sheena on both sides, mono and stereo.

The norwegian Baby I love you

I got a weird obsession to find the right company sleeves for the singles without picture sleeves. One of the singles were I havn't been able to solve this problem is the norwegian Baby I love you. But now I think I have got it right. The other 45 from Norway, I wanna be sedated, have a blue Phonogram-sleeve made of relatively thick paper. The sleeves was pressed at Team Trykk in Oslo. A while ago I found a copy of Baby I love you in the same sleeve, but a white one without printing. According to sellers I have spoken with this single came in a white paper bag and this is probably the one. 
If you have nothing else to do this is something you can spend your time finding out...
Read more about the norwegian singles here. And I have an extra copy of the norwegian Baby I love you and the Sedated-single up for trades if anyone is interested.

 Baby I love you in the white die cut sleeve...

 ...and I wanna be sedated in the same sleeve but with printing.

Paley Brothers made in U.S.A

C'mon Let's Go, the track with Ramones backing up Paley Brothers, was never released as a single in the U.S.
But Sire records still hoped to get the song on the radio and put together a 12" radio sampler with three tracks from the movie soundtrack to Rock'n'Roll High School. The 12" has the Ramones movie-title track and I want you around on the A-sida and C'mon Let's Go on the B-side.

Songs: Rock'n'Roll High School/I want you around//C'mon Let's go

Format: 12"

Number: Sire PRO-A-805

Year: 1979

Country: USA

Did you know...

... that the artist behind the front cover illustration of the Rock'n'nRoll High School sleeve and movie poster is William Stout, the former art director for Bomp! magazine and later on a famous artist of international renown in many fields: themed entertainment and motion picture design (specializing in science fiction/fantasy/horror films), comic book art, book illustration, poster design, CD covers, public murals, and reconstructions of prehistoric life. And that he has been the designer at the Michael Jackson NeverLand theme parks. He was born in 1949 and is now living in Pasadena, California.
Read more here: www.williamstout.com

... that Rock’n’roll High School did well enough that the director Allan Whitley followed it up with a sequel, Rock’n’roll High School Forever, 1991.

...that the record company in France used another artist for the cover of the soundtrack. Read more here.