VA Apple Records Box Set (2010)

The Limited Edition Apple Records Box Set (17 Discs) includes 14 individual artist albums with bonus tracks, the new Best of Apple Records “Come And Get It” collection, a 2CD collection of 37 un-released tracks from Badfinger, Billy Preston, Jacki Lomax and Mary Hopkins and a 16 page booklet. All housed in a cardboard box that artistically replicates the original Apple Records crate.

This incredible boxed set comprises 15 CD's from the legendary P&P Records and its associated labels.
Featuring 185 songs from 22 different record labels, it has a total playing time of over 18½ hours.
It is the first time ever that the complete P&P output has been assembled in one collection and it is a testament to the talents of Peter Brown, Patrick Adams and Patricia Gilyard that this music is in as much demand today as it was when these titles were originally released as 12" singles.

The term beatnik with its implied allusion to Communism was to inspire fear and loathing in every God-fearing, white, Anglo-Saxon, protestant the length and breadth of 1950s America when it emerged with the disillusionment felt by many young people in post-WWII America who had begun to realize the futility of war, the emptiness of materialism and the brutality of organized religion. In 1943 New York, three men came together and formed the most potent underground art phenomenon of the post war world. Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs would, between them, create the notion of youth culture, without which rock & roll and all that followed in its wake would be unthinkable. This 5 CD box set celebrates the Beat Generation, the art it produced and the influences from which it borrowed. Disc One & Two - The Complete Jack Kerouac; The three albums Kerouac recorded in the late 1950s plus bonus cuts. Disc Three & Four - Beat Generation Jazz; Two CDs featuring the jazz that inspired the Beat Generation. Disc 5 - Diggin' The New Breed; Featuring Interviews with the Beats themselves, plus the testimonials of fellow writers, friends and lovers.

The acronym is F-A-M-E, but it may as well be S-O-U-L. It was a full half-century ago that the recording studio, record label and publishing operation originally known as Florence Alabama Music Enterprises established itself and its trademark sound with the hit recording of ‘You Better Move On’ by Arthur Alexander. In the fifty years since, FAME Studios and its idiosyncratic founder Rick Hall have been at the forefront of the Muscle Shoals Sound. FAME begat the process whereby a little known Alabama backwater would evolve into the very crucible of southern soul, a holy place to where musicians, singers and fans still make a very specific pilgrimage in the hope of experiencing a little bit of the magic behind so many hit records: ‘I’m Your Puppet’, ‘Land Of 1,000 Dances’, ‘Tell Mama’ and countless others.

This massive set brings together all six of the Circus Days collections, and taken as a whole like this, it’s about as much British late-'60s psych-pop as anyone outside of an insane asylum could possibly handle. One wonders what these musicians were putting in their tea. Opening with Clover's “Ice Cream Man” (the lyrics begin “Riding down the road like a giant toad in rubber boots” and then unravel from there), this set is part flower power, part circus clown act, and part tongue-in-cheek put-on (one hopes).

Includes 25 previously unreleased recordings. All tracks unavailable on other Doctor Bird collections. Features numerous major ska hits. The first of a trio of newly compiled collections highlighting the very best of Duke Reid’s legendary Treasure Isle recordings from the early-to-mid-60s. The 2CD set focuses on the final years of the ska era, with the first of the discs on the set bringing together many of the producer’s best-known recordings from 1965, with all of the material making its debut on the Doctor Bird label. In contrast, the second CD comprises rare recordings from the Treasure Isle vaults, with 20 of the tracks previously unreleased. As either a stand-alone collection or a companion volume to the existing or soon-to-be issued Doctor Bird compilations showcasing the very best of Duke Reid’s legendary Treasure Isle label, ‘Ska La-Rama’ is an essential acquisition for anyone wanting to own the very best in original Jamaican ska sounds.

1The Grammy Nominees is a series of various artists compilation albums celebrating the best of the music industry. Albums are released before the airing of the annual Grammy Awards. All of the songs on the albums are Grammy nominated in the year released. The first one of these albums was released in 1995 and has been released every year since to date. Each one through the 2007 edition has been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), while the 1996 and 2000 editions have also been certified Platinum.