Oldies big success in UK due to TV advertising

[GA Russell]

Here's an interesting two-page article fom The Times of London about the selling of oldies CDs in Britain via television commericals. The CDs are making the Top Ten over there.

Maybe MG, Sidewinder and the other Brits know all about this.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol...icle4121943.ece

[sidewinder]

"The television marketing of music began in earnest in the early 1970s, with the various-artist grab-bags of such companies as Ronco and Arcade"

I remember the selling of those on TV when I was a kid - it was a pretty hard sell. Even bought one of the Ronco pop music compilations (unlikely but true).

Can't say I've noticed any particular increase in the older generations buying these compilations but there are companies like Dutton Vocalion which (as well as issuing very good jazz reissues) also caters largely for the boomers-and-older nostalgia reissue market, something they do very well.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I await with interest compilations of Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers, Sounds Inc and Zoot Money & the Big Roll Band.

TV ads have had a role for a long time in creating hits out of forgotten oldies over here. I think the first one was "Green onions" by Booker T & the MGs; my daughter was ASTOUNDED in the late seventies or early eighties that I had a copy of this. And Levi's jeans ads put Muddy Waters in the UK singles chart!

MG

[GA Russell]

I await with interest compilations of Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers, Sounds Inc and Zoot Money & the Big Roll Band.

Sounds Incorporated! They were a favorite of mine. I saw them on Shindig (a US TV show from '64 to early '66). I spent the summer of '67 in Europe (mostly Spain), and during my three days in London I bought both of their albums. Great memories, MG!

[Hot Ptah]

Didn't Nina Simone have a big hit single in the late 1980s because of a TV commercial?

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I await with interest compilations of Cliff Bennett & the Rebel Rousers, Sounds Inc and Zoot Money & the Big Roll Band.

Sounds Incorporated! They were a favorite of mine. I saw them on Shindig (a US TV show from '64 to early '66). I spent the summer of '67 in Europe (mostly Spain), and during my three days in London I bought both of their albums. Great memories, MG!

Yeah! They did a gig in a warehouse in Southall in '62, backing Gene Vincent! What a show!

MG

[GA Russell]

I also saw Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers sing one song on Shindig, and was very impressed. I never saw a record of theirs in the stores, and I never heard a song of theirs on the radio.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I also saw Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers sing one song on Shindig, and was very impressed. I never saw a record of theirs in the stores, and I never heard a song of theirs on the radio.

That was the top band in West London in the early sixties. We used to see them several times a week and influenced their repertoire a lot. Great band, but Cliff didn't have an original style. He could imitate anything though, from Barbara George, to Piano Red, to Percy Mayfield to Ben E King - and the Beatles - he eventually signed up with Brian Epstein and got access to Beatles repertoire; had big GB hits with "Got to get you into my life" and "Back in the USSR". But the records he made for Joe Meek in the early sixties were a lot better.

MG