What are your rarest CDs? #3

Too many Japan 1st pressings to list, here are some of my rarest gold discs:
The Police - Every Breath You Take (Japan) D33Y 3406
Boston - Boston (Japan) ESCA 7501
S.R.V. - Couldn't Stand The Weather (Japan) ESCA 7532
Pink Floyd - WYWH (Japan) SRCS 6762
Chicago - CTA (Japan) SRCS 6995
Pink Floyd - DSOTM (Japan) Eternity CP43-5771
Paul McCartney & Wings - Band On The Run (Japan) Eternity CP43-5774
Led Zepp I, II and IV - (Germany) Atlantic 40 Golden Greats
AC/DC Highway To Hell, Back In Black (Germany) Atlantic 40 Golden Greats
Doors Morrison Hotel (Germany) Atlantic Golden Greats

 

I just found a mint copy of "VICTIMS OF THE FURY" by Robin Trower, for 99cents at the salvation army

 

A pair from 1983, both RCA; intresting that they contracted Sony Japan for "The best of", released in spring 1983, then Philips Germany for "1983", released in the fall.
The Japan pressing has the typical "crude fonts" of early Sony mastering on the inner ring.

 

Sorry for the poor picture quality, but this is one of the early ones I treasure.

 

... and this is a nice matching pair.



The Digital Domain

 

One of my favorite promo items is "Mo's Songs", a 6-CD promo produced by Warner Brothers and presented to Mo Ostin at his retirement party in December 1994. From the rarebeatles.com site, and apparently quoted in the Beatles Price Guide: "The 600 copies for employees were shrinkwrapped with a paper insert. The personal copies for Mo and producer Jeff Gold were issued with a die-cut custom-printed outer cardboard box with the title in silver print."

Since my copy (purchased back then) also has the outer cardboard box, I suspect that this information is incorrect (unless Jeff or Mo sold their copy to Rockaway Records).

 

The rarest CD I probably have is a blue triangle - Orient Express by Logic System. Don't know how rare it is but there's currently two copies on eBay going for $100 and $130 respectively - I only paid $35 for mine!

Pics here (I scanned them): http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=703523

Note mechanically stamped matrix number (1A1). The album was released in 1982 but I'm not sure when the actual CD release date was, but I guess it's pretty early because of this.

Not sure if you're still interested in an answer to this, but they both say the same thing:

四人囃子 (Yonin Bayashi)
ゴールデン・ピクニックス ("Gōruden Pikunikkusu" - transliteration of "Golden Picnics")

The difference is the obi has it on two lines with 四人囃子 in a "Mincho" typeface (like a serif font for roman characters, e.g. Times Roman) and ゴールデン・ピクニックス in a "Gothic" typeface (equivalent of sans serif), whereas the cover-printed text is in one line all in a Mincho font and with the album title first (in vertically written Japanese you read the lines right-to-left, so on the obi "Yonin Bayashi" is first). Obis are often used for transliterations of titles and artist names when they appear on the cover in non-Japanese text.

 

I like my Madonna promos. Not sure if I posted these before, but "Like a Prayer" was hard to find even back in the day. These are Discovery Systems discs, so the surface of the disc is not perfectly smooth, but they play fine. I think that the Dick Tracy and Like a Prayer discs are the same as the commercially released discs, but "You Can Dance" contains special single edits.

 

And . . You Can Dance

 

That "You Can Dance" is pretty cool; thanks for the post. I didn't even know it existed!

 

Very nice scan, I like these Blue Triangles, I only have two so far.

 

Thanks!

Strange though, that they'd have two obis which say the same thing, especially when one of them is a permanent part of the cover? I'd guess the one on the cover is so they wouldn't have to change the dimensions of the artwork... (maybe?)... But no matter what the reason is, why bother printing a separate wraparound obi?

Ah.... the intrigue of collector trivia and mysteries!

 

Speaking about mysteries... this is something it had always puzzled me.
Let me get this straight: it's clear to anyone this is a pirate pressing (sorry for the foggy, i had to put a plastic sheet to avoid blackness reflection), what is really incredible is the total amount of wrong things all together, starting from the name of the band, wrong spelling on songs, weird logos (top and bottom), wrong cat.n. and, best of all...

the only MONO release of "Fireball"????

 

That has to be a fake. As you said, many things about it are wrong.

 

I have a Doors cd thats a USA made target. How common is it?

 

Which one, The Doors or L.A. Woman? The supposed U.S. target of The Doors (it doesn't actually say where it was made but comes with U.S. inserts) is one of the more common U.S. targets. It's still pretty hard to find. The U.S. target of L.A. Woman is very rare.

 

I've got a West German manufactured copy of With The Beatles that plays Beatles For Sale. Came in a With the Beatles case and has the With the Beatles print on the disc, but the matrix number is that of Beatles for Sale. Anyone else have a Beatles CD like this?

 

A couple of recent acquisitions

 

I like that Peter Gabriel disc. Thanks for sharing!

 

PM sent for Peter Gabriel.

Mark, could you please post a scan of your 38XB Reggatta de Blanc disc? My copy does not have the OBI strip inside the jewel case. The 38XB catalog number is printed directly on both spines.

 

Hi Keith

me and the scanner have never seen eye to eye but here is a slightly out of focus photo

 

What a beauty.

 

Thanks, Mark. Those scanners are troublemakers, but you done good!

My disc looks the same as yours. Was your disc pressed by CBS/Sony or Denon? What is the matrix code? My disc is a CBS/Sony pressing with "38XB-22" in the matrix code.

Finally, what is printed on the spines with your copy? Do the spines show the U.S. catalog number (CD-4792)? I'm think that is why they added the OBI strip in the case with your copy.