ebs@mcnc.UUCP (08/02/83)
The one thing I remember about the Record Club of America
is that they dealt almost exclusively with the Atlantic/Atco
and ABC/Dunhill labels. This was safe ground in the late 60's
and early 70's (with Led Zeppelin and Aretha on the former and
Three Dog Night, Steppenwolf, the Mamas and the Papas, and Joe Walsh's
James Gang on the latter), but I imagine that things started getting
shaky with the rise to dominance of Warner/Reprise around 1972-ish.
If my memory serves me correctly, all the ABC/Dunhill and Atlantic/Atco
records that I ever recieved from RCoA were stamped "Manufactured by
Record Club of America under special liscense".
Couldn't this mean that, after ABC/Dunhill went out of business and
Atlantic/Atco ceased to be an independant label (absorbed by Warners
around 1975-ish), the RCoA lost the majority of its "liscenses
to manufacture", and then flopped ? As I recall, I couldn't get
Alice Cooper's "Killer" (Warners, of course) from RCoA at all.
I also recall the introductory offer: 3 albums (from a list
of current ABC and Atlantic hits, of course) for $5.00 with no
obligation to buy anything EVER. As a member, one recieved 2 FREE
albums (from the same list) for every new member which you referred
to the club. I got a lot of free albums this way by being the only
record dealer at my junior high school. A friend of mine "joined"
the club about a dozen times with different ficticious names (all at
the same address), thus recieving 5 albums for 5 dollars for each new
"member". RCoA finally caught on and said "One member per household"
but I'm sure that my friend was not the only shady dealer in the
good old US of A.
One final point. I definately recall an identical operation
around 1972 called Records/Tapes Unlimited. The only difference
was that the 3 albums for $5 were from a list of current
Columbia and Warners hits. Who ran Records/Tapes Unlimited ?
Why Colubmia House, of course (you know, the 976 albums for a Penny
people).
P.S.- Mercury was also one of RCoA's labels.
Eddie Stokes (uncc)