What ever happended to K-Tel Records? I remember they used to make music compilation records during the 70's and 80's. If anyone knows anything let me know, thanks.

http://www.fuseboxfilms.com/8-track%20tapes/K-Tel%20-%20Music%20Machine%20-%201.jpg

Mmm...8-track cart...!!

K-Tel (Gawd bless 'em) are still very much with us, although not in the style that they were during the 70s/80s - somewhere along the way they acquired a stock of classic 50s and 60s recordings and I think their main bread and butter these days is licencing these tracks to other companies for release...I don't think they're into compiling their own these days, I haven't seen a K-Tel comp in years...

Good fun tho' - trying to guess where the 'butchering department' had been at work...!!

Hey Maria, you may want to field this one ;)

good old k-tel records :) I wonder how many albums they released over the years, it seemed liked every other week there was a new one out.

Ah, K-Tel, bless them, where would we be witout them ?

Affectionately known here, as Aussies tend to do, as :

Krappel   ;D

Hmmm...do we know anybody that would know anything about K-Tel ?
::)

I had one of those record selector things, but it never did work properly  ???

Hmmm...do we know anybody that would know anything about K-Tel ?
::)



Check out this website (it was mentioned on this board months ago) :

http://www.ktelclassics.com

Hey Maria, you may want to field this one ;)


well,i'll try..i'll quote myself from two past posts.. :)

K-Tel was a major record releasing empire back in the day-zillions of kickass compilations came from them (i still have all of mine)..huge influence on me as a kid and apparently as an adult as well 
                                             ************************
K-Tel Records was a company very popular in the 70s known for releasing compilations of top 40 hits etc.my first K-Tel acquisition was 24 Great Tear Jerkers "as seen on tv" when i was about seven years old.i had seen the commercial and knew i had to own that record.
after much discussion(my father thought it was too mature for my age lol)i got it.
(you can see my k-tel albums at www.geocities.com/ktelqueen to get an idea...just click on the music link)
                                             *************************
hey,JamieMcBain,as you'll see if you check out Lisa's site in the post above mine(ktelclassics)K-Tel headquarters are in Winnipeg   8)

Thank's for the info!  :)

;)

nice collection Maria, some of those album covers bring back memories, my sisters had alot of them :)

nice collection Maria, some of those album covers bring back memories, my sisters had alot of them :)

thanks,Gord  ;)

I had one of those record selector things, but it never did work properly  ???



If you are talking about that thingy that you place all your LPs on and it is supposed to flip through, we had one of those, too and like yours, it didn't work the way it was supposed to.




Cat

If you are talking about that thingy that you place all your LPs on and it is supposed to flip through, we had one of those, too and like yours, it didn't work the way it was supposed to.



Yep ! That's it !  I don't know of one that did.....here at least. Perhaps that's why we christened them 'Krappel' as Fuss mentioned. ;)

Yep ! That's it !  I don't know of one that did.....here at least. Perhaps that's why we christened them 'Krappel' as Fuss mentioned. ;)


Quite so Manda.  The compilations were really good, and I have a few myself, "20 Electrifying Hits" etc etc  :)

It was all the other stuff they made which was synonymous with poor quality (at least in this country, anyway)  :(

Not quite sure how true it is, but there was always a rumour that they (and Ronco, come to that) pressed their compilations on recycled vinyl...

Ah yes, the Record Selector (an ideal Christmas gift...) - almost cunning in its theory, but the practice was another matter...! Our one used to fall off the shelf when one LP was flipped forward...!!

There was also some record cleaning gismo - sort of a plastic triangluar thing with a slot where you put the disc in, record would spin around and some pads would clean the thing as it did so - trouble was, you couldn't change the pads which would clog up with crud after a while, so your discs would eventually end up in a worse state than they started...!!

Quite so Manda.  The compilations were really good, and I have a few myself, "20 Electrifying Hits" etc etc  :)

It was all the other stuff they made which was synonymous with poor quality (at least in this country, anyway)  :(


Love the word.... Krappel....  ::)  ;D

Love the word.... Krappel....  ::)  ;D


I don't  :( :\'( ;)

I don't  :( :\'( ;)


Sorry about that!  :-[

;D

Quite so Manda. The compilations were really good, and I have a few myself, "20 Electrifying Hits" etc etc :)


Yes, they were and I have quite a few too !  Dynamic Hits, Super Bad, Explosive Hits (2 volumes), Bobby Dazzler, Unreal, Outa Sight, Hot Nights City Lights.... 8)

It was all the other stuff they made which was synonymous with poor quality (at least in this country, anyway) :(

How true Fussy :(

Btw, no offence ktelqueen  ;)

I don't  :( :\'( ;)


No offence intended in your direction, ktq  :)  As Moo will attest, it is very much an Australian thing to take something and poke fun at it, whether it deserves it or not  :)

Else the heat will drive us all MAAAAD  :P


PS  As I recall, it was Paul Hogan who coined that phrase, in his weekly comedy show (strangely nough, entitled "The Paul Hogan Show") long bfore he became what you guys think of him as, a movie actor.  Or a guy that dies/used to do adverts for Qantas...

To us, he was, and in my eyes, always will be, a sketch comedy comedian  :)

hi Manda & Fuss...no worries...i have a pretty good sense of humour..i can take it  ;) ;D

I remember K-Tel...Their symbol in itself brings back memories...."Out now from K-Tel!" as the ads would say.

I have heaps of those albums...The most saddest one I own is Patsy Bisco and Friends (Aussies who remember Fat Cat would know who I mean). But, their compilation albums were THE BEST, even if they sometimes lost the sound of the original recording. I remember playing Hot Child In The City for years on a K-Tel compilation album, and it was so quiet, but when I finally bought the artist released product by Nick Guilder I turned the sound right up cause I thought it was going to be like my K-Tel album, and it blew my speakers and sent the needle across the vinyl.



Alright Now

K-Tel is back! (Sort of.)

http://www.ktel.com/flash.htm

Quite so Manda.  The compilations were really good, and I have a few myself, "20 Electrifying Hits" etc etc  :)

It was all the other stuff they made which was synonymous with poor quality (at least in this country, anyway)  :(
Their boom years came to an abrupt halt in 1983 when Richard Branson produced his first 'Now that's what I call music'. K-Tel couldn't compete with the one pound that was used to promote the new compilation as opposed to their 15p per album. K-Tel stopped making records in the late 80s and reverted to their original kitchen gadgets line. They did have a latter day renaissence placing 3.99 pounds CDs in supermarket dump bins.