Anyone Use To Buy K-Tel Records?

Jim Fogle · From: North Carolina, Winston-Salem, USA

K-Tel is an umbrella brand that packages and sells a lot of different things but I know the brand mostly from their compilation music albums.

Many department stores distributed K-Tel albums and they were sold at a reasonable price so a good way to spend time was looking through a store's album collection for specific songs that were missing from your album collection.

It was not unusual for an album to have 20 to 22 full length songs on a single long play album. The albums were normally mastered so each song had only 1 to 1 1/2 db of dynamic range. But since the songs were played on highly compressed AM radio signals the records didn't sound that different from the radio.

Over the years there have been several songs that the 45s or albums came and went so fast I never had the chance to buy the original but would find the song on a K-Tel album.

http://www.k-tel.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-tel
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Joachim Kettner · From: Germany

As a middle class kid with a little money, I snuffed my nose at the K-Tel brand or compilations in general. You know I was in my arrogant twenties.
A few exceptions were the "Nuggets" records which were compiled by Lenny Kaye.
https://www.amazon.de/Nuggets-Original-Artyfacts-First-Psychede-Vinyl/dp/B0096PS5CA
Btw, I once worked as a parcel driver and went to their office in Frankfurt in the late seventies, they were quite nice people
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Jack Hanson · From: San Luis Valley, USA

Back in what seems like a previous lifetime (1970s), when I was an owner/operator, I used to haul K-Tel's parcel post from their headquarters on Shady Oak Road in Minnetonka, MN to the Hopkins post office. They did some partyin' in the parking lot behind that warehouse, let me tell ya'!

Jim Fogle · From: North Carolina, Winston-Salem, USA

Until I read the Wikipedia article I didn't realize K-Tel was essentially a family run business. It's amazing to me that a family business can extend its reach around the globe.
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Don R Brown · From: Rochester, New York, USA

Years ago they had a commercial for a compilation record which began with a segment of Gatlin Brother's "All The Gold In California". They played the bleeping commercial till I was more than sick of it, and to this day when I hear that song I cringe waiting for the sales pitch to start.
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Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

K-Tel (Kives' Television) promotions sold millions of records, and I bought a ton of 'em! They did hundreds of pressings, compilation albums with a mixture of known and little-known recordings. The quality was top-notch, and they didn't remix or remaster their stuff. It all sounded exactly like the original releases because they licensed the original recordings. I once wrote a letter to K-Tel to ask if an album they had advertised a few years before was still available. (I saw the commercial on an old video tape.) I was pleasantly surprised a week later by that very album, sent to me "No Charge, No Balance Due".

K-Tel was great, but I can't tell you how other many modern compilations I've relegated to my flea market tables because they weren't the original recordings, or they were original recordings that were totally ruined in a remastering process.

Jim Fogle · From: North Carolina, Winston-Salem, USA

Donny,

I agree with you. Whoever curated K-Tel's compilation albums had a good ear. K-Tel has a knack for finding songs you never heard that were just as enjoyable as the hits that were the reason you bought the album. The per side song line up on an album generally had a good flow from one song to the next.

I noticed the vinyl was not as thick and some albums included protective sleeves but many albums did not. When there was a protective sleeve the sleeve typically had advertisements for other albums.
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Ake Banksell · From: Stockholm, Sweden

I still have two great albums by Don Williams on that label. "New horizons" and "Images". Very fine compilations.

Jim Fogle · From: North Carolina, Winston-Salem, USA

Ake Banksell,

Don Williams was one of the finest singers of his time. It took Don Williams a long time to find his sound but, once he did the hits sure kept coming!

If you ever get a chance to see the 1975 movie, "W. W. and the Dixie Dancekings" Don Williams is the bass player while Jerry Reed is the guitar picker. Mel Tillis also has a part in the movie.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.W._and_the_Dixie_Dancekings
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Ake Banksell · From: Stockholm, Sweden

Thanks for info, I didn't know this of his history.
My interest in Don came after I started to play in this swedish country music band 1980 with a singer with a voice pretty much like Jim Reeves, to me. And sometimes his voice was pretty close to Don Williams too.
Don Williams voice and his songs are close to my heart.

Jim Fogle · From: North Carolina, Winston-Salem, USA

Ake,

As a Don Williams fan you may enjoy reading his Wikipedia article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Williams

Country music is perceived very differently inside and outside the United States. I never would have paired Jim Reeves and Don Williams into the same conversation. While both are most famous as country ballad singers the songs they sang and their style of singing reflect the production styles of their times and distinctive singing styles.

Until his untimely death in 1964 Jim Reeves was a prime example of "the Nashville Sound" of country music. He sings in a quiet voice, close to the microphone and with highly produced backing tracks full of non-traditional instruments like strings and vibraphone.

Don Williams hit it big more than a decade after Jim Reeves died. His music sounds very laid back. You can almost imagine him sitting in a rocking chair, plucking a guitar and singing into a mountain valley. Backing instruments include resonator guitar, electric bass, acoustic drum kit, acoustic and electric guitar. His voice is quiet but he is not as close to the microphone. Where Jim Reeves sounds like he is singing into a woman's ear, Don Williams makes you feel he is visiting and singing in your home.
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