Belle Stars

The Belle Stars were a British all-female pop group that had a couple of nice singles in the 1980s. This one borrows its sound heavily from Motown's Supremes (listen and you'll hear strains of "Love Child" in this tune), but for some reason, it wasn't much of a hit in the U.S., peaking at #75 in 1983.

This sleeve is from the British single. In England, the song peaked at #3. The photo of the band in tuxedos is from their video of the song.

Belle Stars - Sign of the Times.mp3
Belle Stars - Madness.mp3

Bee Gees

I have always been a big fan of the Bee Gees. I have lots of their singles and albums, but only two picture sleeves, and these are from their later years.

My interest in the Australian Brothers Gibb's music waned during the disco era, but once they finally got back on their feet in the pop/rock vein, I came back to them. These two singles fall into that category; certainly not their best, but far from their worst.

"One" which is posted here, sounds like a retread of "Jive Talkin'", and it reached #7 in 1989.

Bee Gees - One.mp3
Bee Gees - Wing and a Prayer.mp3

Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart/Jeff Beck and Karen Lawrence

This was a one-off single by the British rock veterans. The cover of the Impressions' song reached #48 in 1985.

The B side was with a lead vocal by Karen Lawrence, and features Jeff Beck on the track, one which he also produced.

Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart - People Get Ready.mp3
Jeff Beck and Karen Lawrence - Back On the Street.mp3

Posting Comments

I know that some of you have tried to post comments but have not been able to.

The process is easier than it appears to be.

Go down to where it says "Comments." That would be directly below the entry.

Click on "Comments" and you will come to an area where you can type your comment.

When you are done and ready to post it, there is an area called "Comment As."

This area gives you a few choices to post your comment as (I don't know why this is part of this process, and it appears that this is what is causing all the trouble).

The choices are:
Google
LiveJournal
WordPress
TypePad
AIM
Open ID

If you have a Google account, simply hit Google and you will be set. If you don't, you can get a Google account, and you don't have to get a Gmail account. I have done that, and my login, by the way, is my Yahoo address!

If you don't choose that option, you can use the others.

If you don't fall under any of those categories, try Open ID.

Then hit "Post Comment" or "Preview," if you want to read over what you have written, and VOILA!, the message should be posted.

If you have tried all the options and continue to have problems posting your thoughts, please let me know.

A Work In Progress ...

As this site is truly a work in progress, I have decided to include some mp3 files of the music contained in the sleeves that I am profiling.

I will attempt to place music files for each act that I am including here, but it might take awhile, so please be patient.

Go through the entries that I have already uploaded and you will find MP3 files of some of this music--both the A and B sides, directly from the record.

I hope that you like this added feature of this site. Let me know your reactions to anything I upload here.

Beatles

Well, here we are with "the group that started it all for us, the Beatles," as was so eloquently said by Michael Nesmith on one of the Monkees' TV episodes.

And although he was probably referring to the debt he and his bandmates owed to John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr for the Monkees' existence, he essentially was talking about all of us.

There is not much to add to the story that has been part of every record collectors' consciousness since 1964 (or in England, probably since 1962 or so), so I won't do that here.

I will say that I wish I had more Beatles picture sleeves. I have so many of their singles, but alas, I don't have a heck of a lot of their picture sleeves. Like most kids, I didn't take much care of what I had, so those sleeves have gone onto picture sleeve heaven.

But I do have a lot of sleeves, both from their original Capitol issues and the later, repackaged reissues that Capitol was putting out with a lot of frequency in the 1980s.

So here is what I have. I hope you enjoy them. Most of them are pretty much by the book sleeves, but the Capitol sleeves are more impressive, if you ask me.

They knew what they had, and they ran with it.

And ran with it into the 1990s and beyond. The "Love Me Do" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand" sleeves are reissues. I believe they commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' entrance into our lives.

One way to notice that "Hand" is a reissue is on the original sleeve, Paul was holding a cigarette. He isn't here. I guess Capitol figured he should give up smoking. Of course, "Love Me Do" promoted a new greatest hits compilation, so it was obviously a reissue.

Beatles - Beatles Movie Medley.mp3
Beatles - I'm Happy Just To Dance With You.mp3

Beat Farmers

I bet you thought we would go right into that other Capitol group, but not just yet.

The Beat Farmers were critical faves on the West Coast in the early to mid 1980s, and they were on Rhino Records when that label tried to branch off from oldies-only releases to releasing new material, too.

I don't know what happened to this band, but this was a pretty good record. I think I bought it when I was on my one and only trip to California way back in 1985 or so--I believe I bought it in a Tower Records store there, which might have been in Anaheim or one of the surrounding areas.

Beat Farmers - Bigger Stones.mp3
Beat Farmers - Lonesome Hounds.mp3