The Peggy Lee Bio-Discography's Picture Gallery
Compilations Featuring Capitol's Various Artists
Part 3: LP Series
by Iván Santiago-Mercado

Generated on Jan 22, 2012

Scope And Contents

This is one of five pictorial pages primarily dedicated to EMI's catalogue of various-artists albums. The page concentrates on LPs that meet two requirements: (1) Peggy Lee tracks can be found in them and (2) Capitol either released or licensed the Lee tracks included. (Just as this page concentrates on vinyl, a different page covers CDs which meet the same requirements.) Notice also that the present page focuses on items that belong to series. (As for LPs and CDs that are not, for the most part, part of any series, consult the Capitol & Blue Note compilations page.)

Each main section in the present page covers one LP series. Due to the miscellaneous and somewhat unwieldly nature of the covered material, I have not sequenced the sections in a strict chronology nor, for that matter, in any other particular order.

Nearly all of the series of LPs discussed below were released by Capitol's Creative Products division. They date from the late 1960s and the early 1970s. They are not, however, Capitol's earliest anthologies. I should clarify that the company had been issuing a variety of series (and single compilations) since its earliest years. In fact, a Capitol 78 album entitled History Of Jazz, Volume 1: The Solid South dates all the way back to 1945, and was the label's 16th album release. (It was promptly followed by volumes 2, 3, and 4.) However, Peggy Lee's recordings were not incorporated to any Capitol album series until 1951, when one of her numbers made an appearance in the 10" LP Today's Top Hits By Today's Top Artists, Volume 1, seen in section III of this page.

I have included some basic details about the Capitol Creative Products division in an appendix located at the bottom of the page, and labeled as A. Additional appendixes offer general details about another Capitol division, the Record Club (B), and about the Zenith Electronic Corporation (C), which commissioned many of these various-artists sets from Capitol Creative Products.

I. THE CAPITOL STEREO SHOWCASE

General Note About The Capitol Stereo Showcase Series
This series consisted of 10 albums whose catalogue numbers spanned the range from Sl 6644 to Sl 6653. Three of them contain Peggy Lee tracks and are itemized immediately below. As for the albums without Lee tracks, their covers are shown above as a courtesy to collectors and to curious readers. In the order in which they appear, their titles are The Great Folk-Country Hits (Sl 6647), Viva! Great Hits! Exciting Brass! Latin Beat! (Sl 6650), Favorites With A Foreign Accent (Sl 6649), Music For The Easy Hours (Sl 6651), Broadway & Hollywood Showstoppers (Sl 6645), Easy Jazz (Sl 6652), and A Stereo Concert (Sl 6653). I do not know if Capitol Creative Products custom-made this series for a particular client. If there was such a client, the decision to feature a combination of flowers and females in all covers could be a clue as to the client's identity. (Bear in mind, however, that comely females are a staple of album artwork, and that some of the other series discussed here also feature them. The consistent use of flower arrangements is more an unique feature, on the other hand. Then again, flowers are frequently seen in some of the other series below, too.)

Artwork Shown:

1. Title: Hit Sounds Of The Young Generation / Format: LP / Label: Capitol Creative Products / Cat. Num.: Sl 6646 / Rel. Year: 1969 or 1970 / Note: Includes Peggy Lee's 1969 Capitol recording of "Spinning Wheel."

2. Title: The Great Popular Favorites / Format: LP / Label: Capitol Creative Products / Cat. Num.: Sl 6644 / Rel. Year: 1969 or 1970 / Note: Includes Peggy Lee's 1963 Capitol recording of "I Left My Heart In San Francisco."

3. Title: The Great Popular Vocalists / Format: LP / Label: Capitol Creative Products / Cat. Num.: Sl 6648 / Rel. Year: 1969 or 1970 / Note: Includes Peggy Lee's 1966 Capitol recording of "Call Me."

II. COLLECTOR'S BEST

Artwork Shown:

4. Title: Best Of The Great Hit Songs / Format: LP / Label: Capitol Creative Products / Cat. Num.: Sl 6702 / Rel. Year: ca. 1971 / Note: Includes two Peggy Lee vocals recorded for Capitol, "The Shadow Of Your Smile" (1969) and "Always Something There To Remind Me" (1970).

5. Title: Best Of The Legendary Stylists / Format: LP / Label: Capitol Creative Products / Cat. Num.: Sl 6706 / Rel. Year: ca. 1971 / Note: Includes Peggy Lee's 1966 Capitol recording of "Call Me."

6. Title: Best Of The Musical Sounds Of Christmas / Format: LP / Label: Capitol Creative Products / Cat. Num.: Sl 6713 / Rel. Year: ca. 1971 / Note: Includes Peggy Lee's Capitol recording of "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town."

Artwork Shown:

7. Title: Best Of The Great Hits From Broadway And Hollywood / Format: LP / Label: Capitol Creative Products / Cat. Num.: Sl 6704 / Rel. Year: ca. 1971 / Note: Includes two Peggy Lee vocals recorded for Capitol, "Mack The Knife" (1963) and "Two For The Road" (1967).

8. Title: Get Together; Best Of The "Now" Sounds / Format: LP / Label: Capitol Creative Products / Cat. Num.: Sl 6705 / Rel. Year: ca. 1971 / Note: Includes Peggy Lee's 1969 Capitol recording of "Spinning Wheel."

General Note About The Collector's Best Series
9-10. I am not certain that the five above-shown issues (images #1 to #8) belong to one and the same series -- or to any series at all, for that matter. I am tentatively assuming that they do because they show similar graphic design, similar titles (particularly the first three), and catalogue numbers that are close to one another. All of them bear the legend "Collector's Best" near the upper top of their front covers, too. However, there are other Capitol Special Markets LPs that also meet those "requirements" but which nonetheless are part of other series. If the five albums under discussion are eventually proved to not be part of a specific series, perhaps it could still be argued that the logo Collector's Best functioned as Capitol Special Markets' default, flagship series. Also part of this group of albums are two that do not contain Peggy Lee tracks, and whose covers are shown immediately above: Best Of The Great Pop-Country Vocalists (Sl 6703; image #9) and Sweet Land Of Liberty (Sl 6712; image #10). There might be others: I have not been able to track down a handful og albums numbered between 6700 and 6715.

III. THE COLLECTOR'S SET

Artwork Shown:

1. Title: Today's Great Popular Favorites (The Collector's Set, Volume 1) / Format: LP / Label: Zenith - Capitol Creative Products / Cat. Num.: Sl 6597 / Rel. Year: ca. 1969 / Note: Includes Peggy Lee's 1963 Capitol recording of "A Taste Of Honey."

2. Title: The Best Of The Great Hits From Stage & Screen (The Collector's Set, Volume 2) / Format: LP / Label: Zenith - Capitol Creative Products / Cat. Num.: Sl 6598 / Rel. Year: ca. 1969 / Note: Includes Peggy Lee's 1965 Capitol recordings of "Big Spender" and "The Shadow Of Your Smile."

3. Title: The Best Of The Great Songs With A Folk-Country Accent (The Collector's Set, Volume 3) / Format: LP / Label: Zenith - Capitol Creative Products / Cat. Num.: Sl 6599 / Rel. Year: ca. 1969 / Note: Includes Peggy Lee's 1967 Capitol recording of "Release Me."

4. Title: - The Best Of The Great Song Stylists (The Collector's Set, Volume 7) / Format: LP / Label: Zenith - Capitol Creative Products / Cat. Num.: Sl 6603 / Rel. Year: ca. 1969 / Note: Includes Peggy Lee's 1967 Capitol recording of "Something Stupid."

A General Note About The Stereo Collector's Series
5-10. This series comprised ten albums whose catalogue numbers ranged from Sl 6597 to Sl 6606. Each front cover is identified by a number from one to ten. Peggy Lee tracks can be found only in the four albums that have been already itemized (images #1, #2, #3, and #7). Shown directly above are the remaining six albums: The Now Sounds Of The New Generation (Sl 6600), The Best Of The Great Motion Picture Themes (Sl 6601), The Best Of The Easy Sounds In A Mellow Mood (Sl 6602), The Best Of The Big Band Sounds, Now ... And Then (Sl 6604), Starlight Waltzes (Sl 6605), and The Capitol Starlight Symphony Concert Showpieces (Sl 6606). Notice that some of these albums from the Stereo Collector's Set appear to be re-packages of LPs that Capitol Creative Products had previously custom-made for Zenith. (For specifics, see next entry.) I am under the impression that Capitol's special markets division repackaged a fair number of its custom-made titles and tried to sell them via retail (presumably because they saw sale potential in those titles beyond their original wholesale, custom-made function), but I do not have corroboration on the matter.

IV. ZENITH PRESENTS COLLECTOR'S BEST

A General Note About The Boxed Set Zenith Presents Collector's Best
1-3. This set (image #1) describes itself as "a celebration of Zenith's 50th Anniversary, 1918-1968." According to some online sellers, the set consists of five LPs. All such five albums are indeed displayed in image #2 (along with the box's front cover, again). The albums' titles are The Best Of 50 Years Of Great Songs (Sl 6561), The Best Of The Great Hits From Stage & Screen (Sl 6562), The Best Of The Great Songs With A Folk-Country Accent (Sl 6563), The Best Of Easy Sounds In A Mellow Mood (Sl 6564) and The Best Of The Great Motion Picture Themes (Sl 6565).

Despite the claims made by the aforementioned online sellers, image #3 shows yet a 6th LP which is clearly part of this series. The title of this LP is The Best Of The Big Band Sounds - Today! (Sl 6566). Yet another LP which is clearly part of this set is The Best Of The Popular Vocal Favorites (Sl 6568), shown in image #10 below. Due to the existence of this sixth and seventh pieces, I suspect that Zenith Presents Collector's Best actually consists of 10 LPs, split in two boxes of 5. If such is the case, then there are 3 more LPs (presumably numbered Sl 6567, Sl 6569, and Sl 6570) which I have not been able to track down yet.

Only three of the seven known Zenith Presents Collector's Best albums contain Peggy Lee tracks. The trio is itemized immediately below. However, if my suspicions that there are 3 more albums in this series prove true, then there could be one more LP with a Lee track (most likely, "A Taste Of Honey").

Artwork Shown:

4. Title: The Best Of The Great Hits From Stage & Screen / Format: LP / Label: Zenith - Capitol Creative Products / Cat. Num.: Sl 6562 / Rel. Year: 1968 / Note: Includes Peggy Lee's Capitol recordings of "Big Spender" and "The Shadow Of Your Smile."

5. Title: The Best Of The Popular Vocal Favorites / Format: LP / Label: Zenith - Capitol Creative Products / Cat. Num.: Sl 6568 / Rel. Year: 1968 / Note: Includes at least one Peggy Lee vocal, title unknown (most likely, her Capitol recording of "Something Stupid)."

6. Title: The Best Of The Great Songs With A Folk-Country Accent / Format: LP / Label: Zenith - Capitol Creative Products / Cat. Num.: Sl 6563 / Rel. Year: 1968 / Note: Includes Peggy Lee's Capitol recording of "Release Me." / Note: Actually, I do not have a separate image for this LP. To see it, check image #2 above. It is the light yellow album near the bottom left of the picture.

Additionally, it is apparent that the LPs in the Zenith Presents Collector's Best series were reissued in a later Capitol series: The Collectors' Set, discussed in section III above. Of the seven Zenith LPs that I have mentioned in this section, only one (The Best Of 50 Years Of Great Songs) would not seem to have a counterpart in The Collectors' Set. For easier comparison, image #7 to #12 above display the counterparts or reissues on The Collectors' Set.

V. ZENITH PRESENTS ENCORE '72

A Note About Zenith's Encore '72
1 - 3. Capitol's Zenith Presents Encore '72 consists of two sets (image #1), one blue, the other red. On its cover, the red set identifies itself as volume 2, whereas the blue set bears no volume number in its front cover. Each set is actually a box with 10 LPs inside (images #2 and #3). Specifics can be found below. Notice also that there appears to be yet another set with this exact title (Zenith Presents Encore '72) from a different label; read note #27 below.

Artwork Shown:

4. Title: Zenith Presents Encore '72 / Format: LP / Pieces: 10 / Label: Zenith - Capitol Special Markets / Cat. Num.: Sljo 6733 / Rel. Year: 1972 / Note: As previously mentioned, this set consists of 10 LPs, each with its own title, artwork, and catalogue number. Three of the 10 LPs feature Peggy Lee tracks: Great Songs Of Bacharach & David, Great Songs Of The Beatles, and Songs Of Love. The latter is discussed next (#5); the other two are covered further down below, in section VI.

5. Title: Songs Of Love / Format: LP / Label: Zenith - Capitol Special Markets / Cat. Num.: Sl 6737 / Rel. Year: 1972 / Note: Part of the set Zenith Presents Encore '72, this LP includes Peggy Lee's 1965 rendition of "The Shadow Of Your Smile."

Note About The Artwork Shown:
6 - 14. Displayed right above are most of the LPs that are part of the first volume of Zenith Presents Encore '72 (image #4). In the order in which they are displayed, the albums are Great Songs Of Bacharach And David (Sl 6734), Great Songs Of The Beatles (Sl 6735), The New Pop-Country Favorites (Sl 6736), Songs Of Love (Sl 6737), Softly; The Great Favorites In A Mellow Mood (Sl 6739), The Great Continental Favorites (Sl 6740), A Concert Spectacular (Sl 6743), The Big Band Sound (Sl 6742), and The New Brass Beat (Sl 6741). Not shown at all is The New Instrumental Themes (Sl 6738), because I have not been able to locate an image for it.

Artwork Shown:

15. Title: Zenith Presents Encore '72, Volume 2; Great Artists Of Our Time / Format: LP / Pieces: 10 / Label: Zenith - Capitol Special Markets / Cat. Num.: Sljo 6750 / Rel. Year: 1972 / Note: This set consists of 10 LPs, each with its own title, artwork, and catalogue number. Entry #16 below discusses the only LP from this set that includes Peggy Lee tracks.

16. Title: Peggy Lee - The Lettermen / Format: LP / Label: Zenith - Capitol Special Markets / Cat. Num.: Sl 6753 / Rel. Year: 1972 / Note: Part of the set Zenith Presents Encore '72, Volume 2, this LP features five Peggy Lee vocals on side one, five vocals by The Lettermen on side B. Lee's renditions are "Somethin' Stupid," "Two For The Road," "A Natural Woman," "Spinning Wheel," and "Watch What Happens." For details about the set's other LPs, see immediately below.

Note About The Artwork Shown:

17 - 26. Displayed immediately above are the LPs which are part of the second volume of the box Zenith Presents Encore '72, Volume 2; Great Artists Of Our Time (image #15). In the order in which they are seen, the LPs are Nat King Cole - Ella Fitzgerald (Sl 6751), Dinah Shore - Judy Garland (Sl 6752), Peggy Lee - The Lettermen (Sl 6753), Glen Campbell - Dean Martin (Sl 6754), The Kings Of The Big Bands - The Kings Of Dixieland (Sl 6755), The Andrews Sisters - The King Sisters (Sl 6756), Kay Starr - Vic Damone (Sl 6757), Jackie Gleason - George Shearing (Sl 6758), The Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra; The Great Love Concerts (Sl 6760), and David Rose - Alfred Newman (Sl 6759).

27. Confusingly, Zenith appears to have commissioned not one but two 1972 projects that received the title Zenith Presents Encore and the sub-title Great Artists Of Our Time. There is the one discussed at lentgh in this entry (Zenith Presents Encore '72, licensed from Capitol), and there is another which I have seen listed online as Zenith Presents Encore, Volume VII, released through The Longiness Symphonette and involving licensing from more than one record company. The last image shown above comes from that set: a LP entitled Zenith Presents Pete Fountain - The Dukes Of Of Dizzieland (Sys 5506). For additional details, see section VII below.

VI. THE QUADRAPHONIC SUB-SERIES

Artwork Shown:

1 & 2. Title: Great Songs Of Bacharach & David / Format: LP & 8-Track / Label: Zenith - Capitol Special Markets / Cat. Num.: Ql 6734 & Gsl 6734 / Rel. Year: 1972 / Note: Part of Zenith's Encore '72 sets, which are discussed at length in the previous section. Contains Peggy Lee's 1970 recording of "Always Something There To Remind Me."

3 & 4. Title: Great Songs Of The Beatles / Format: LP & 8-Track / Label: Zenith - Capitol Special Markets / Cat. Num.: Ql 6735 & Gsl 6735 / Rel. Year: 1972 / Note: Part of Zenith's Encore '72 sets, which are discussed at length in the previous section. Contains Peggy Lee's 1969 recording of "Something."

A General Note About Capitol's Quadraphonic Albums
Capitol entered the quadraphonic market in 1972 with a batch of 7 LPs: Great Songs Of Bacharach & David [1], Great Songs Of The Beatles [2], The New Country-Pop Favorites [3], The Great Hit Songs From "Fiddler On The Roof" And The New Love Themes [4], The New Brass Sound Of The Hits - San Fernando Brass [5], '70s Orchestra - Songs Of The Seventies [6], and Instrumental Sounds Of John Morrell [7]. Since some of these LPs were part of a set prepared for Zenith (as discussed in section V), it is possible that Zenith was momentarily co-involved with Capitol in this quadraphonic release project. For the record, Capitol's only previous 4-channel issue had been the 8-track tape edition of Imagine, John Lennon's second solo album (1971). After the 7-LP batch, the label's next venture into 4.0 surround took place in 1974, when cassette tapes by various popular artists of the day (Lennon, Pink Floyd, Helen Reddy, etc.) were given the quadraphonic treatment, along with at least one custom-made album for a Zenith rival (Magnavox Presents A 4-Sound Experience). Subsequently, this audiophile fad was abandoned by Capitol and by most other record labels. (Requiring special equipment and incompatible with regular stereo systems, quadraphonic albums did not sell well, and never caught on with mainstream customers.)

VII. ZENITH PRESENTS ENCORE, VOLUMES VII AND VIII

Artwork Shown:

1-3. Title: Zenith Presents Encore, Volumes VII & VIII / Note: As found online, specifics about the above-shown series are contradictory and thus confusing. These images appear to be showing not one but two volumes from the Zenith Presents Encore series. The first volume (image #1) visibly identifies itself as VII in its front cover whereas the second volume (image #3) is listed by online sellers as VIII -- a claim corroborated in the gray bar seen in the photo itself.

Volume VII includes the LP Zenith Presents Pete Fountain - The Dukes Of Dizzieland (image #2; catalogue number Sys 5506). This particular LP contains tracks licensed from MCA Special Markets. Another LP in this series features tracks licensed from Capitol Special Markets: Zenith Presents Peggy Lee - Ella Fitzgerald (Sl 5501, which contains Lee's recordings of "Me And My Shadow," "My Old Flame," "Till There Was You," "Please, Be Kind," and "Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars"). Other than those two albums, I do not know the titles that are part of this presumed 10-album series, commissioned by Zenith from The Longiness Symphonette Society. Nor do I know the year of release. Online, a couple of websites give a 1972 date to the aforementioned MCA-licensed album (image #2), but I'd like to receive more direct corroboration that such date is correct and applicable to the entire set. (Notice that Zenith also commissioned in 1972 a similar Encore series from Capitol Special Markets; see section V above).

Volume VIII (Sys 5497) contains at least 5 albums. They are shown in image #3 along with the box that stores them. (There could be a second Volume VIII box, thereby raising the total number of albums to 10). Each album contains 5 songs per side, and each side is dedicated to a different artist or topic. The 5 albums seen are The Best Songs Of Burt Bacharach And Hal David / The Best Songs Of Henri Mancini [1], The Now Songs / The Norman Luboff Choir And Melachrino Strings [2], Lighthouse / Today's People [3], Glen Campbell / Anne Murray [4], and The Best Songs of 1971 / Great Songs Of The Sixties [5]. Notice that the last album mentioned clues us in as to the possible release year of Zenith Presents Encore, Volume VIII: 1971. However, there is a problem in the chronology: if this set dates from 1971, I would have expected the previously mentioned set Zenith Presents Encore, Volume VII to date from 1970 -- or, if not 1970, then also from 1971. Instead, 1972 is the release year given by various online sites for volume VII. It may be that those sites are offering incorrect information.

VIII. THE SUPER OLDIES SERIES

Artwork Shown:

1. Title: Super Oldies, Vol. 6 / Format: Reel & 8-track & LP / Pieces: 2 / Label: Capitol / Cat. Num.: 4xtt 401 & 8xtt 401 & Stbb 401 / Rel. Year: 1969 / Note: Contains Peggy Lee's 1958 recording of "Fever."

General Note About The Super Oldies Series
Despite the deceptive title, the hits picked for inclusion in this series' albums were from the rock era, and some of them were quite recent. Perhaps for that reason, and unlike most other series listed here, Super Oldies was issued on Capitol's main brand, rather than on its Creative Products or Special Markets division. There are no Peggy Lee tracks in the five earlier volumes. No other volume seems to have been produced after the sixth one, shown above. (There was, however, one additional EMI LP entitled Super Oldies. Released by EMI in England, it does not appear to bear relation to this series and it does not feature Lee tracks, either.)

IX. THE PLAZA HOUSE PRESENTS SERIES

Artwork Shown:

1 - 2. Title: Plaza House Presents The Greatest Hits Of The 40s / Format: LP / Label: Capitol Creative Products / Cat. Num.: Sl 6717 / Rel. Year: 1971 / Note: Front and back covers. Contains Peggy Lee's 1948 recording of "Mañana."

3 - 4. Title: Plaza House Presents The Greatest Hits Of The 50s & 60s / Format: LP / Pieces: 2 / Label: Capitol Creative Products / Cat. Num.: Slb 6718 / Rel. Year: 1971 / Note: Front and back covers. Contains Peggy Lee's renditions of "Big Spender" (recorded 1965) and "Fever" (recorded 1958).

A Note About The Plaza House Series
This series consisted of the following 5 albums: Plaza House Presents The Greatest Hits Of The 30s (Sl 6716), Plaza House Presents The Greatest Hits Of The 40s (Sl 6718), Plaza House Presents The Greatest Hits Of The 50s & 60s (Slb 6718), Plaza House Presents Music Hall; Merle Haggard Sonny James (Sl 6719), and Plaza House Presents Music Hall; Buck Owens, Tennessee Ernie Ford (Sl 6720). Peggy Lee appears just in the two albums described above.

APPENDIX A. CAPITOL CREATIVE PRODUCTS AND CAPITOL SPECIAL MARKETS

Capitol Creative Products

1-4. Record companies have been in the business of producing commissioned music since their inception. The earliest premium 78s, prepared by companies such as Victor and Brunswick, date back to the second and third decades of the twentieth century. As for the first label to produce custom-made albums (rather than just 78s), the honor seems to belong to Capitol, which began doing so in 1949. "Capitol Custom" was the brand or logo given to all such made-for-hire LPs (as well as 45s), released by the company during the 1950s and 1960s. Unfortunately, little is known about how much demand Capitol had for this type of project, or whether the label deemed it a financially worthwhile business. In any case, and if lack of evidence is any indication, Capitol Custom does not seem to have been a well-publicized enterprise.

In August 1966, Capitol Custom was re-named Capitol Creative Products. The change of name seems to have been part of a better organized attempt at capitalizing on the burgeoning market of premium album requests from electronics companies (e.g., Zenith) and mass-marketing stores (e.g., True Value Hardware). Wares companies such as Firestone, Goodyear, Sears, and Sylvania would commission custom-made albums with the intent of selling them to customers at their stores or through their shopping catalogues. In some instances, the albums were not actually sold, but presented to customers as part of special offers, too. Understandably, a large number of those albums had a holiday theme, and were thus issued during the Christmas season. Hitherto, this market niche had been more successfully exploited by other labels' similar divisions -- notably, Columbia Special Markets.

In 1966, LPs from Capitol's newly minted Creative Products division were identified by catalogue numbers that bore the prefix (S)L. The "L" might have stood for "leisure" (the "S" for "stereo"). Wholesale press runs were expected to be from 500 to 1,000 copies for small companies, and from 25,000 to one million for large companies. Some of the albums seem to have been released on LP format only, but many others are known to have come out on cassette and 8-track cartridge tapes as well. Whichever the format(s), Capitol's custom-made items tended to be thematic compilations culled from the albums by solo artists that Capitol had released during previous, recent years. (The same pattern holds true for the equivalent record divisions at rival companies.) As for custom-made Capitol anthologies featuring just one single artist, those remained in the minority until at least the mid-1980s, when many of them were curiously released exclusively in the then-popular cassette format.

The inaugural albums from Capitol Creative Products had numbers in the early 6500s, and probably came during the 1966 holiday season. Shown above are the earliest 4 of which I am aware: Favorites From Broadway And Hollywood (L 6513), The Sound Of Christmas (Sl 6515; prepared for the Kroger Supermarket chain), The Spirit Of Christmas (Sl 6516), and The Magic Of Christmas With Children (L 6517; prepared for the Safeway supermarket chain in the United States and Canada). I do not believe that there were any Creative Products albums numbered between 6500 and 6512. Those numbers had already been used on an EP series named Kenton Presents Jazz. (Actually, numbers 6513 and 6514 had also been used in the Kenton series. Nevertheless, and perhaps inadvertently, the number 6513 was reused for the very first Creative Products album.)

Capitol's custom-made division steadily continued to produce albums all the way to number 6999, around 1975. Since most numbers within the 7000 range had been reserved for classical music, I am not sure that there were any Creative Products albums bearing 7000 numbers. (At least, none has turned up during my searches.) I have noticed, however, an odd time span (from 1976 to 1978) within which I have not been able to locate any Capitol Special Markets issues whatsoever. Following that gap, Special Markets issues within the 8000 range do show up. By 1987, the (S)L catalogue had reached the 1,000 mark.

From 1966 to the 1990s, this record division's name was altered at least twice. In 1995, it became EMI-Capitol Special Markets. That was actually the second alteration. The first had taken place many years earlier, as explained below.

Capitol Special Markets

5-8. Around 1972, Capitol albums with a SL prefix no longer bear the Creative Products brand name. Instead, they are released under a new name, Capitol Special Markets. The reasons for the change remain unclear. Alterations in company names are often indicators of a general change in staff and/or policies. (Capitol was indeed undergoing an overhaul around 1972.) But perhaps the explanation is far simpler. Capitol could have wanted to align itself with the name of choice for most other custom-made companies (i.e., "Special Markets"), thereby making itself more readily recognizable to clients. Be it as it may, the change of name makes the task of sorting out Capitol's custom catalogue all the more complicated.

Even before the name change, there were some apparent inconsistencies for which I do not have an unequivocal explanation. To wit: some of the company's custom-made albums were actually released twice -- even thrice in at least one case. Generally, the re-releases bear catalogue numbers and titles identical to the originals, but their front covers tend to be altogether different. Some of them faithfully keep the original track listing, whereas others substitute one or two tracks with new ones. I am not privy to the motivations for this practice. In the absence of any factual details to further clarify the matter, I can only speculate that Capitol might have seen retail potential in some of its custom-made albums, consequently recycling and re-selling them either to other clients or at regular record stores.

To illustrate the subject matter discussed in the previous paragraph, two sets of albums are shown above, and discussed herein. Images #5 and #6 display the two editions of the album Easy Jazz. The first edition bears the number Sl 6620 (ca. 1969), the second Sl 6652 (ca. 1970). That second album belongs to the Stereo Showcase series; I do not know to which series, if any, the first album belonged. From one edition to the other, the 10-song collection shows two alterations in the track listing. Performances by George Shearing ("When Sunny Get Blue") and another by Cannonball Adderly ("So In Love") on Sl 6620 are replaced on Sl 6652 with two other interpretations (Eddie Heywood's "The Shadow Of Your Smile" and Howard Roberts' "Fly Me To The Moon").

Seen in images #7 and #8 is a 1971 Peggy Lee anthology entitled Raindrops. Both editions of Raindrops bear the same catalogue number (Sl 6723). Also, in the vinyl's logo, the legend "produced for Abbott Laboratories" appears in both cases. The tracks are the same ones, too, and they are sequenced in the same order. Yet the first edition is a Creative Products release, whereas the second is a Special Markets reissue. Brief liner notes can be found only in the back cover of the Creative Products edition.

APPENDIX B. CAPITOL RECORD CLUB

Active for much of the 1960s, Capitol's Record Club dated back to 1958. In a deal similar to those of other mail order groups of this type, the club offered joining members a one year subscription that required the purchase of 6 albums at full price and five albums at the reduced price of 97 cents. (Around 1965, full price was between $1.98 for mono and $2.98 for stereo.) Most of the offered albums were the exact same ones being sold at regular stores, but there is also evidence of exclusive various-artists compilations, particularly after the mid-1960s, when the club went through ownership changes, as described in more detail below. Besides LP, the club also released albums in the cassette tape and 8-track cartridge formats.

Three club ads, placed in music trade periodicals, can be examined directly above and below. (The second ad is actually split in two, with one half placed above -- last in the row -- and the other half being the first shown below). Photos of Peggy Lee are prominently featured in all three ads, a fact which might indicate that she was among the club's larger draws. In the first ad, three of her albums are on display: Blues Cross Country, If You Go, and Basins Street East Proudly Presents Peggy Lee. (Curiously, the best-selling Latin Ala Lee! is not in the mix.)

Capitol Record Club might have had close links to Capitol Creative Products, the custom-made service that was created in 1966. For a 1966 exhibit that was Creative Products' first public outing to clients, its staff shared a booth with the representatives of the Record Club. Whereas their sharing of space might have been necessary and/or strategic, it was also likely to be a premonition of things to come. Despite considerably expense on its promotion and advertisement (about 5 million dollars in 1966 alone), it became increasingly apparent that the club was not likely to ever turn into a major financial success. By 1968, Capitol had sold it; meanwhile, its premium album division was adding more companies as clients.

The buyer of the Capitol Record Club was the Swiss watch company Longines-Wittnauer, which had set up its own a music division, the Longines Symphonette Society, earlier in the 1960s. Before the purchase, Longines had concentrated on releasing light instrumental music and old-time radio shows, sold by mail order. But, after about two years of successful demand for their boxed sets, Longines-Whittnauer proceeded to expand their repertoire through the acquisition of the Capitol Record Club catalogue. Longines kept using the name Capitol Record Club for all releases between 1968 and mid-1972, when it finally began to print its own name in the labels and, less consistently, in the album covers. Furthermore, and due to the fact that the watch company owned no record plants, Longines hired both Capitol and Decca for that purpose. Oddly, Decca was put in charge of pressing records of Capitol material, whereas Capitol did pressings of music originating from labels other than Capitol itself. (This arrangement persisted until 1972. In 1973, Longines finally contracted a particular pressing plant, and discontinued its deal with Capitol.) The club lasted until at least 1975.

APPENDIX C. ZENITH'S CUSTOM-MADE SETS

1-4. During the 1960s, music labels probably deemed the Zenith Radio Company a very desirable client. Year after year, until at least the mid-1970s, this manufacturer of radios, TVs, and phonographs ordered a steady diet of albums from the special markets divisions of various major record labels. (Incidentally, the Zenith Radio Company changed its name to the Zenith Electronics Corporation in 1984. Nowadays, it exists only as a brand of the global conglomerate LG Electronics.)

Zenith started requesting custom-made sets in 1963 or 1964. Behind the initial request was a new business model that the company had just put in action. A trade article published in 1963 makes some general remarks on the matter. Looking beyond its traditional business model of dealing mostly with hardware stores, drugstores, and jewelry stores, Zenith "plann[ed] an intensive campaign" to attract record dealers, and to do business with them far more directly than before. Most likely, one of the campaign's strategies entailed the commissioning of custom-made albums. The strategy must have proven effective, because Zenith kept requesting such albums with regularity until at least 1972 -- possibly later.

Zenith's Custom-made albums might have also been part of a long-standing Zenith offensive to woo the stereo market away from the competition. Since around 1959, both Magnavox and Zenith had been introducing stereo consoles, stereo radios, stereo "theater systems," and other electronic products that were similarly highlighted for their stereophonic capabilities. Tellingly, the titles of the Zenith albums that will be shown below frequently carry the word "stereo" (e.g., Zenith Presents The World Of Stereo), a practice that obviously established a tie between the company's albums and the company's main market products. (Presumably, the word "stereo" would have also served to lure customers interested in sound quality and fashionable trends.)

Zenith commissioned both single albums and boxed sets. Each single album was part of a series, and each series seems to have added one volume per year. For the preparation of those series, Zenith did not hire the same record company each year, but instead rotated its requests, moving yearly from one label to another.

Zenith's earliest boxed sets were commissioned from Columbia Special Products. As will be shown below, Zenith kept requesting boxes from Columbia for five or six consecutive years. Finally, in 1968, Capitol Creative Products was asked to put together one boxed set. Capitol was the recipient of another such request in 1972. As for the three years between 1968 and 1972, my knowledge of that period is fuzzy. It seems that boxed sets were ordered from both Columbia (possibly in 1969) and Capitol (possibly in 1971). Also enlisted was the Longines Symphonette Society, which owned the Capitol Record Club from 1968 onwards. Unfortunately, I have not had much success in finding specifics about the Longines-Zenith sets; for a few details about one of them, see section VII above.

In addition to scarcity of information, my present overview of Zenith's custom album enterprise is hindered by the yet-to-be-untangled web of connections that resulted from the manufacturer's tendency to rotate record labels. Take, for instance, the case of the holiday series Zenith Presents The Gift Of Music, discussed in the holiday page of this pictorial discography. Albums for that series were commissioned not from one but from three labels. As a result, different volumes in the series bear catalogue numbers which belong to different companies, and which do not show a clear connection to one another.

Previous sections of this discographical page discuss various Zenith sets in which Peggy Lee tracks can be found. Zenith sets without Lee tracks are itemized below. (There are likely to be more, currently unknown to me. I would appreciate receiving help from readers who are acquainted with them.)

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5-8. The earliest Zenith series that I have located is Zenith Presents The Thrilling World Of Stereo. It was prepared by Columbia Special Markets, possibly in 1963. My information about this series is vague; I assume that it consisted of 10 albums numbered between 140 and 149. So far, I have been able to locate 6 of the 10 presumed albums. The front covers of four of them are on display immediately above: It's Unforgettable (Csp 140), Around The World (Csp 141), With A Song ... (Csp 142), and Curtain Time; The Greatest From Broadway And Hollywood (Csp 143). Two more LPs in this series are The Sounds Of America (Csp 144) and All-Star Hootennany Special (Csp 149). Incidentally, Zenith Presents The Thrilling World Of Stereo is also the title of a Columbia Special Markets LP whose catalogue number (Xsv 88654 - 88655) does not suggest any connection to this series. I presume it to be a single album, rather than part of a boxed set.

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9-12. The second Zenith - Columbia Special Markets series dates from either 1964 or 1965. (Despite various online listings which give a 1965 date to these albums, I am more inclined to consider 1964 the right year.) Of the 10 albums in Zenith Presents A Collector's Item From The Wonderful World Of Beautiful Music, the following 4 are shown above: The Hit Makers (Csp 214), Those Faraway Places (Csp 221), Favorites You'll Remember (Csp 222), and From Broadway To Hollywood (Csp 213). The series' other 6 albums are Soft And Swinging (Csp 215), Hootenanny Special (Csp 216), The Jazz Set (Csp 217), In A Sentimental Mood (Csp 218), Marches And Waltzes (Csp 219), and Folk Music Spectacular (Csp 220).

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13-16. Released in 1965, the third series that Columbia Special Markets prepared for Zenith bore the same title as an earlier one: Zenith Presents The Thrilling World Of Stereo. And once again, the total of albums in the series was ten. The following four are shown above: Hitmakers, Volume II (Csp 320), The Folk All Stars (Csp 324), Favorites You'll Remember, Volume II (Csp 326), and Broadway & Hollywood (Csp 321). The other titles in this series are Sounds Of The Big Bands (Csp 322), Romantic Moments (Csp 323), Jazz: Red, Hot & Cool (Csp 325), Songs Of Our Land (Csp 327), and Music For The In Group (Csp 328). The titles of the remaining 10th album (probably Csp 329) is currently unknown to me. Notice that some of the album's titles maintain a sense of continuity between this series and earlier ones -- e.g., Hitmakers, Volume I, Hitmakers, Volume II.

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17-20. The 1966 series that Zenith commissioned from Columbia Special Markets in 1966 was named Zenith Salutes ... The World Of Stereo (images #17 and #18). It consists of 10 albums: The Pop Stars (Csp 518), The Million Record Singers (Csp 519), The Broadway Musicals (Csp 520), The Film Music Scene (Csp 521), The Mood Music Makers (Csp 522), The Teen Sound (Csp 523; image #19), The Light Classics (Csp 524), The Swingin Bands (Csp 525), The Folk Singers (Csp 526), and The Jazz World (Csp 527; image #20).

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21-26. As can be seen, this 5-volume set is entitled Zenith Presents Encore; The Best On Record. It too was commissioned from Columbia Special Products. The catalogue number is Css 878-882. Its year of release is not known to me, but the songs included in volume 1 (The Best Of Today) suggest 1969 or one of the last months of 1968. Given the pattern followed by earlier set, it is also possible that Zenith Presents Encore; The Best On Record consists of two boxes, each with 5 volumes, though I have found evidence for only one 5-volume box. My thanks to India Read for alerting me to this item, and for so kindly helping me in determining whether my tentative information about it was correct.

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27-28. Images #27 shows a set called Zenith Presents Encore '71; The Best On Record. I do not know the contents of this set, nor do I have any other details about it. Its title suggests that (a) 1971 was its year of release and (b) it is a sequel to the set shown in image #21 above.

Similarly, I have no information whatsoever about the set or box displayed in image #28. From the photo, we can gather that the title of the box's first volume might be Favorites Of Today!, and that the set is likely to be entitled Zenith Presents Encore '71. Hence I am tentatively assuming that the same item is being shown in images #27 and #28 (which I found at different websites). Help in fleshing out this item would be appareciated. I would particularly appreciate to know if Capitol or Longiness were at all involved in Zenith Presents Encore '71; The Best On Record, and if any Peggy Lee tracks are included.