When I was a kid, commercials advertising records were one of my favorite things to tape-record off the TV. (The others included the Carl Stalling credits music for Warner Brothers Cartoons and announcements for upcoming movies on local stations. Hmmm). K-TEL was usually the record company hawking the records but there were others too numerous to mention. Alas, I can’t think of their names or I’d mention them. Anyway, above is a Nat King Cole tribute set that I remember buying without telling my parents when I was about 10. Did I use their credit card? Can’t really remember that detail either. I love that they offered a cassette tape instead of the album for a modest one dollar extra. I just found a pile if K-Tel ads on Youtube which I’ll be sharing this week–I’ve been transported to the mid-seventies, watching TV after school, washing down a box of powdered doughnuts with a half-gallon of milk and eagerly awaiting my mail-order records which I would then play on our funeral-casket sized Magnavox home stereo/FM radio/record-storage living room ‘console’.
December 6, 2024