Record Rummage (US) – 41: Olivia Newton-John

Think she may have been featured earlier but… hey! This is Olivia Newton-John we’re talking about!

Record Rummage (US) – 40: Elvis Presley

Aha! There you were thinking I’d run out of these! NO WAY! No way. Look. Here’s another cheesy entry coming up now…

Record Rummage (US) – 39: Wham!

“You make the sunshine brighter than Doris Day”… whoa. Would the kids today even get that reference?

Record Rummage (US) – 38: Steppenwolf

Um, I really have no authority to speak about this one. Blame my friend (again).

Record Rummage (US) – 37: 10CC

We began parting ways with our colleagues in the UK music press when we realised that some of them were being quite serious as holding this up as a masterpiece…

Record Rummage (US) – 36: Altered Images

Think I must’ve been in altered states to have penned this review. Goddamn it! How could I have been so mean, so easily influenced by cynical Yanks? I mean, check this.

Record Rummage (US) – 35: George Harrison

Always wanted a copy of this. And when I finally had – three, at the last glance – I wondered why.

Record Rummage (US) – 34: Electric Light Orchestra

It’s weird. I hated this band with a passion during the 70s. By the time the 90s rolled round, however, I loved ‘em – coupled with the discovery towards the end of that decade that they make perfect driving music, bar none. Anyhow: remember this was originally written in a drunken haze. Why I didn’t give this a ‘perfect’ 10 is beyond me. Maybe it was the lack of a spaceship mobile?

Record Rummage (US) – 33: The Records

Bangs alive, I totally want to hear this record again. How could I have given it only a 2, even in mock-seriousness? I must have been way hungover and cynical that day. I have long stated that ‘Starry Eyes’ is one of the great lost pop songs of the late 70s. I’ve been playing it every other day for about three months now. Let’s find a link to it, NOW! Ah, here it is. Gorgeous!

Record Rummage (US) – 32: Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Next, a favourite of mine… indeed, I return to Elvis Costello’s first six or seven (or is it eight?) albums with alarming regularity. And I loved all those extra tracks that got added a few years back.

Record Rummage (US) – 31: Rod Stewart

Rod. The Mod. From the pages of The Stranger, way back in the mists of the last century.

Record Rummage (US) – 30: Bruce Springsteen

The boss. Apparently.

Record Rummage (US) – 29: Grease OST

Next, the first record we heard at the dawn of the new millennium (played by a covers band on the lawn at Dunedin Town Hall).

Record Rummage (US) – 28: The Primitives

You’re going to have to agree to disagree with me about this one, OK? I put this on once when Isaac was about a year old, and it sent him into a screaming fit that lasted for 30 minutes.  (In fairness to that fellow who used to play tambourine with them – he once jumped on stage with The Legend! band at The Albert in Brighton and sung lustily along with our entire version of Television Personalities’ ‘Sense Of Belonging’.)

Record Rummage (US) – 27: Marianne Faithfull

Ironic, really. I publicly state how much I am against the grading of albums and here we are, grading every single one of these charity store finds according to “bargain value” and “slip cover”. Still, at least we’re being precise in our explanation of what the grades signify – as opposed to every magazine and website extant.

Record Rummage (US) – 26: Santana

So we move into part two of this – um, I was going to write increasingly popular, but that’s an outright lie – series.

Record Rummage – 25: Magic Reggae

Ah, Reggie.

Record Rummage – 24: Al Jolson

Ah, Al.

Record Rummage – 23: A Happening!

Back to the compilations. I always was a sucker for a stylish (hem) cover.

Record rummage – 22: Tanya Tucker

Number 22 in this series was subject of an infamous advertising campaign back in the 70s.

Record Rummage – 21: Henry Mancini

OK. The world of soundtracks next. At one stage in my twenties, I loved collecting these.

Record Rummage – 20: Stan Getz

Like wowsville, man.

Record Rummage – 19: Soul Archive

Damn straight about Betty Everett.

Record Rummage – 18: 20 Great Truck Drivin’ Songs

… and so we slip into the compilations, usually fertile territory…

Record Rummage – 17: Jimmy Ruffin

OK. For all you aggrieved Elkie Brooks fans, this series is supposed to be a light-hearted look at the sort of record that show up cheap in charity stores. It is my own personal opinion – or rather, mine and co-author Jamie Sellers’s – nothing more, nothing less. Now, let’s have no slighted Tamla Motown 70s fans writing in…