Four Tops Anthology Vol. 1 - 4 LPs on 2 CDs

[SoulgusUK]

Hi there, does anyone know if this release is legitimate? Barcode is 6696756957220, contains Yesterday's Dreams; Soul Spin; Four Tops Now and Changing Times plus Single Version of In These Changing Times, total 45 tracks, made in Switzerland.

[carlo]

I can't find any info on this Four Tops CD set, but funny enough, I just came across a Cass Elliot CD set last night on Amazon, also four albums on 2 CD's, made in Switzerland...

https://www.amazon.ca/Mugwumps-Dream...ws_feature_div

I'm guessing this Four Tops set is part of the same series from this label, which does indeed seem to release poor quality bootlegs. The review on this Cass Elliot set mentions that the sound quality sounds like it is a vinyl rip and the tracks are out of order.

[SoulgusUK]

Hi Carlo, Thank you for your reply. Item probably looks better than it sounds - what a shame!

https://www.amazon.ca/Anthology-Four-Tops/dp/B09QD3Y5V9

[mysterysinger]

Intriguing release.

[mysterysinger]

Typical price in the UK is around £29 but has anybody obtained one of these? Just wondering about the booklet/artwork - does it contain front and back artwork for each album? Kinda concerned about quality and attention to detail given such titles as "Can't Seem To Get Your Out Of My Mind" and best of all "Eleanor Ridgy".

[kenneth]

Too bad it's not a legit release, because I would love to have those latter day 4 Tops Motown albums on CD. I love the way the Tops perform standards of the day, in fact, wasn't "Now" renamed "Macarthur Park" after that single became a hit for them?

It's currently priced at $32 on Amazon US which is way too much for a bootleg of questionable quality.

[mysterysinger]

Yeah shame if that's the case but the only one of the four albums I don't have on CD is the "Now" album. All have been available though on CD. Love their version of "MacArthur Park" especially live.

[gordy_hunk]

This rather expensive CD is a bootleg and not a legitimate release.

When you listen to it, particularly disc 2, you can tell that it's simply a vinyl record copied onto a CD. There are many crackles [[just as a scratched vinyl LP has) - and there must be a scratch on the vinyl because you hear this on the CD too.

Whereas the Marginal Record releases were generally decent quality [[for other Motown records being transferred onto CD), this is definitely substandard.

Unless you're really, really keen to have these on a CD, my advice is to avoid buying this release.

[mysterysinger]

This rather expensive CD is a bootleg and not a legitimate release.

When you listen to it, particularly disc 2, you can tell that it's simply a vinyl record copied onto a CD. There are many crackles [[just as a scratched vinyl LP has) - and there must be a scratch on the vinyl because you hear this on the CD too.

Whereas the Marginal Record releases were generally decent quality [[for other Motown records being transferred onto CD), this is definitely substandard.

Unless you're really, really keen to have these on a CD, my advice is to avoid buying this release.

Thanks for that.

[kenneth]

Bootlegs are by their nature a very mixed bag. I agree that the Marginal releases were acceptable, especially because at the time they came out on certain artists like Eddie Holland, they really were the only game in town. It was long before we got all the great releases including the Ace release on Holland which was simply superlative in its quality and packaging.


I waited a long time to see if Cher’s three Warner Brothers albums would ever make it to CD, but they have a curious lineage and no one seems to know who owns the rights to them. Some folks say it is Cher herself, others say no. The three albums Stars [[produced by Jimmy Webb), I’d Rather Believe in You, and Cherished are amongst her best albums in my opinion, the first one is the best and by the third one, she had reverted back to her story songs with material like “pirate,“ which is the same old same old along with her early solo material. But after reading reviews of a bootleg issue which put the three albums on two CDs, and most of the reviews saying they were very good quality, I bought them and I’m so glad that I did. I do not hear any needle drops on the transfers and they sound very clean and full to me.


It’s great to learn about these releases so we can pick and choose what we want to spend our money on. I won’t avoid buying a bootleg if the material is not available elsewhere, but like with any CDs they need to be good quality especially if they’re asking for $30 for a two CD set or something along those lines. Some “legitimate“ CD releases are not any better quality than the bootlegs either. I have a weakness for early bubblegum music that I grew up on, and I have considered buying the Archies complete album set [[OK, OK, I admit it), and according to the reviews on Amazon they’re all needle drops with very poorly produced transfers and songs that even fade out early to try and hide the fact that it’s being dubbed off an old album. They’re still asking for $50 for that so-called legitimate release but I’ll wait until they get a proper remaster. Whether it’s a bootleg or not.