This is one of several titles in the Miller’s Collector’s Guide series, which is generally devoted to various categories of antiques.
How up to date?
The first thing that struck me about it was that it was published in 2002. Not only is it still in print, but there is no more recent edition available. The impression I have is that prices for vinyl records have not risen over recent years, partly as a result of so much material being reissued on CD or available on downloads thus chipping away at the desirability of the original artefacts, partly as the value of collectables in general has been depressed somewhat by the recession – vinyl junkies have less disposable cash than they did a few years ago – and partly as eBay and other internet sites have replaced the need to go hunting down those elusive gems at records fairs, or scan many pages of small print ads in ‘Record Collector’, which was more or less essential at one time.
As a valuation guide, therefore, this book is flawed from the start. So, as any serious and knowledgeable collector will tell you, is the much-hallowed (and far more expensive) ‘Record Collector Rare Price Guide’. But if you regard it less as a book for values, take the title more literally in a general way, and don’t object to the omission of what may be some of your favourite artists from the ten-page index, it will do the job nicely. Having said that, a book on modern popular music which omits any reference to Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Iron Maiden and Motorhead (and, horror of horrors, has an index entry for ‘Jerry, Mungo’) has a few gaps to fill.
The book itself
But enough of the negatives. In 200 pages, no book could possibly list all the rare records to collect as well as guide you away from the stuff which is too common to bother with unless you really adore it, but it does provide quite a comprehensive guide to what’s hot and what’s not – or what was in 2002, anyway. It also gives suggested price guides for certain items in sterling and US dollars, underlining the fact that certain records are worth a king’s ransom on one side of the Atlantic but are distinctly so-so on the other. To take two extreme examples, The Penguins’ ‘Earth Angel’, a doo-wop classic from 1955, was a hit in the USA but did nothing over here, where it is recognised as one of Britain’s five rarest records with a price tag of £2,000 or more for gold label lettering and a triangular push-out centre. (These minor details, like condition, are all-important). On the other hand, during their heyday around 1972-4, Osmonds’ records flew out of the shops, but even in mint condition they are still only worth single-figure sums as so many were pressed. Obscure flops are far more desirable than easy-to-find hits of yesteryear, and from the late 1950s when 7” singles played at 45 rpm co-existed with the far more easily breakable 10” shellac artefacts playing at 78 rpm, the 7” versions are more highly sought-after.
Let me mention that this book does not just cover pop and rock.
A glance at the contents page will indicate sections on Easy Listening, Comedy, Disco, Television, Movies, Folk, Blues, Country, Stage Musicals, Compilations, and over twenty pages on Jazz alone, divided into such sub-genres as New Orleans, Chicago style, Swing, and the Bebop Movement. The Easy Listening section also has its different categories, from Lounge Music and Exotica to Celebrities and Glamorous, which covers Elizabeth Taylor, Raquel Welch, and even Samantha Fox. Now we know that even Joan Collins recorded ‘Imagine’ as a single. (I checked this online – it’s actually a spoken version with piano and strings accompaniment. You’re thrilled, aren’t you?). And we find that there was an LP called ‘Music To Strip By’, which came with a free G-string, although no artist or date details are provided.
Finally, there are short sections on Record Care, a list of the major labels plus some of the artists associated with each, and a Glossary of terms including genres like Bluegrass and Lounge, as well as aspects such as Bootlegs, DJ and Promo Discs, and different matrix numbers.
Looking elsewhere in the book, there are other little interesting snippets of trivia to be found. Dyke and the Blazers may not have sold many copies of their 1967 single ‘Funky Broadway’ in the UK, but that was the record which gave the name Funk to the genre which later became disco. Les Baxter’s 1956 hit ‘The Poor People of Paris’ was originally called ‘La Goulant du Pauvre Jean’ (‘The Ballad of Poor John’), but a misunderstanding resulted in ‘Pauvre Jean’ becoming ‘Pauvre Gens’, and the mistake in the title just stuck. Moreover, for ‘Dad’s Army’ fans, Clive Dunn’s LP ‘Permission to Sing Sir’ (all together now, ‘Grandad, granddad, we love you’) is worth £8, while similar efforts by Arthur Lowe and John Le Mesurier are valued at £11 and £14 respectively. How often owners would actually sit and listen to these albums, much as we might revere the programme, is open to question. Yet weirder records do exist, like mime artist Marcel Marceau’s ‘Best Of’, which features 19 minutes of silence followed by a few seconds of applause. (They should have called it ‘Silence is Golden’ – and while on the subject, I remember years ago in London once seeing ‘The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan’, an allegedly 100% silent record, priced at 50p – but I didn’t buy it).
One flaw I picked up in these pages – it would have been handy to have a distinction between the different versions of the Sex Pistols’ ‘God Save The Queen’ single, which we are reminded is worth over £2,500 mint. It should be mentioned that this refers specifically to the speedily withdrawn A & M pressing, which is illustrated in one of the colour plates sections, rather than the one on Virgin Records, which then signed them up, reissued it and gave them the hit – pressed in its thousands and presumably still as cheap as chips.
I dabbled in record collecting some time ago, though for various reasons (like expense, and the need for space), I have had to curb my enthusiasm in recent years.
But I found this a fascinating book to read, despite its minor faults. It brought back happy memories of hunting down as well as looking at precious items in the Music and Video Exchange (or, as it was in the 1970s, the Record and Tape Exchange) in west London and elsewhere. It did also teach me a certain amount.
Finally
Anybody with a wide-ranging interest in music, even if not tempted to spend large sums on owning the stuff and giving it house room (well, it will take up less space than other collectables like vintage cars or World War II tanks, which other people have been known to collect as a hobby), will find this book more than worth their while.
Permission to collect 
