Search "HHV Exclusive" 41 Items

Ace Records has been the go-to source of 1960s girl group compilations since the release of our “Where The Girls Are”, “Girls About Town” and “Stop, Look & Listen” vinyl albums back in the 1980s. The 10-volume “Where The Girls Are” CD series followed over the next 30 years or so, along with a number of standalone CD collections. These days, however, the 12-inch long-player is back as the format of choice for discerning collectors.

“Look But Don’t Touch!”, the fourth in our current series of gorgeously packaged vinyl girl group compilations, drops this month. The album opens with the discotheque-friendly ‘Hey, Rocky’ by front cover stars the Shirelles of New Jersey, the USA’s most successful girl group until the Supremes broke through and stole their thunder, and closes with the Bermudas’ ‘Chu Sen Ling’, a record sure to appeal to those who favour the ethereal West Coast sound.

Other highlights include the Hollywood Chicks’ dance craze disc ‘Tossin’ A Ice Cube’ (sic), which marks the recording debut of Barry White (on handclaps); great tracks by the Witches, the Pussycats and Linda Laurie from the catalogue of genius songwriter/producer Bert Berns; Mayalta Page’s densely produced rarity ‘Don’t Worry About Me Baby (I Feel Just Fine)’; and, and for the girl group buff who has everything, ‘He Calls Me Child’ by Ohio duo the 2 Of Clubs and ‘A Dumb Song’ by the soulful Delicates, both of which are previously unreleased.

The Radio 2 Top 2000 is the largest annual radio event in The Netherlands. The audience of Radio gets to vote for their favourite all-time songs. These (literally) millions of votes come together in the Top 2000, All these 2000 songs are broadcasted back to back from Christmas until a few minutes before New Years Eve, when they air the No.1 of the chart. Radio 2 Top 2000 - The 60’s contains the best hits from the century in which the music industry saw its biggest change. It were the years some of the biggest bands in the history of music rose to fame, like The Beach Boys, The Kinks, The Who, and Fleetwood Mac. Rock, pop, funk, soul and psychedelia all stand side by side on this release, with artists like James Brown, Nina Simone, David Bowie, Etta James, Elvis Presley, and Dusty Springfield. These artists and many more you’ll find on this wonderful 2LP. The Top 2000 bridges the gaps between all musical generation from the Sixties to the present, making it the most eclectic chart out there, and keeping more that half of the country glued to their radio day and night for the whole week it’s broadcasted. And with a daily TV spin-off during its broadcast, it has reached an even bigger audience.

Record Store Day 2021 Release.
Limitation: 1500 copies.

This exclusive vinyl release is taken from the recently released Deluxe Edition of The Selecter’s‘Too Much Pressure’ debut album.This previously unreleased concert was part of the original 2Tone Tour and has been newly mixed from the original tapes.This version is pressed on clear vinyl.

Record Store Day 2021 Release.

This seventh volume of the ‘Psyché France’ collection is a new tribute to the mavericks and lost heroes of the 1960’s and 70’s French music scene. In this collection – featuring 12 tracks – you will discover a few curiosities such as ‘’Les scandales’ by Gilbert Deflez, ‘Vole, Vole, vole’ by the band Présence, ‘Si je vendais du soleil’ by Quo Vadis, ‘Le pays où l’on vit d’amour’ by Punch and also some Pop gems sung for instance by Richard Contell (‘Donne’) or Edwige (‘Je suis juillet’).

Connoisseurs of 1960s she-pop have been very well served by Ace Records, particularly those with a predilection for American and British artists. But good music, of course, is not exclusive to the English-speaking world, as those familiar with our collections devoted to the female vocalists of Italy will be aware (not to mention similar projects focusing on Japan, France, Sweden, Hungary and Spain). In a country renowned for its song festivals, most notably the prestigious event held annually in Sanremo, highly orchestrated ballads have always been especially popular in Italy. For this celebratory single, however, we present exemplary uptempo decks by Brunetta and Rita Pavone.

Brunetta was one of the first Italian singers to record rock’n’roll. Among her early releases were the appropriately titled “The Explosive Brunetta” and “Ciclone Brunetta” EPs and the frantic ‘Precipito’, which she performed with wild abandon in the film Urlatori Alla Sbarra. New stars Mina and Adriano Celentano also appeared in the movie, so she was in very good company. Fast forward a few lower-profile years, she released the record for which she would become best remembered. Backed by the Balubas combo, she performed the somewhat non-PC ‘Baluba Shake’ at the Pesaro Song Festival in 1966, scooping top prize. These days, the track is an underground dancefloor favourite, original copies of which change hands for a pretty penny.

A collection of guitar-wielding all-girl bands, drop-dead female frat rock, garage girls and axe-centric she-pop from the 60s. 14 hot nuggets, each one hand-picked with vinyl lovers in mind.

Features a bevy of genuine all-girl bands – namely Goldie & the Gingerbreads from the environs of New York; the Debutantes from Detroit; Florida’s the Belles; the Rums & Coke and Girls Take Over, both from Wisconsin; and Ace favourites She from California, all of whom give their male counterparts a good run for their money. The Belles, incidentally, released only one record – a killer rendition of Them’s ‘Gloria’, gender-switched as ‘Melvin’ – before drifting apart, never dreaming that copies of the disc would one day change hands for $500 a pop.

Some of the other girls receive help from male colleagues. Glenda Collins, for example, is backed by producer Joe Meek’s favoured house band the Outlaws featuring guitarist Richie Blackmore; Merseyside ex-pat Sandy Edmonds is accompanied by the Pleazers, New Zealand’s answer to the Pretty Things; and teenage trio the Chymes are supported by the Turtles.

Pressed on 180g transparent violet vinyl, with a swanky inner bag sporting a fact-filled 4,000-word track commentary and an array of rare photos.

Compilation and note by Mick Patrick.

If you went down the wrong alleyway, took a shortcut through the park or crossed the wrong open space after dark in the UK in the 1970s, you stood a fair chance of being accosted by someone with a big mouth, low morals and some gurning mates to impress, usually reeking of fags and cheap booze and always ready to put the boot in. And, before you could say, “sickening violence”, a short but chaotic scuffle would ensue and a winner eventually emerge, battle scarred and bruised. The boot boy was the worst kind of hooligan. There wasn’t anything you could do or say to appease him. You had the same chance as a fly caught up in a spider’s web. Zero. Your best bet was to run. His intent was always to give you, and vicariously the rest of the world, a good kicking. Thugs, long-haired louts, short-haired louts; the anti-hippy. Birds, booze, bovver and football on their criminal minds. So fasten your braces for a white knuckle-duster ride. 14 bovver rock bruisers for all of you peace-loving losers. Somebody’s going to get their head kicked in tonight... Put the boot in.

For those who prefer to own their music on vinyl, here is an eclectic and gorgeously packaged selection of American girl group artefacts from the 60s.

The album opens with ‘Whirlwind’ by producer Gary Paxton protégées the Rev-Lons, the trio’s final recording but also their best, and closes with ‘He’s All Right With Me’ by the Mirettes ( the Ikettes incognito). Other highlights include the Supremes-style ‘Cupid’s Got A Hold On Me’ by the Belles; the Sweethearts’ recording of ‘Beauty Is Just Skin Deep’, a song originally intended for the Ikettes; and ‘Summertime Is Surfin’ Time’ by the Surf Bunnies – three more terrific instances of the West Coast girl group sound. But not all the tracks here emanate from that part of the USA – viz ‘Mr Everything’ by New York-based Little Eva Harris and little-heard examples from the Pets, Tren-Teens and Lovettes, all from New Jersey.

Felice Taylor – here with her unissued-at-the-time ‘Sing Me A Love Song’ – graces the eye-popping jacket, which houses a colourful inner sleeve featuring a 3,000-word track commentary and an array of illustrations. Compilation and notes by Mick Patrick.

The punk rock treat that tricked its way into the heart of punk rock fans everywhere in 2017 returns with a brand new volume of Halloween-themed songs recorded by modern and legacy bands! Features brand new studio recordings by legendary punk bands such as The Vandals, Down By Law, The Casualties, Reagan Youth, The Members, The Vibrators, MDC, Tsunami Bomb, The Queers and lots more! Get the FUN SIZE version on Halloween ORANGE colored vinyl!

The fantastic soundtrack of the new Tarantino comes in a double gatefold sleeve with inlay and poster.

A phenomenal soundtrack to a phenomenal movie. Tarantino once again proves that he not only has a great taste when it comes to music, but he also takes a good amount of time to dig through record collections to pick gems for his soundtracks and arrange the 22 songs 9 era-specific radio advertisements.
This should become a movie soundtrack classic.

Hand-picked 60s she-pop from UK Philips, Fontana and Mercury, including many titles new to CD.

Spread over four sides of two 33rpm 12-inch albums, this is a love letter to the 7-inch 45rpm single. Deluxe packaging includes a heavy-duty gatefold jacket and two fully illustrated inner bags containing the 180g orange vinyl discs. Album cover photo: Riot On Sunset Strip 1966 by Julian Wasser.

Comprising soaring big beat ballads, the occasional guitar-driven nugget and other feminine pop gems of the stylish Italian variety, this much-anticipated follow-up to “Ciao Bella!” (one of Ace Records’ best sellers of 2015) offers further proof that there is musical life beyond the shores of English-speaking countries.

“Bellissima! More 1960s She-Pop From Italy” comprises an equal mix of superstars and obscure artists, performing songs of both Italian and overseas origin. Living legend Mina sings ‘Cartoline’, one of several numbers custom-composed by maestro Bruno Canfora to show off her fantastic vocal technique, and her arch rival Milva delivers the stomping ‘Tamburino, Ciao…’, another top-tier Italian original, while highlights of the selections by lesser-known vocalists include ‘È Proprio Inutile’ by Meri Marabini and ‘Il Beat... Cos’è?’ by La Ragazza 77, groovy covers of the Hollies’ ‘You Know He Did’ and Sonny & Cher’s ‘The Beat Goes On’ respectively.

Who do we become when we live our dreams? It’s all here — the high hairdos, the dreams and schemes, the tender camp, the wedding bell fantasias and chaste tragedies. Sister acts, studio receptionists, classmates, angelic voices of the 1960s, some legendary, many hidden in the basement of expired rainbows.

From a basement in New Jersey, Tommy Falcone remade himself into a DIY Phil Spector. From 1962 to 1970, he founded and ran Cleopatra Records, discovered and mentored young Garden State talent, wrote songs and produced wild studio effects, and quit his day job to promote it all himself. Trained as an accordionist, Falcone had a whirlwind imagination and an omnivorous approach to genre, expressed through acts like the Centuries, the Tabbys, Johnny Silvio, the Inmates, Bernadette Carroll, the Hallmarks, Vickie & the Van Dykes, the Shandillons, Eugene Viscione, the Shoestring, and more. Cleopatra became a time-capsule of every 1960s pop style imaginable—garage rock, psychedelia, surf, girl groups, soul, novelties, exotica, even a crooner—a kaleidoscope of sound in search of the ever-elusive hit record.

"The events of May ’68 are seen as a turning point in France’s social history - pictures of the barricades are still potent images. Lines were drawn politically, culturally, socially, and pop music was not exempt.

“Paris In The Spring” is a collection of the new music, put together by Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, that emerged from France between 1968 and the mid-70s, an extraordinary blend of several previously independent strains – French chanson and yé-yé, American jazz and funk, British chamber pop – shot through with the era’s underlying mixture of optimism, uncertainty and darkness. This is the first collection of its kind, released on the 50th anniversary of the Paris uprising.

Serge Gainsbourg – a jazz pianist with a chanson past and a pop present – was in a position to play a key role in soundtracking France in flux over the next five years. His “Histoire de Melody Nelson”, with its heavily atmospheric arrangements by Jean-Claude Vannier, was the acme of this new, unsettling French sound. “Paris In The Spring” includes other equally dazzling Vannier arrangements (for Léonie) and Gainsbourg compositions (for Jane Birkin and Mireille Darc).

Prior to 1968, 60s French pop had been dominated by yé-yé, the country’s unique brand of upbeat pop, a world of primary colours, mini-jupes and discothèques (a French invention, after all). Its stars either faded fast after May ’68 or adapted to the new era: Jacques Dutronc (‘Le Métaphore’) and France Gall (‘Chanson Pour Que Tu M’aimes un Peu’) discovered a moody side they had previously kept hidden, while Françoise Hardy released the Brazilian-influenced, after-hours classic “La Question”, from which we have picked ‘Viens’.

New bands like Triangle emerged, influenced by Soft Machine and Gong who became regulars on the Paris club scene. French library music from Janko Nilovic and film soundtracks (François De Roubaix, Karl-Heinz Schäfer) reflected the era’s edginess. All are represented on “Paris In The Spring”, making it a continental cousin to Stanley and Wiggs’s hugely popular 2017 Ace compilation “English Weather”..
"

Yellow vinyl!

Experience the hip sounds of 1960s France with “Toujours Chic!”, the latest in our series of groovy Gallic girl-pop. The collection is available on 24-track CD and 12-track LP formats.

Star of the show is series debutante Laura Ulmer, who graces the cover of the CD version and contributes three pure pop tracks in the France Gall mode. Fabienne, Zouzou, Charlotte Walters, Stone, are all also new to the series.
This LP version, features a gorgeous cover photo of Françoise Hardy, is pressed on 180g lavender vinyl and comes with a fully illustrated inner bag.

The 12-track Colored Vinyl LP format opens with Brunetta’s prized dancefloor-filler ‘Baluba Shake’ and closes with ‘Pà Diglielo A Mà’, a dramatic ballad by big-voiced Nada. The prolific Mina - queen bee of Italy’s female singers - gets two tracks: folk rock nugget ‘No’ and ‘Se Telefonando’, a sophisto-pop epic courtesy of maestro Ennio Morricone.

Other highlights include the sitar-embellished ‘Il Mio Posto Qual’È’ by Ornella Vanoni, a convincing cover of ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’ by beat girl Caterina Caselli, the pounding ‘Il Geghegè’ by petite dynamo Rita Pavone and breathy-voiced actress Catherine Spaak’s bossa-imbued ‘La Notte È Fatta Per Rubare’.

Repress of compilation of 60's psychedelic pop tunes, selected by Dirty Sound System and released under the banner of 'Dirty French Psychedelics'.

close to NM

Limited to 4000 copies worldwide. RSD first release.
2023 marks the 50th anniversary of Elton John’s sixth studio album Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only The Piano Player featuring lead single Crocodile Rock and major hit Daniel. Exclusive to Record Store Day 2023, the album will be repackaged on splatter /propeller 2LP Vinyl, with an expansive bonus disc of the album’s session demos recorded at the infamous Château d’Hérouville.

Vinyl close to VG+

Vinyl with scuffs, hairlines and a couple of deeper marks. Cover with spine damage

Seam split.

Sticker on label.
Record is close to VG+.
Cover with faint ring wear and seam split.

Japanese pressing without OBI!

The teen girl falling in love with greasy biker melodrama that set The Shangri-Las on the scene was beaten to the core when English high society child Lynn Ripley -better known as Twinkle- took it to the next level on her own composition "Terry". Penned at the tender age of sixteen, Twinkle's lyrics were found so twisted and bad tasty that the song got the honour of being banned at the BBC thirteen years before the Sex Pistols ran the same luck with "God Save The Queen." A ban that, as you would have guessed, instead of hiding the song from the era's teenage record hunters made it even more coveted. Thus "Terry", Twinkle's first 45 issued on Decca in October 1964, became an instant top 5 hit in the UK and was released successfully worldwide as well as covered by many bands (like Claude François French version or Los Extraños cover sung in Spanish).

Cover slightly yellowed.