The sheer size of this compilation might test even Jimbo's limits!



This box set is the ultimate pop collection, 43 albums featuring many of the biggest hits performed on the legendary pop music chart BBC TV programme [title]Top of the Pops[/title], which ran for a record shattering 42 years from January 1964 to July 2006! The show totalled an amazing 2205 episodes and at its peak attracted 15 million viewers per week! This complete set features a total of 875 tracks, including over 600 top ten hits and over 150 number one's!

There are too many tracks to list, they wouldn't all fit into the text limit of the posting field. But note that these are all the original hit recordings, not the alternative versions recorded for performance on TOTP.

Amazon USA:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001AI93J0/?tag=imwan-20

Amazon UK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001AI93J0/?tag=imwan-21

Hah! Six Hundred and Seventy Three Dollars and 99 cents.
A mere bag o' shells.

i say jimbo buys it, and he gets it for a great price.

I want one!

Holy Hell. How am I gonna justify this one?

I'd be shocked if Jimbo didn't already have all but a handful of the songs on this set.

Not that that's ever stopped him before....

Now if these were the videos I would be there!

Are these live versions from the show?

No. Read again, hon:

They're the "normal" studio versions. I'm always curious about the value that these things have to anyone. In my case, there's severely diminishing returns on anything past about 1980, when the relationship between good music and chart music seemed to be inextricably ripped apart. And given that this was "Top Of The Pops," the music gets glossier, more superficial and less interesting past the point of punk. So aside from some stuff I already had, there wasn't anything in the second half of the set which would sway me in the least. As for the 1964-1980 stuff, there are a few tunes I wouldn't mind having that I don't yet have, some obviously novelty stuff I wouldn't necessarily want (like the Benny Hill tune) and some stuff I've never heard of - though with that, the few songs I've looked up and listened to aren't anything special. There's a lot of stuff by bands that didn't make much splash over here but were big in their day in the UK - like Wizzard and Shirley Bassey. But if you're interested in that stuff, it'd be far cheaper to get the individual CDs by those bands. And it's also plain that the compilers of this set had a really easy time licensing tracks from (say) Mickie Most's RAK label (plenty of CCS and Mud tracks), but a tough time with other labels. Big names tend to be missing. I didn't spot anything I could really call hard to find.

On the other hand, 10(!) songs from Hot Chocolate make me think I look a little more deeply into them, and I'm reminded that I do need a good Shadows compilation.

Not to threadcrap, but when I think of TOTP what comes to mind are seeing bands that I like looking utterly ridiculous when lip-synching (or miming, in UK parlance) their "performances" on the show... having said that, I smile fondly when thinking of Marillion's infamous "Lavender" appearance with Fish and his sheets of lyrics.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9Ai5zLt8kA[/youtube]

I like the idea of top pop hits collections from eras that I haven't exhaustively mined already, like Archeophone's Phonographic Yearbooks series of acoustic era hits:
http://www.archeophone.com/catalogue.php?cPath=21_22
But I'm not going to shell out $700 for a collection that's maybe 40% songs I already have. I'd much rather have a complete Peel Sessions or other actual live radio shows.

Starts thinning out when it gets to stuff from the past 10 years, but even then, easily more than half...I'd say 70-80% of the whole megillah.

Now THAT'S a box set!!

I picked up a number of these individual volumes earlier this year in London;
many were on sale for 3-5 pounds each at Zavvi/Borders/etc., and they were more
than worth it -- there are some interesting choices throughout, the notes are
copious, and the sound good. Too bad my wallet isn't quite ready to take a
plunge on the entire set, though...!!

My Smithereens Mega-Box 21-disc set suddenly feels wimpy.