RCA Victor 'Quad 8' PQ8 Series (including Grunt, Kirshner and RCA Red Seal)

[steelydave]

I'm sure most people have seen QQ's fantastic RCA Quadradisc info/checklist page. It covers RCA's quad output from when they started releasing CD-4 Quadradiscs some time in mid 1972, but before RCA got in to LP-based quad they dozens of albums on Q8 tapes with the PQ8 prefix. I was curious how these releases slotted in chronologically, and how much overlap there was between the PQ8 series and RCA's later unified APT/APD series of CD-4 LPs and Q8 tapes.

So with the help of Mark Anderson's Surround Discography (which any self-respecting quad collector should consider their bible) and also trawling through old issues of Billboard and Cash Box magazines, I was able to establish a pretty strong timeline for these releases. Hopefully this is of some use or interest to anyone who's interested in these tapes or the history of quad in general.

I did discover some interesting things:

• RCA seems to be the first label to go 'all in' on quad - their initial batch of releases was in December 1970, preceding most other labels by a year or more.
• Two titles (South Pacific soundtrack and Brian Auger 'Fourever') show up in the initial release list/artwork but never came out. They're absent from the 1971 advertisement.
• The Jefferson Airplane quad releases are absent from all the advertising in 1970 and 1971 - could this be because they were in the middle of renegotiating their contract with RCA and starting Grunt Records?
• RCA didn't go back an re-release any of these in the US on CD-4 once they got in to quad vinyl in 1972, despite doing exactly that in Japan with the R4P series....with one exception, Jefferson Airplane's 'Volunteers'.
• There's a pretty big overlap between the R4P series and the APT/APD series in late 1972 and early 1973 - I'm surprised something like The Guess Who's 'Artificial Paradise' was Q8 only in 1973.

RCA/Victor

CATALOG NUMBER	RELEASE DATE	ARTIST	TITLE	LP CAT #
OQ8-5002	11/28/70	Harry Belafonte	At Carnegie Hall (Highlights)	R4P-5050/QR
OQ8-1001	12/12/70	Original Soundtrack	The Sound Of Music	R4P-5080/QR
OQ8-1003	12/12/70	Original Soundtrack	South Pacific *NEVER RELEASED*
OQ8-1005	12/05/70	Original Cast	Fiddler On The Roof	QR
OQ8-1006	12/12/70	Original Broadway Cast	Hello Dolly!	QR
PQ8-1011	12/05/70	Al Hirt	Best Of
OQ8-1038	12/12/70	Original Broadway Cast	Hair	QR
PQ8-1088	12/05/70	Eddy Arnold	My World
PQ8-1128	12/05/70	Henry Mancini	The Best Of	QR
PQ8-1185	12/05/70	Eddy Arnold	Best
PQ8-1221	12/12/70	The Youngbloods	Get Together	QR
PQ8-1226	xx/xx/71	Henry Mancini	The Concert Sound Of
PQ8-1261	12/05/70	Chet Atkins	Picks The Best
PQ8-1301	12/05/70	Hugo Montenegro	Fistful Of Dollars/Few Dollars More/Good, Bad, Ugly	R4P-5002
PQ8-1315	12/05/70	Henry Mancini	The Best Of, Vol. 2	QR
PQ8-1377	12/05/70	Jose Feliciano	Feliciano!	R4P-5004
PQ8-1441	12/05/70	Henry Mancini	A Warm Shade Of Ivory	R4P-5010
PQ8-1442	12/05/70	The Guess Who	Wheatfield Soul
PQ8-1443	12/05/70	The Friends Of Distinction	Grazin'	R4P-5008
PQ8-1452	12/??/70	Charley Pride	Sensational Charley Pride
PQ8-1456	12/12/70	Elvis Presley	From Elvis In Memphis	R4P-5005
PQ8-1470	12/??/70	Danny Davis & The Nashville Brass	More Nashville Sounds
PQ8-1472	12/05/70	The Guess Who	Canned Wheat Packed By
PQ8-1476	12/05/70	Ed Ames	The Best Of
PQ8-1479	12/05/70	Jose Feliciano	10 To 23	R4P-5012
PQ8-1489	12/05/70	The Friends Of Distinction	Highly Distinct
PQ8-1505	12/12/70	Charley Pride	The Best Of
PQ8-1507	??/??/71	Jefferson Airplane	Volunteers	R4P-5053/APD1-0320/QR
PQ8-1508	12/05/70	Henry Mancini, His Orchestra & Chorus	Six Hours Past Sunset	R4P-5014
PQ8-1518	12/05/70	The Guess Who	American Woman	R4P-5011
PQ8-1536	??/??/7?	Charley Pride	Just Plain Charley
PQ8-1537	11/28/70	Jose Feliciano	Alive Alive-O! Part 1	R4P-5019
PQ8-1538	11/28/70	Jose Feliciano	Alive Alive-O! Part 2	R4P-5020
PQ8-1552	11/28/70	Henry Mancini	Mancini Country	R4P-5025
PQ8-1555	12/05/70	The Friends Of Distinction	Real Friends
PQ8-1568	12/05/70	Danny Davis & The Nashville Brass	You Ain't Heard Nothing Yet
PQ8-1583	12/05/70	Henry Mancini & His Orchestra	Theme From "Z" and Other Film Music	R4P-5003/QR
PQ8-1590	xx/xx/71	The Guess Who	Share The Land	R4P-5006
PQ8-1591	12/05/70	Hugo Montenegro	The Best Of	QR
PQ8-1592	12/05/70	Floyd Cramer	With The Music City Pops
PQ8-1593	12/12/70	Charley Pride	10th Album
PQ8-1594	12/12/70	Elvis Presley	On Stage February 1970	R4P-5009
PQ8-1595	12/05/70	Jose Feliciano	Fireworks	R4P-5004
PQ8-1597	11/xx/71	Nina Simone	Best
PQ8-1600	12/05/70	Brian Auger & The Trinity	Befour *NEVER RELEASED*
PQ8-1601	12/xx/70	Dolly Parton	Real Live Dolly	R4P-5031
PQ8-1608	12/05/70	Perry Como	Live In Las Vegas At The International Hotel
PQ8-1613	12/05/70	Hot Tuna	Hot Tuna
PQ8-1617	xx/xx/71	The Youngbloods	Best Of
PQ8-1622	xx/xx/71	The Friends Of Distinction	Whatever
PQ8-1633	??/??/7?	Michael Nesmith & The First National Band	Loose Salute (not listed in 1970 or 1971)
PQ8-1636	xx/xx/71	Michael Nesmith & The First National Band	Magnetic South	R4P-5018
PQ8-1640	12/xx/70	Floyd Cramer	Class Of '70
PQ8-1652	xx/xx/71	Elvis Presley	That's The Way It Is
PQ8-1653	??/??/7?	Jefferson Airplane	Worst (probably '71 but copyright is '70)	QR
PQ8-1692	??/??/71	Danny Davis & The Nashville Brass	Something Else (1971 Copyright date)
PQ8-1710	11/xx/71	The Guess Who	Best Of	QR
PQ8-1711	??/??/71	John Denver	Poems, Prayers & Promises
PQ8-1734	??/??/71	Harry Nilsson	Nilsson Schmilsson	R4P-5052/QR
PQ8-1762	11/xx/71	Hot Tuna	Electric (aka First Pull Up, Then Pull Down?)	R4P-5030
PQ8-1798	11/xx/71	The Nite-Liters	Morning, Noon & Nite-Liters
PQ8-1819	11/xx/71	Buddy Rich	A Different Drummer	R4P-5015
PQ8-1828	??/??/72	The Guess Who	Rockin'(1972 Copyright Date)
PQ8-1861	11/xx/71	Hugo Montenegro	Mammy Blue	R4P-5023/QR
PQ8-1862	??/??/72	Henry Mancini & Doc Severinsen	Brass On Ivory
PQ8-1895	??/??/72	Buddy Rich	Rich In London	R4P-5034
PQ8-1959	08/19/72	V/A	I Will See You In Hawaii
PQ8-2054	??/??/72	Elvis Presley	Recorded Live At Madison Square Garden	R4P-5032
PQ8-2064	??/??/72	The Jimmy Castor Bunch	Phase II
PQ8-2090	12/02/72	Danny Davis & The Nashville Brass	Turn On Some Happy Music (BB New Release Listing)
PQ8-2113	04/??/73	The Friends Of Distinction	Love Can Make It Easier (ad in 04/14 Cash Box)
PQ8-2114	??/??/73	The Guess Who	Artificial Paradise
PQ8-2121	??/??/73	Jerry Reed	Hot A' Mighty
PQ8-2124	??/??/73	Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton	We Found It
PQ8-2136	??/??/73	Waylon Jennings	Lonesome, On'ry and Mean
PQ8-2140	??/??/73	Elvis Presley	Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite Part 1	R4P-5035/QR
PQ8-2141	??/??/73	Elvis Presley	Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite Part 2	R4P-5036/QR

Kirshner

CATALOG NUMBER	RELEASE DATE	ARTIST	TITLE	LP CAT #
PQKO-1002	12/05/70	The Archies	Sugar, Sugar	R4P-5050/QR

Grunt

CATALOG NUMBER	RELEASE DATE	ARTIST	TITLE	LP CAT #
PQFT-1001	11/xx/71	Jefferson Airplane	Bark	R4P-5028
PQFT-1002	??/??/72	Paul Kantner & Grace Slick	Sunfighter	R4P-5027
PQFT-1003	??/??/72	Papa John Creach	Papa John Creach	R4P-5024
PQFT-1004	??/??/72	Hot Tuna	Burgers

RCA Red Seal Classical

CATALOG NUMBER	RELEASE DATE	ARTIST	TITLE	LP CAT #
RQ8-1002	12/05/70	Cliburn/Kondrashin	Tchaikovsky's Concerto No. 1
RQ8-1010	12/05/70	Fiedler/Boston Pops	Music From Million Dollar Movies
RQ8-1027	12/05/70	Richard Rodgers	Victory At Sea, Vol. 1
RQ8-1047	12/05/70	Fiedler/Boston Pops	The Best Of
RQ8-1048	12/05/70	Leinsdorf/RCA Italiana Opera Orch. & Chorus	Puccini's Madama Butterfly (Highlights)
RQ8-1052	12/05/70	Julian Bream	Rodrigo's Concierto De Aranjuez
RQ8-1077	12/05/70	Leinsdorf/Rome Opera House	Puccini's La Boheme (Highlights)
RQ8-1103	12/05/70	Fiedler/Boston Pops	Up, Up and Away
RQ8-1110	12/05/70	Rubenstein/Ormandy	Chopin's Concerto No. 2 in F/Grand Fantasy On Polish Airs
RQ8-1112	12/05/70	Ormandy/Philadelphia Orchestra	Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6
RQ8-1115	12/05/70	Buketoff/New Philarmonia Orch.	Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture
RQ8-1123	11/28/70	Ormandy/Philadelphia Orch.	Lizst's Hungarian Rhapsodies No. 1 & 2
RQ8-1137	12/05/70	Hans Wurman	The Moog Strikes Bach
RQ8-1141	12/05/70	Fiedler/Boston Pops	Bizet's Carmen Ballet
RQ8-1160	12/05/70	Fiedler/BSO	Dvorak's New World Symphony
RQ8-1162	xx/xx/70	Hans Wurman	Chopin A La Moog
RQ8-1164	11/28/70	Ozawa/Boston Symphony	Stravinsky's Firebird & Petrouchka
RQ8-1165	11/28/70	Rubenstein/Ormandy/Philadelphia Orch	Saint-Saens: Concerto No. 2 / Falla: Gardens Of Spain
RQ8-1168	11/28/70	Reiner/Chicago Symphony	Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathaustra
RQ8-1170	11/28/70	Ormandy/Philadelphia Orchestra	Copland's Appalachian Spring Suite
RQ8-1179	11/xx/71	Ormandy/Philadelphia Orchestra	Love Story	QR: ERQA-3210-QF
RQ8-1198	11/xx/71	Ormandy/Philadelphia Orchestra	Handel/Hallelujah!

Demo Tapes

CATALOG NUMBER	RELEASE DATE	LABEL/VENDOR	TITLE	NOTES
PCQ8-1000	1970	RCA	Your RCA Dealer Presents Hearing is Believing
PCQ8-1001
PCQ8-1002
PCQ8-1003	1971	Motorola	Spectrum of 4 Channel Sound
PCQ8-1004	1971	Motorola	Spectrum of 4 Channel Sound
PCQ8-1005
PCQ8-1006	1971	RCA	The Sounds of Stereo Today!
PCQ8-1007	1971	Philco-Ford	Kaleidoscope of Universal Musical Favorites
PCQ8-1008
PCQ8-1009
PCQ8-1010
PCQ8-1011	1972	Thomas	Special Demonstration Tape For The Thomas 4-Channel Quadraphonic Spinet Organ
PCQ8-1012	1972	RCA	Four Channel Q8 Stereo The Sound Around You

(Many of these 'PCQ8' compilation tapes included tracks from albums that weren't released in quad. The links in the catalog numbers of each will take you to their individual discogs pages, which give a full accounting of which tracks are unique to their compilations, and what original stereo albums they were culled from. The catalog entries with no information either don't exist or haven't surfaced yet.)

11/28/70 = Pictured in RCA Quad 8 Billboard Magazine advertisment
12/05/70 = Listed in Billboard New Releases for that week
12/12/70 = Listed in Billboard New Releases for that week
11/xx/71 = Listed in Tape News Report, CashBox Nov. 13 1971 pg. 38
xx/xx/71 = Pictured in RCA 'Q8' Billboard Magazine advertisement Oct. 2nd 1971 (Shows most titles up to PQ8 1640)

 

[steelydave]

Cash Box Magazine, October 24, 1970

Cash Box Magazine, November 7, 1970

Billboard Magazine, Nov 28th 1970 Issue - Pages 34-35

Billboard Magazine, Nov 28th 1970 Issue - Page 33

Billboard Magazine, October 2nd, 1971 (Click to Enlarge)



CashBox Magazine, November 13, 1971

Electronics Today International (UK), August 1972

(Quad Eight was the manufacturer of a range of mixing desks and other outboard audio equipment that was especially popular in the 1970s - this letter explains why RCA changed the labelling on their quad tapes from "Quad 8" to "Q8" sometime in mid-1971.)

 

[Simon A]

I love reading and seeing all this stuff!

Thanks for taking the time to do this Dave!

 

[Lute]

Any info on how those RQ8 Classical titles were remixed into Quad? I assume several of those recordings were originally from the late 1950s and early 1960s.

 

[ubertrout]

Any info on how those RQ8 Classical titles were remixed into Quad? I assume several of those recordings were originally from the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Yeah, lots of 2 & 3-track recordings in there that must have been upmixes. A lot of the subsequent RCA classical quad releases were discrete, but I suspect most of these aren't.

 

[Q-Eight]

Any info on how those RQ8 Classical titles were remixed into Quad? I assume several of those recordings were originally from the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Many RCA-owned studios were using 3-track as early as 1958. But many of them could have even come from mutlitrack film as that was still a common format right through around 1964 when multitrack tape became the new standard and began to surpass film in number of tracks. Remember Enoch Light used multitrack film on many of his Command releases which enabled them to be remixed to Quad later on.

The Al Hirt 'Best Of' Q8 which bears a copyright of 1964, comes from a mix of 3 and 4 track tapes. The mix is actually quite pleasing.

 

[Lute]

Many RCA-owned studios were using 3-track as early as 1958. But many of them could have even come from mutlitrack film as that was still a common format right through around 1964 when multitrack tape became the new standard and began to surpass film in number of tracks. Remember Enoch Light used multitrack film on many of his Command releases which enabled them to be remixed to Quad later on.

The Al Hirt 'Best Of' Q8 which bears a copyright of 1964, comes from a mix of 3 and 4 track tapes. The mix is actually quite pleasing.

Thanks for your reply.

This might be a stupid question but these Quad 8 releases of those Classical titles contain a 4-channel mix, right?

 

[Q-Eight]

Thanks for your reply.

This might be a stupid question but these Quad 8 releases of those Classical titles contain a 4-channel mix, right?

I would assume so. I don't collect classical titles - mostly rock, pop, country and soul acts. However I do have some early Mancini's and the aforementioned Al Hirt title. The Al Hirt is actually quite good, although more of a curio than a truly immersive Quad mix. Since many songs, like "Java" are recorded in 3-track, you have Al's trumpet front center, with rhythm track 1 on Back Left and Rhythm Track 2 Back Right. To create a stereo image in the front, you have a bit of rhythm track 1 bleed on the left and track 2 bleed on the right. Like I say, it's pleasing, but a far cry from the 8, 16 and 24 track mixes we most associate with Quad. There are some 4-track songs on this album as well. But again, it's mostly Vocal 1 in FL, vocal 2 in FR, Band track 1 BL and Band track 2 BR. Some channel bleed in the front to avoid going completely silent during non-vocal parts.

You've got to at least give credit where credit is due. RCA certainly gave it the old college try to make some of these early titles into Quad. The Belafonte concert is especially good. I still can't tell if that's a 3, 4 or 8-track concert. It's dated 1965, so it could be any of them! The mix is far from discrete, but it certainly makes you feel like you're at the concert. It's that smooth.

The early Mancini's are hard to tell. When you're dealing with a plethora of stringed instruments, woodwinds and pianos; it's very difficult to determine where exactly they emanate from. These might be faked, but I doubt it. I do believe they stem from multitrack recordings, but when omnidirectional microphones are used to capture the sound of an acoustic space, instruments don't get an exact placement on the soundstage. So, everything sort of comes at you from everywhere. (This is sort of the reason I avoid Classical titles - they're not aggressively discrete enough for my tastes).

P.S. - One of the early PQ8 series titles they did go back and re-release as a CD-4 disc was Nilsson Schmilsson.

 

[Lute]

Many thanks for your detailed response, Q-Eight! I can get a pretty good picture of what was going on. I agree RCA certainly gave it their all with recordings back then. Those RCA classical titles are still popular today not only for the quality of the sound but also for the excellent performances. I wonder if RCA thought they could get something more out of them by mixing them into Quad. It would be fun to listen to some of them.

But, I haven't played an 8-track tape since the 1970s. I've forgotten the ins & outs of them. So, I was curious if RCA might have transfered those 2 channel recordings as they were simply to release them on an 8-track tape for the market at the time.

One's taste in music is similar to one's taste in food. There's no right or wrong, good or bad... We like what we like. But, I do hope you'll be able to get into Classical performances in Quad and 5.1 in the future. There is so much fabulous music out there. And with AF sadly scaling down their Quad SACDs, I'll be relying more and more on Classical to fill the void.

Your posts are most helpful! Thanks again!

 

[boojidad]

You missed two in the Red Seal dept:

RQ8-1103 Up Up and Away - Arthur Fiedler/Boston Pops
RQ8-1179 Love Story - Eugene Ormandy/Philadelphia Orchestra (Reel: ERQA 3210-QF)

Images available on request.

 

[steelydave]

I did a search and I know this has been posted about in Mark Anderson's thread about compilation tracklistings, but I just happened upon this tape on eBay and thought it was interesting:

PCQ8-1012 ('Four Channel Stereo Q8 / The Sound Around You') 1972



One of many of RCA's Q8 samplers, with a lot of the usual suspects on board - but a couple of those tracks, as far as I know are from albums that were never released in quad:

Eydie Gorme 'A Time For Us' (from 'Tonight I'll Say A Prayer' RCA Victor LSP-4303, 1970)

Claus Ogerman 'It's Not Unusual' (from 'Watusi Trumpets' RCA Victor LSP-3455, 1965)


Another one of those 'I wonder what else never got released' moments...

 

[steelydave]

Based on a conversation in another thread about the rarity of the Jose Feliciano 'Alive Alive-O!' Q8's, I happened to remember there was a full page advertisement for RCA's quad catalog in the August 9th, 1975 issue of Billboard magazine.

The advertisement was a list of (what I believe is) all of the quad product RCA had in print at the time, and I happened to notice that Alive Alive-O wasn't listed, but that the other Feliciano 'PQ8' Q8's (Feliciano!, 10 To 23, Fireworks) were. So what I think this means is that RCA had already taken some of their PQ8 series Q8 tapes out of print by 1975, and as a result they had a much shorter print run than the rest of RCA's quad product which went out of print in the late 70's.

I went through the list of PQ8 tapes I made in the first post of this thread and compared them one by one with the 1975 RCA ad and these are the ones that don't appear in 1975:

PQKO-1002 - The Archies - Sugar, Sugar
PQ8-1011 - Al Hirt - Best Of
PQ8-1221 - The Youngbloods - Get Together
PQ8-1226 - Henry Mancini - The Concert Sound Of
PQ8-1261 - Chet Atkins - Picks The Best
PQ8-1443 - The Friends Of Distinction - Grazin'
PQ8-1470 - Danny Davis & The Nashville Brass - More Nashville Sounds
PQ8-1489 - The Friends Of Distinction - Highly Distinct
PQ8-1508 - Henry Mancini, His Orchestra & Chorus - Six Hours Past Sunset
PQ8-1537 - Jose Feliciano - Alive Alive-O! Part 1
PQ8-1538 - Jose Feliciano - Alive Alive-O! Part 2
PQ8-1555 - The Friends Of Distinction - Real Friends
PQ8-1568 - Danny Davis & The Nashville Brass - You Ain't Heard Nothing Yet
PQ8-1583 - Henry Mancini & His Orchestra - Theme From "Z" and Other Film Music
PQ8-1592 - Floyd Cramer - With The Music City Pops
PQ8-1608 - Perry Como - Live In Las Vegas At The International Hotel
PQ8-1622 - The Friends Of Distinction - Whatever
PQ8-1633 - Michael Nesmith & The First National Band - Loose Salute
PQ8-1636 - Michael Nesmith & The First National Band - Magnetic South
PQ8-1640 - Floyd Cramer - Class Of '70
PQ8-1798 - The Nite-Liters - Morning, Noon & Nite-Liters
PQ8-1828 - The Guess Who - Rockin'
PQ8-1861 - Hugo Montenegro - Mammy Blue
PQ8-1959 - V/A - I Will See You In Hawaii
PQ8-2113 - The Friends Of Distinction - Love Can Make It Easier
PQ8-2121 - Jerry Reed - Hot A'Mighty
PQ8-2124 - Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton - We Found It

I think what's interesting is that if you've collected these PQ8 series tapes you'll notice that the ones listed above are amongst the most difficult to find. The Archies, Friends Of Distinction and Mike Nesmith tapes usually go for big bucks on eBay when they do show up, and it also answers my own wonder about why it was so hard to find a copy of The Guess Who's 'Rockin' when a lot of their other Q8 tapes are pretty easy to find.

This is the original 1975 Advertisement:

 

[JonUrban]

"Bimp" to celebrate the new tables in post #1

 

[steelydave]

Thanks to Jon for importing the tables in to the new format.

This is sort of a work in progress, but I've made a few minor changes to the table that will hopefully make things a little more readable. I've also added a few tapes I missed the first time: the four Bark label (PQFT) releases, and the two missing Red Seal (RQ8) tapes that @boojidad highlighted.

I also added several trade magazine articles (in chronological order) to post #2 about the history of RCA's early Q8 endeavours, including one that explains why they changed the name of their quad tapes from "Quad 8" to "Q8" in 1971, something I've always been personally curious about.

 

[admsh]

Does anyone know if the Nina Simone title listed here ever actually saw the light of day? It's mentioned in a few quad discographies, and been searching for it the past 5 years or so to no avail. Were some of these titles announced but not actually released or do we know for a fact this entire catalogue made it out?

 

[sjcorne]

Does anyone know if the Nina Simone title listed here ever actually saw the light of day? It's mentioned in a few quad discographies, and been searching for it the past 5 years or so to no avail. Were some of these titles announced but not actually released or do we know for a fact this entire catalogue made it out?

I've never heard it, but the tape definitely exists.
https://www.discogs.com/Nina-Simone-The-Best-Of-Nina-Simone/release/8847903

 

[noffour]

I sold one on ebay late last year, definitely does exist.

 

[admsh]

I've never heard it, but the tape definitely exists.
https://www.discogs.com/Nina-Simone-The-Best-Of-Nina-Simone/release/8847903

I sold one on ebay late last year, definitely does exist.

Thank you both. I'll keep looking, really want to put my hands on this one.

 

[steelydave]

That tape has always been a tough one to find, and anecdotally speaking anyway. It's always seemed to me that the PQ8 tapes that were part of the initial December 1970 batch are much easier to find than the ones from the subsequent batches like the November '71 batch that the Nina Simone tape is part of.

The PQ8 tapes from 1972 have been even harder for me to find - I think I've seen about 5 copies of The Guess Who's Rockin' and Jimmy Castor's Phase II in the last 15 years of eBay trawling, which seems crazy when you compare that to some of the later RCA APT1 Q8's, like later Guess Who titles (#10, Road Food, Flavours, Power in the Music, etc.) and the '73-'75 Mancini/Montenegro tapes which are almost constantly available for sale.

 

[4-earredwonder]

That tape has always been a tough one to find, and anecdotally speaking anyway. It's always seemed to me that the PQ8 tapes that were part of the initial December 1970 batch are much easier to find than the ones from the subsequent batches like the November '71 batch that the Nina Simone tape is part of.

The PQ8 tapes from 1972 have been even harder for me to find - I think I've seen about 5 copies of The Guess Who's Rockin' and Jimmy Castor's Phase II in the last 15 years of eBay trawling, which seems crazy when you compare that to some of the later RCA APT1 Q8's, like later Guess Who titles (#10, Road Food, Flavours, Power in the Music, etc.) and the '73-'75 Mancini/Montenegro tapes which are almost constantly available for sale.

So steelydave.....whisper into the ears of Mr. Dutton that The Best of Nina Simone might be a great contender for a D~V SACD upgrade. Would certainly satisfy his existing fan base as well.