K-Tel Records: Neon Nights

Sorry--speaking as a K-Tel purist, a 1982 compilation is like Willie Mays in 1973 or Tiger Woods today.

so... not a tough call then?

love that ad up top! they are almost copping some moves from the Showroom Dummies video

Sorry--speaking as a K-Tel purist, a 1982 compilation is like Willie Mays in 1973 or Tiger Woods today.

― clemenza, Tuesday, February 20, 2018 7:41 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

So as a K-Tel dilettante, when was peak K-Tel? Because this track list makes it look like they still had their game on.
BTW, no one's mentioned the last 2 songs (by Cheri and Junior), but those two stand up impressively to some of the better remembered tracks on the comp.

K-Tel for me is the first half of the '70s, when abysmal junk--but sometimes fascinatingly abysmal junk--swamped Top 40 radio. The DeFranco Family, Sister Janet Mead, Rick Dees, Vicki Lawrence, etc. The Reservoir Dogs/K-Billy K-Tel. Some of that junk, of course--Edison Lighthouse, Wild Cherry, etc.--was pretty great. And I'm partly kidding: "K-Tel purist" is the ultimate oxymoron.

I would say 1977-78. I associate K-Tel with things like Disco Fever and Star Party from that era.

Also wondering why K-Tel's marketing department felt the need position this as a "rock" compilation (it's subtitled "Rock's Danceable Side"). Was this just a way to sell more copies by tricking Foreigner fans into listening to the Dazz Band? Or was the 1982 definition of rock really that elastic?

Like how they start with Human League, and then Hall & Oates, and finally - oh here's Rick James.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.