Pick a Song...Any Song!

Tommy Towery

LHS '64

Although there are multiple facets of remembering the music of our times, I vividly remember one of the techniques used to get music into our homes and money out of our pockets. We lovingly called them "Record of the Month Clubs." Let's look back at some of the details of these clubs.

A Record Club was a mail-order music subscription service. It was adopted and implemented by the major record labels in the 1950s for selling phonograph records and prerecorded reel-to-reel tapes. Columbia Records launched an experimental record club in 1953, limited to solicitations in three Midwestern states. Due to the retail dealer furor it created, the club was shut down a year later, in November 1954. Dealers were upset by club benefits which included a free dividend record for every three purchased, and feared loss of direct sales as a result. Columbia revamped the membership plan and benefits, allowing dealer participation in the enrollment and purchase process, in a revised club that was announced in August 1955. That same month, RCA Victor announced that it had no plans to start its own record club. Capitol Records launched its record club with an initial test mailing in November 1957. The enthusiastic response prompted Capitol to announce a full-scale drive to establish its record club.

Under Columbia's original club plan, upon enrolling in the club, the record buyer received a free LP from a group of the label's artists. Thereafter, eight selections were offered monthly, in four categories: classical; listening and dancing; Broadway, movies, television and musical comedies; and jazz. Columbia published a monthly club magazine describing current selections. Membership required the customer to purchase four LPs per year. For every two disks purchased, the customer would receive a bonus disk.

Over time, plans varied in the number of disks at sign-up, whether free or at a reduced price; the number of LPs required to be purchased in order to maintain membership; and the time period within which the minimum number of LPs were to be purchased. For example, in 1966, the Capitol sign-up allowed the customer to choose seven LPs for $1.87, with a commitment to purchase seven more LPs in one year. In 1976, the Columbia sign-up allowed the customer to choose 11 LPs for $1.00, with a commitment to purchase eight more LPs in a three-year period.

The hitch? You had to order many more albums at “regular club prices,” which meant they weren’t cheap, and then there were the shipping and handling fees. You also had to respond each month to the club selection notice or else you’d automatically receive the album of the month, and be charged for it. I remember several times we did not get the cards back on time and received some albums we did not order or like the music on them. 

High-Fidelty records costing $3.98 in 1966 is equal to spending $38.58 today. Buying six records in one year would cost $231.48 in today’s money. Stereo records were $1.00 more costing $4.98 in 1966. That would cost you $48.27 today. Six of those records in a year would cost $289.62 today. Those prices do not include the “small mailing and handling charge”.

Over time, a significant number of members would not pay for records they ordered. Record companies saw lower royalties from sales through record clubs than from sales through stores and other means. In addition, that the clubs could give away up to one free record for every record sold resulted in about half as much revenue for record companies as they might get through other distribution channels. As a general assessment, record clubs were deemed not a complete commercial success.

The Wayback Machine

"Hey Baby (They're Playing Our Song)" - The Buckinghams

"Hey Baby (They're Playing Our Song)" is a song by The Buckinghams, which was released as a single in 1967, and on their album Portraits in 1968. It spent 10 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at No. 12. 

The Buckinghams are an American pop band from Chicago. They formed in 1966 and went on to become one of the top-selling acts of 1967, charting their only five top 40 hits in the U.S. that year. It was their number one single "Kind of a Drag" that provided them with national exposure. and spent two weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1967. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. The same year, the Buckinghams were named by Billboard magazine as "The Most Listened to Band in America". 

I got an answer as to who sent me the collection of Best Songs and other magazines. I got a response from Marin and Jan Lee, LHS ’66, “We sent this and hope everyone enjoys it.  Thanks for your newsletter each week.”

I would like to hear from some of you about your own experiences with the Record of the Month Clubs back in our earlier days. I'm sure there must have been some discussions about which album to select each month. What do you remember about it?

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