I was looking through a favorite book of mine called As Seen On TV where it talked about K-Tel Records and I would like to know if you remember K-Tel Records? K-Tel Records released awesome records with singers such as Tina Turner and Rod Stewart and Olivia Newton John but K-Tel Records also released greatest hits albums of just about any popular band or singer such as The O'Jays to Chuck Berry and The Steve Miller Band. When K-Tel Records went out of business it was a truly sad day in music history
Who remembers K-Tel Records and did you have any K-Tel Records albums that were your favorites?
Bestie

Sure I remember K-Tel Records, I remember them well. During the 1970's they released these "current hits of the day" albums. Some of the album titles were "Believe In Music", "Music Power", "Block Buster", etc. I thought that the songs they chose for those albums was always a mixed bag, some good tunes and some others not so good. I remember thinking to myself, "I can do much better than that!" :lol: In a way, those K-Tel albums inspired me to create my own greatest hits of the 70's collection, which I worked on over the years and now have it completed. It's a total of 366 songs on 30 CD's, covering all the years from 1970 to 79. I think I did a great job with the song selection, it's the best of everything, hard rock, pop, ballads, country, soul, disco. There are a few tunes I left off that I could have included, but I had to draw the line somewhere.

I still have a bunch of K-Tel lps from the 70s and the best thing is I still have a record player, actually 2. I like them all but one of my favorites is Music Machine which has songs from 1976/77 and 2 bonus posters--Andy Gibb and KC and The Sunshine Band

K-Tel! I haven't heard that name in years! I remember the commercials but I never ordered anything. :)

I still have a bunch of K-Tel lps from the 70s and the best thing is I still have a record player, actually 2. I like them all but one of my favorites is Music Machine which has songs from 1976/77 and 2 bonus posters--Andy Gibb and KC and The Sunshine Band

Music Machine is a fairly decent K-Tel LP, eight songs from the album are in my 70's hits collection.

Ah, a blast from the past. Got out 25 Rock Revival Greats (1972), and gave it a spin. Little scratchy, but that's..kinda groovy.

I used to buy these and the other ones from Ronco. Sometimes you got a good deal and it was the original artists. Other times it was a rip off. If I recall, there was a studio group called "The Original Artists" so an album could say "sung by the original artists". These would be like the Now That's What I Call Music CDs of today because most albums only had a few hit songs and the rest were filler so the compilations were good. Plus my parents were more likely to give me money for these instead of an actual album where I would listen to 1-3 songs.

Do you remember a children's album that was made by K-Tel Records that was called The Ronald McDonald All-Star Party? My teacher had this album on cassette form and it featured Ronald McDonald singing songs with a kids group which was The All-Star Party and it featured guest appearences by the cast of Sesame Street Bugs Bunny Shamu The Whale from Sea World Strawberry Shortcake and many other cartoon favorites and this K-Tel album was a favorite of me and my classmates when I was in school. The only K-Tel album I have in my music collection features Tina Turner singing country music and also features Gloria Gaynor as well.
Bestie

Oh yeah I remember K-Tel records, of course I was still a kid then. Basically compilation albums of the most popular songs at the time. But I never owned any myself.

I actually did a search for K-Tel records on Amazon one time just out of curiosity. And I was surprised that many of the albums were still available. Interestingly, most of them were only available on vinyl record and not cd. There were a couple that you could find on cd but not many.

Ed.

My grandparents had a K-Tel album of late 70's hits. Two of the songs I remember on it were Talking in Your Sleep by Crystal Gale and Love is in the Air by John Paul Young.

I had several of the K-Tel Albums. They carried them at one of the drugstores along with other As Seen on TV items. I used to drive my mom crazy wanting to buy that stuff.

These are two of the albums I had back in the day.

Those K-Tel albums were actually a rip off because they would put shortened versions of some songs on the albums. I imagine maybe they did this so they could fit 10 or 11 songs on one side of an album, but still it was a rip off. Back in the day though, most people probably didn't care or notice. :lol:

This is a good one.

I remembered too that there was another company back then that basically did the same thing of making compilation albums of the latest hits. It was called Sessions Records. I think they sold a lot of albums too.

Ed.

I remembered too that there was another company back then that basically did the same thing of making compilation albums of the latest hits. It was called Sessions Records. I think they sold a lot of albums too.

Ed.

Ronco was another company that released latest hits compilation albums. "Good Vibrations" and "Get It On" were a couple album titles.

Hmmm, I'm familiar with the Ronco company but not when it comes to selling music. I never knew they ever did that.

Ed.

K-Tel Records got it's name from Phillip Kevis who was the founder of K-Tel Records and in addition to music K-Tel Records also tried making home appliances but it wasn't as successful as it's record company. Another album K-Tel Records had was an album titled Chartbusters that had artists such as Tina Turner and Yes and many more artists were featured too as well. It's a surprise that many people know a lot about K-Tel Records because they were one of the most popular record labels of music during the years. Maybe someday soon K-Tel Records will make a comeback and put out lots of new albums in the future
Bestie

Got this one for a dollar a few weeks ago.


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Got this one for a dollar a few weeks ago.


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You bought a K-Tel Records album of Frankie Valli And The Four Seasons? That's really awesome Zoneboy because my father likes Frankie Valli And The Four Seasons and I never knew K-Tel Records released a greatest hits album of Frankie Valli And The Four Seasons so Dad would like this record
Thanks for sharing your awesome find with us
Bestie

K-Tel! I haven't heard that name in years! I remember the commercials but I never ordered anything. :)

http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/808451ktel.jpgI just got this the other day and I love it!!


I think its sad the quality of thier records went down in the 80s.. I believe they started using digital sources for the music ON ALL THIER ALBUMS (Even ones that were analog originally)

If you get a KTEL album and it has a # on the label,thats a newer re-issue.....


I have 5 KTEL albums and I love them :) (All original)

1) The hot ones - 1979 (ORIGINAL - NO # ON THE LABEL)

2) Superhits of the superstars (1975) - No #

3) 25 Polka Hits (Its amazing with as many songs on this album they sound so good (No #))

4) 20 famous couuntry hits - Volume 4 (No #)

5) Todays super greats - 1973 (8 track) - Original -- No # on the cartridge

Sure I remember K-Tel Records, I remember them well. During the 1970's they released these "current hits of the day" albums. Some of the album titles were "Believe In Music", "Music Power", "Block Buster", etc. I thought that the songs they chose for those albums was always a mixed bag, some good tunes and some others not so good. I remember thinking to myself, "I can do much better than that!" :lol: In a way, those K-Tel albums inspired me to create my own greatest hits of the 70's collection, which I worked on over the years and now have it completed. It's a total of 366 songs on 30 CD's, covering all the years from 1970 to 79. I think I did a great job with the song selection, it's the best of everything, hard rock, pop, ballads, country, soul, disco. There are a few tunes I left off that I could have included, but I had to draw the line somewhere.

LOL, thought I would update my post here from 2016. My hits of the 70's collection no longer has 366 songs, the number of songs has increased, the collection now has 420 songs on 34 CD's. I think that is where I'm drawing the line, there's still a slim chance I could decide to add a few songs but as of now 420 is the final number.

Nothing wrong with adding more right??

70s and before are the BEST!!!

Nothing wrong with adding more right??

70s and before are the BEST!!!

No, nothing wrong with adding more songs but I believe I have all the ones I want now, 420 will probably be the final number.

To me, the 70's was the best decade for top 40 music, especially the 1973 to 76 years. It started going downhill during the later years of the decade, 1977 to 79, not as many good songs on the charts during that time but I found enough good ones to fill out the collection.

There was 1973's "Super Bad" soul music compilation.

The only thing from K-Tel that I can proudly say that I own is this;
https://www.discogs.com/release/2825887-Various-Doubleshot-Alt-Rock

https://i.discogs.com/2ieiyzWv7UWqecTLKmOgoxul4X-fvuO_vtPZ_tRpoZs/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:300/w:300/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTI4MjU4/ODctMTMwMjc2NzIz/OC5qcGVn.jpeg

K-Tel was great because their various-artist albums a) used the original recordings, not a soundalike band, and b) were sold in stores!

The K-Tel product could have issues. Squeezing 10 songs on each side of an album required songs to be cut in some cases or the audio quality to far less than perfect. Because the grooves were so tight you could get albums with skips (especially at the start of the record).

I never bought one off television or at the store during the original release, however those albums regularly found their way to the cut-out bins at the record stores so for a anywhere from .99 cents to $1.99 the albums became a worthwhile buy.

I have several KTEL rercords that sound excellent (Original orange with black lettering labels)

You bought a K-Tel Records album of Frankie Valli And The Four Seasons? That's really awesome Zoneboy because my father likes Frankie Valli And The Four Seasons and I never knew K-Tel Records released a greatest hits album of Frankie Valli And The Four Seasons so Dad would like this record
Thanks for sharing your awesome find with us
Bestie

Heck, my mother, who grew up in the fifties in Orange, New Jersey, just outside Newark, was into the Four Seasons when it was only four guys, and Frankie Valli was one of them, without separate billing! :)

The original Seasons were Valli, Nick Massi, Tommy DeVito and Bob Gaudio. They (and my mom) were part of the still-big Italian diaspora in northern New Jersey. :)

Most K-Tel LPs were OK, but, yes, they did squeeze too many songs on an album, resulting in low sound levels, or a few shortened songs.

They had at least one subsidiary label (I think Dominion was one) that would have re-recordings, which were awful for the most part. Once in a while K-Tel would be forced to use a re-recording if the original was unavailable for some reason, and there would be a small-print disclaimer (example: the Cameo and Parkway label recordings were unavailable for years [Chubby Checker, Dee Dee Sharp, etc.])

Ya it was sad Stevie :(