1. 22 Dynamic Hits – Vol. II
Maybe the most significant, personally, because it was the first one I ever had. At least, it belonged to my mum and dad. K-Tel albums first came out in Britain in 1972, and people like my parents bought them to play at parties. I remember Pete Wiggs’ mum and dad had a few more – 20 Star Tracks, 20 Fantastic Hits – so I’m guessing they threw more parties, or maybe their parties just went on longer. I remember studying the artwork, the high contrast black and white pictures made the acts seem really important. All iconic in their own way. Olivia Newton-John had a kind face, Argent looked intimidating, Marc Bolan was the biggest pop star in the world at the time and looked the part. I loved K-Tel albums – I didn’t get much pocket money, so I couldn’t afford to buy many singles – 20 hits on each album, or 22 in this case, they were good value. And you always ended up with a couple of things you’d never heard of that weren’t hits at all, like ‘Dreams Are Ten A Penny’ by Kincade, which is tremendous, really loud drums and great harmonies. K-Tel albums are proper time capsules – this is how pop really felt in summer 1972, no hindsight, no revision.
