Casey's Really Scratchy Record Collection Presents: K-Tel's " Dynamite"

When I was in elementary school, I was a big pop music fan. I used to buy records at the Gold Circle department store. (Anybody remember those?)

One of the first albums I ever bought was a K-Tel album called "Dynamite".  This was around 1974. K-Tel was a company that specialized in compilation albums. They would compile a collection of recent hit songs, design a groovy album cover, advertise on tv and sell them in department stores. They also stealthily edited the length of the songs in order to maximize the number of tunes per album.

                   
I bought "Dynamite" when I was nine years old and played it non stop on my red white and blue record player.( Everything in the mid seventies was red, white and blue; basketballs, bicycles, sports jerseys, automobiles..) The album ran the gamut of seventies pop; rock n roll (BTO, Eric Clapton, Rick Derringer, Nazareth), soul (Al Wilson, The Stylistics, Kool & The Gang, Gladys Knight), AM pop (Terry Jacks, Paper Lace, Lobo, Albert Hammond), and even "Jesus Rock" (Sister Janet Mead's rockin' version of "The Lord's Prayer").

K-Tel Records were marketed to pre-teens and junior high kids and, predictably, in high school I moved on to more "serious" brands of music (most of which sounds much worse today than the pop music I listened to in the fourth grade). Along the way, I lost my copy of  "Dynamite" (and my red, white and blue record player) but I recently bought a copy on Amazon for a couple bucks and I am happy to say it sounds as good today as it did back in 1974, scratches and all.

Take a listen for yourself.

Casey's One Man Rock N Roll Band Website