England's 12 Top Hits (1969 - 1974)
This series overlapped with and then superseded the Studio 33 albums, which Avenue had released over the previous year. Avenue were so small that their early albums are extremely scarce, with scant distribution outside of the Greater London area - despite which they are among the most prolific in the field.
Avenue’s covers albums have regular titles but these vary slightly over time. Many of them were also issued as two EPs, containing six tracks each, usually credited to former Tornados guitarist, Alan Caddy, who came on board in 1970. Caddy appears to be behind much of Avenue’s post-1970 output, although the extent of his involvement is unclear, since many of the Avenue tracks also appear in Marble Arch’s “Chartbusters” series and Caddy is not credited on any of those LPs - they are purportedly supplied by Dyne.
Avenue launched their Forest label (for EPs) and the Stereo Plus 3 label (for certain LPs) in 1972, in a vain attempt to better engage the public. However Avenue appear to have shut up shop in 1974, with Caddy moving to Canada. Nonetheless, the organisation was apparently reincarnated in 1978 as 5th Avenue, through the Artistry label - see under "Smash Tracks" for details.
THE LABEL WAS APPARENTLY REVIVED BY ARTISTRY IN 1978 AND A NEW SERIES LAUNCHED UNDER THE NAME "SMASH TRACKS". SEE SEPARATE PAGE.