Hit Parade Special (1970 - 1973)
Rediffusion’s first series, “Sounds Like Hits”, was discontinued in mid-1970. The reasons are not altogether clear, but probably had something to do with the demise of the Fontana label at around that point. (Fontana had been issuing their versions of "Sounds Like Hits" until late-1969, and were presumably helping to fund the releases.) However these events did not interrupt normal supply; the first installment of “Hit Parade Special” appeared reasonably soon after "Sounds Like Hits" was retired, starting a run of nine in total.
During the period that "Hit Parade Special" was in production, Rediffusion also released three albums which followed the same general format, but which were called something different. Since successive releases of "Hit Parade Special" were numbered in sequence, these extra LPs cannot be considered part of the set, and so are treated separately here - although there is no obvious reason why two of the odd three should have been issued outside the main series.
Some of these albums are composed of Mike Morton recordings, although he is not always credited on them.
End-of-year collections
Other releases
The following titles were released while "Hit Parade Special" was current and all contain comtemporary hits. It is not clear why they were not incorporated into the main series (although the US-themed "Hits Stateside" is more obviously separate).