Parade of Pops (Windmill) (1972 - 1976)
The “Parade of Pops” series was a direct continuation of the earlier “Pick of the Pops” series on Deacon. The title change was a result of a legal issue with Pickwick, and it so happened that Windmill took the reins just as matters were being resolved, hence the different name and label. The first Windmill LP was in fact still called “Pick of the Pops”, but we include it here under “Parade of Pops” for obvious reasons. These albums are not numbered by volume, so we have numbered them ourselves - Windmill might have disagreed with our assertion that "Pick of the Pops" constitutes volume 1 - see comments below against volume 3!
The contents of these albums cross over prolifically with LPs on Flag, Pye and Stereo Gold Award among others. Windmill’s “Parade of Pops” were one of the longest-running covers series, with 26 regular installments to their credit, going into 1976 when the series was finally shelved. It was brought back to life a couple of years later on the Chevron label (see separate page).
Comments: Introduces the “Solid Gold” tag. Credit on cover for Cosmopolitan magazine, and the sleeve has almost the same image as on Cosmopolitan issue 6 (August 1972). Sleeve notes read, "Here you have the second album from 'Parade of Pops...", showing that they are not counting "Pick of the Pops" as part of the sequence.
End-of-year collections
Related albums
Miss World’s Solid Gold Top 20 (WWW 2001) 1973
Power To All Our Friends / 20th Century Boy / Some Kind Of Summer / Killing Me Softly With His Song / Heart Of Stone / Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree / Never Never Never / Get Down / Pinball Wizard - See Me Feel Me / God Gave Rock And Roll To You / The Twelfth Of Never / Pyjamarama / Feel The Need In Me / Nice One Cyril / Love Train / By The Devil (I Was Tempted) / That's When The Music Takes Me / Why Can't We Live Together / Gonna Make You An Offer You Can't Refuse |
The album above is a charity fund-raiser, promoted by the current Miss World, Belinda Green, who is featured on the cover. Windmill released a number of albums loosely connected to "Parade of Pops" but this is the only one which follows the same format, consisting of 20 tracks which were chart hits in February and March 1973. Thus, its contents could have formed the basis of volume 8, but in fact none of them were released in the main series, although six were purloined for that year's annual review LP (above). The album's proceeds went to “The Variety Club of Great Britain, The Greatest Children’s Charity in the World”.
Us Chart Busters (US 1) 1974
This album was not released on the usual Windmill label, but on an apparently anonymous and specially created imprint. It was produced as a promotional artefact for Us Deodorant (which is what the "Us" letters mean, as opposed to USA), which was apparently produced by Johnson's Wax, who are named on the back. There are no further credits anywhere on the album, except for a mention of Multiple Sound Distributors in the small print, since the contents are all plucked from "Parade of Pops" during 1974 (bar "Killing Me Softly", which is from the 1973 end-of-year collection). As such, it is a (sort-of) best-of-year collection itself.
Stateside Smash Hits (WMD 247) 1975
You're The First The Last My Everything / You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet / Annie's Song / Rock Me Gently / (You're) Having My Baby / You Little Trust Maker / When Will I See You Again / I'd Love You To Want Me / A Walkin' Miracle / Homely Girl / He's Misstra Know It All / Where Did All The Good Times Go |
Sub-titled "12 Top American Singles", and credited to The Statesiders, this UK release purports to be a review of US hits, but is, in effect, a third review of "Parade of Pops" during 1974. The twelve tracks are all taken from the albums volume 14 to 19, and although it has three tracks in common with "Us Chart Busters" (above), it shares none at all with the official end-of-year review album for 1974, "Top Hits of the Year".