Pye Chart Busters - Tape editions
The Pye Chart Busters series followed Marble Arch Chartbusters, which had itself dabbled with the 8-track cartridge. But when Pye took over, the cartridges and cassettes took on a life of their own and are a fascinating parallel series. The tapes had their own artwork, album titles and catalogue numbers, and some, such as the 8-track cartridge pictured right, have no vinyl equivalent at all. |
Note - tapes without vinyl equivalents are detailed fullly on the main series page, along with the LPs.
The tapes initially ran in direct parallel with the LPs, although they did not feature the photographic covers. Instead, they had track listings on the front, often in the same or similar style to the LPs. The album series ground to a halt during 1973, and after the re-launch of 1974, the cartridges become particularly interesting.
This 'second phase' saw Pye regularise the artwork on the tapes with a repeating geometrical pattern, and whereas the LP series was now called "12 Chart Buster Hits", these were instead called "12 Chart Busters". They also had their own volume numbers, starting again at volume 1 (which matches the LP volume 10).
The tapes initially ran in direct parallel with the LPs, although they did not feature the photographic covers. Instead, they had track listings on the front, often in the same or similar style to the LPs. The album series ground to a halt during 1973, and after the re-launch of 1974, the cartridges become particularly interesting.
This 'second phase' saw Pye regularise the artwork on the tapes with a repeating geometrical pattern, and whereas the LP series was now called "12 Chart Buster Hits", these were instead called "12 Chart Busters". They also had their own volume numbers, starting again at volume 1 (which matches the LP volume 10).
8-track cartridges
The 8-tracks carried paper labels which were stuck on the front and which wrap around the bottom of the cartridges, forming a readable 'spine'. They were all issued in card slip cases, and these were plain card with the same style of labels stuck on, but upside down (since the 'spine' was at the top of the box). Occasionally cartridges will be found with what appear to be upside down labels - it is because they accidentally had the labels intended for the outer box stuck to them. The full discography as known to us is as follows:
FIRST SERIES
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SECOND SERIES
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END-OF-YEAR COLLECTIONS
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8-track series gallery
White shell editions
Although the green plastic shell appears to be standard, the "second phase" tapes were often - perhaps always - issued with white shells as well. Some of these white variants are shown below. Note: "second series" vol 9 is shown in white, above. The green edition is presumed to exist, but we do not have an image yet.
The real sequential volume number is given first, followed by the number shown on the cartridge - so 12/3 for instance is overall volume 12, but is volume 3 of the second series, and that is what shows on the front.
Full artwork: sample images
First series: volume 1
First series: volume 6
Second series: volume 2
Second series: volume 7
End-of-year review: Best of Chartbusters 1976
Cassette editions
From what we know about the cassette editions, they mirror the 8-tracks almost exactly and are probably the same in scope and number. However, we have much less physical evidence of cassettes during the series 1 era, and although we might assume that the full run of nine was issued, this remains guesswork at present.
FIRST SERIES
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SECOND SERIES
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END-OF-YEAR COLLECTIONS
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