Purely by coincidence, I've just come across this Solomon Burke album on MGM that also had a stickered cover for UK release via Polydor, and this didn't even make the US R & B album chart; makes me wonder whether imported covers for "niche" product was a frequent occurrence at Polydor UK? (Interestingly, the German release with the same catalogue number has a completely different cover!). The only other one that I'm aware of is James Brown's THE ORIGINAL DISCO MAN from late 1979/early 1980.
hi philmh: over 50 catters confess to owning the merkin single, "starting all over again", so i think it was reasonable for polydor to have high hopes for both it, and the lp from which it was taken - so some kind of "strike while the iron is hot" - no?
(and whilst "backfield in motion" hadn't charted here in the uk, it was still an immensely popular party/disco dance single, and had been something of a "turntable hit" on uk radio - and sold pretty well over time - so there was a mel and tim track record...)
Hi ppint, my first thought was a rush job too, but as the title single didn't chart in the UK, and the album only got to # 175 (Top 200 albums) and # 35 (Top R & B albums) in the US, I don't think it would have met anyone's definition of "hot".
philmh: *nods* - or a rush job, to get the lp into the shops whilst it was - relatively - hot: they could've moved to yuk- or yeurppean-printed sleeves later - if sales warranted a "later"...
Discogs has a UK copy showing a US cover stickered with the 2325 090 pop catalogue number and SUPER price code (probably a bit over-optimistic expecting to get any sales at top price; STANDARD would probably have been a better bet, unless Polydor put everything out at SUPER price at that time?. Anyway, the album didn't chart in the UK). Trying to imagine why they imported US covers - perhaps it was only a small pressing run, and the usual LP cover printers specified minimum quantities that were more than had been pressed? Anyway, I think 1973 is a more likely release year, as the US release seems to have been in December 1972 - Billboard of 23rd December shows the album in the Bubbling Under LP chart.
nickinstoke: "pass"; but, for polydor/polygram to've handled it, the merkin sleeve would've needed to've been stickered or overprinted with their 2325-090 cat# - is there any sign of this having been the case on your lp sleeve?