Most of us who grew up in Australia in the 60's & 70's would remember those great compilation albums that came out every few months on labels such as Majestic, Festival, K-tel, Polystar etc..
They would usually have some new songs that you already knew (and hence would make you want to buy the record) and they would always have some songs that you hadn't heard before. They were a good sample of the diverse variety of music available in those days - there would be catchy pop tunes, a few good rock'n'roll songs, love songs & ballads, country, gospel, novelty - and some songs that just defied being in any category. This site is an attempt at documenting these great compilation albums.
The earliest albums included on this site are from the mid 1960's and the latest were released in 1989. I thought '89 was a good year to finish - my last vinyl compilation album is from that year. The 90's really were the realm of the CD and for the next generation - someone else can document those.
For each album I have included scans of the front & back album covers, and of the labels for a quick reference of who wrote each song. If these aren't present, it means I do not have a copy of the record. I have also included an album info page. It contains the date each album track entered an Australian State Capital chart (BNE for Brisbane, SYD for Sydney and MEL for Melbourne), the highest position it reached, and the record label it was released on.
(Note: The songs & artists on this site are obviously only a sample of the wonderful music from this era. For every artist mentioned on this site there is probably another 10 artists that did not appear on compilation albums. From A to Z, I can think of a few:- Abba, Beatles ( & solo years), Creedence, Doors, E.L.O., Elvis, Easybeats etc, etc, etc,).
Also, the type of compilation albums featured on this site are the ones that at the time of issue had mainly recent releases. Compilation albums of the genre "Great Hits of the '70s" or "Great Rock'n'Roll Hits" etc. are not covered by this site, though I have a few of these that I might put in a miscellaneous section once I have finished the 80s albums.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to my oldest brother Noel who started buying records all those years ago.
All the chart information on each song (Date entered charts, highest position & label) I obtained from Gavin Ryan's excellent books:-
Melbourne Chart Book (1956-2002), Moonlight Publishing
Brisbane Chart Book (1956-2002), Moonlight Publishing
Sydney Chart Book (1953-2003), Moonlight Publishing
Timewarp Records You can order these chart books through Timewarp Records, Sydney. From their homepage, follow the "Top 40 Chart Books" link.
Moonlight Publishing Other interesting material also available here.