Mystery Album from the Eastwood Archives

Mystery Album from the Eastwood Archives

Here is something I’ve had buried deep within the Archive files for too many years. I was hoping to eventually unearth some details of this, but sometimes ‘a man’s got to know his limitations’, right?

This elusive album seems to be a Korean pressing – so it’s a possibility that this may even be a bootleg pressing? Its title translates as ‘Today's 21st pop song album’ suggesting it may be a budget album of poorly made covers from back in the day. Does anyone remember those UK Top of the Pops albums? 

I had to post this nevertheless – simply because I love the artwork concept. Yes, it’s crudely put together from what looks like hand tinted cuttings, laid out and simply photographed – but it arguably adds to its overall charm. So, what else can we unravel from this sleeve? Well, it’s pretty obvious that 3 of the 4 images come from Hang ‘em high (1968). The film was released in pretty much most regions later in the same year. The 4th (and partially obscured) image is actually lifted from A Fistful of Dollars. 

The theme to Hang ‘em high was actually quite popular at the time, it was released and covered in many different countries as a ‘pop’ track. Countries such as Singapore released it on a ‘Top Hits Vol. 2’ 7” EP in 1968 by another obscure outfit - The White Cloud Orchestra? No, I really don’t have any idea… But there were a lot of cover versions about – the most popular version of these was probably from Hugo Montenegro and His Orchestra and it was appearing in several different forms, both in Europe and in Asia. 

It's also interesting that White Room appears on the cover, a song recorded by the hugely popular UK rock group Cream, and coincidently was also released as a single (in the U.S.) in September 1968. Suggesting that if this was a bootleg compilation of the time, Cream’s White Room certainly wouldn’t be out of place and would fit perfectly within the timeline.  

Today, there is simply no reference (that I can find) to this LP, anywhere. Even Discogs has nothing, regardless of a catalogue number (AL 2030) which is clearly visible on the front cover. After resurrecting this image, which I probably saved over 15 years ago, I thought I’d take advantage of today’s advanced technology and carry out an image search. Yet again, an image search returned absolutely nothing. 

A valuable lesson: I’m guessing that the probability of this image appearing elsewhere on the internet is pretty slim these days or perhaps even long lost. If anything, I guess the moral of this tale is never pass anything by or take for granted that it is always going to be around. I’m glad I saved this when I did, and by the use of modern technology, managed to upscale and resurrect that original image in order to bring it here today. A good lesson – think before you hit that delete button.