The Monkees!

My first LP that I ever bought was through TV mail order.  Yes, growing up in a small town, we didn't have a record store anywhere near.  Especially for a 7 year old to get access.  When the Monkees went into syndication in the fall of 1975, I was hooked!  I LOVED the Monkees!  Mickey was my favorite, but they were all so cool.  And how could you not love the Monkeemobile?!

Anyway, in the summer of 1976, Laurie House (a cheap-o record mail order house) advertised a double LP of the Monkees for sale from a TV commercial!  At this time (mid-70's) all the Monkees albums had been out of print, so this was the ONLY available Monkees product at the time.

I called up, and ordered the LP (with help from my folks), then waited.  And waited....

I still remember receiving this in the mail.  I was sooo excited.  The cover had a penciled drawing of all the member's faces.  I aways remember thinking Davy Jones looked really chubby in his picture.

Laurie House was really cheap.  The cover was so thin that it was already creased from the outline of the record from shipping.  They used the same picture for both the front and the back of the album - and no track listing or any other info except the catalog numbers (Laurie House LH-8009 and RCA Special Products DPL 2-0188).  The track listing was available on the inside record labels.  Even now, I think this is the best compilation of the Monkees ever released.

Ah, memory lane.