IMAGES [1980]

A few posts back, HERC delved into the confusing nuances of the K-tel matrix catalog numbering system.  What he didn't get into back then was the perceived uses of each prefix within K-tel's catalog.  Their main releases, the ones featured here on the Kollection all usually have TU-XXXX matrices while the NU-XXXX designation was mostly reserved for "special" collections as the following list indicates (titles in blue have appeared or are scheduled to appear here on the Kollection):

	NU 9010	1975	Souled Out
	NU 9020	1975	Juke Box Jive
	NU 9030	1975	Goofy Greats
	NU 9090	1976	Dance Machine
	NU 9140	1976	Looney Tunes
	NU 9320	1977	100 Super Duper Bloopers
	NU 9330	1977	Dumb Ditties
	NU 9340	1977	Citizen's Bloopers
	NU 9350	1977	Greatest Hits - Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons
	NU 9360	1978	Best Of Creedence Clearwater Revival
	NU 9390	1978	Emotions
	NU 9410	1978	Let's Disco
	NU 9430	1978	Greatest Hits - Diana Ross & the Supremes
	NU 9440	1978	Steppin' Out - Disco's Greatest Hits
	NU 9450	1979	Reflections
	NU 9460	1979	Hometown U.S.A.
	NU 9470	1979	Together
	NU 9500	1979	Night Moves - The Professional Approach To Disco Dance Instruction
	NU 9580	1979	Classic Rock - The London Symphony Orchestra
	NU 9610	1979	The Seals & Crofts Collection
	NU 9510	1980	The Magic Of Abba
	NU 9520	1980	Southern Fried Rock
	NU 9620	1980	Images
	NU 9650	1980	Rainbow
	NU 9530	1981	Horizons
	NU 9730	1981	Songbird
	NU 9820	1981	The Kendalls Greatest Hits
	NU 9900	1981	Elvis Love Songs
	NU 9980	1981	Love Is...
	NU 2890	1982	Rock N Roll Fever
	NU 5040	1982	Feelin' Good
	NU 5150	1982	The Ronald McDonald All-Star Party
	NU 5160	1982	Just For Laughs
	NU 9810	1982	Silly Songs - Sha Na Na
	NU 5550	1983	Piano Hits - Eric Robertson
	NU 9940	1983	Pure Magic
	NU 3080	1984	Expressions
	NU 3210	1984	Queen Collection - 15 Of The Best
	NU 3360	1984	Breakdance
	NU 4300	1984	Formula 20
	NU 5480	1984	Rock Southern Style
	NU 5510	1984	14 Original Greatest Hits with The Jackson 5 - Michael Jackson
	NU 9010	1984	Break-Master Featuring New York City Breakers
	NU 9041	1984	Motown Love Collection
	NU 9096	1984	Love Songs From The Heart
	NU 9710	1984	Emotions

NOTE: The listing is not complete and does not include the NU-XXXX numbered albums K-tel used for its subsidiary label, Dominion.  

The highlighted titles (save for Formula 20) all have something in common:  The first three highlighted titles are subtitled Today's Love Hits while the next one is subtitled The Soft Magic Of Today's Rock.  The Soft Sounds Of Today's Rock follows on the next release before Horizons debuts the subtitle Today's Soft Rock Hits.  With few exceptions, these albums are full of Adult Contemporary love songs marketed at a slightly older demographic than K-tel's standard hits collections.  Which brings us to today's album:

Images was released in 1980 and contains fourteen tracks featuring the aforementioned Soft Magic of Today's Rock. Fully half of the tracks are available on Rhino's Radio Daze series so if you like one, you may like the other.  (The album was featured in it's entirety over at Show N K-tel in January 2014 if you wanna give it a proper listen.).  HERC can count on three fingers the songs he likes on the album so he doesn't expect this album to score very well on the K-tel Scale - let's see if he's right, shall we?

IMAGES [1980]		K-tel Scale:				24.07
		Billboard Top 40s
		Pop	R&B	Disco	AC	CB	WLS
Should've Never Let You Go	Neil Sedaka with Dara Sedaka	19			3	21
Shining Star	The Manhattans	5	4		21	7
Only A Lonely Heart Sees	Felix Cavaliere	36			2	40
Desire	Andy Gibb	4			9	6	24
One Fine Day	Rita Coolidge	(66)			15	(84)
Gee Whiz	Bernadette Peters	31			3	33
Do That To Me One More Time	Captain & Tennille	1			4	1	24
Take A Little Rhythm	Ali Thomson	15			4	15	36
Let Me Love You Tonight	Pure Prairie League	10			1	13
Three Times In Love	Tommy James	19		COU	1	19
Suspicions	Eddie Rabbitt	13		1	9	19
Too Hot	Kool & the Gang	5	3	5	11	7	11
We Were Meant To Be Lovers	Photoglo	31			14	(45)
Please Don't Leave	Lauren Wood	24			5	31

Nine Top 20s and only one song missed the Pop Top 40 altogether.  Thirteen songs made the AC Top 20 and all but three hit the Top 10 on the same chart.  Other than the expected AC>Pop chart crossover, only three songs showed up on other charts. Looks like HERC has taken viewers suggestions to include non-Top 40 chart positions where available.  That's what the numbers in parentheses are and they have no bearing on the Scale score.

In addition to the label color change K-tel had implemented, they pretty much settled on fourteen tracks as their optimum number (with very few exceptions) from 1980 through the 1984 end of HERC's K-Tel Kollection.  This resulted in noticeably improved sound from their records (seriously) and the elimination of those much-maligned custom K-tel edits that were a necessary evil to fit more than fourteen songs on a single album.  The tracklisting of the vinyl Images was left intact for the cassette release of the album but was reworked to accommodate the unique limitations of the 8-track format.

The Canadian release of Images featured sixteen entirely different songs than its US cousin.  Given his druthers, HERC would rather listen to the Canadian Images than his own country's.  (Traitor.)  And song for song, it actually gives the US release a run for the higher K-Tel Scale as you can see below.

IMAGES [1980] CAN		K-tel Scale:				22.00
		Billboard Top 40s
		Pop	R&B	Disco	AC	CB	WLS
Lost In Love	Air Supply	3			1	2	1
You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling	Hall & Oates	12			15	10	19
Dreamin'	Cliff Richard	10			21	9	17
But You Know I Love You	Kenny Rogers	19			18
You Can Call Me Blue	Michael Johnson	(86)			34	(87)
More Love	Kim Carnes	10		COU	6	9	14
I Believe In You	Don Williams	24		1	8	25
Could I Have This Dance	Anne Murray	33		1	3	(53)
I Pledge My Love	Peaches & Herb	19	37		33	25
Special Lady	Ray, Goodman & Brown	5	1		17	7	8
Ladies Night	Kool & the Gang	8	1	5		4	8
Someone That I Used To Love	Natalie Cole	21	21		3	29
No Night So Long	Dionne Warwick	23	19		1	28	27
Hey There Lonely Girl	Robert John	31			10	31
Years From Now	Dr. Hook	(51)			17	(67)
Make A Little Magic	Nitty Gritty Dirt Band	25			12	28

Next time out, we continue to mine the vein of Soft Magic Love Hits Sounds of Today's Soft Rock with Rainbow.