Silver Convention and The Ritchie Family

[discotom73]

Does anyone know if Silver Convention and The Ritchie Family have their ORIGINAL studio albums available on CD? I have looked at lots of sites including www.amazon.com and still can only find various "greatest hit" collections. I have Silver Convention's 1976 album "Madhouse" on cassette and it barely plays! Thanks for your help.

[olskinflint]

but I've never seen their original recordings released on CD, at least not where I've looked (and I'd kill to have SC's "Save Me" and the RF's album "Brasil" on CD in their original form). In case it matters, I have the "Madhouse" album on vinyl. I also have SC's "Love is a Sleeper" on vinyl, and the aforementioned "Brasil" on vinyl (I love that album so much I bought 3 copies of it). How's that for obsessed? Greatest Hits collections always frustrate me; on one hand, they're better than nothing, but they always INCLUDE songs you don't want or like and EXCLUDE songs you DO want and like!

[BrunoRepublic]

Alas, there are no legit issues of any complete RF albums.

[ehuerta]

Silver Convention's "Save Me" album on CD has been around for years, its a japanesse release and has "Get Up and Boogie" as a bonus track. Try GEMM.

Silver Convention "Save me" Victor Entertainment VICP-2121

About 10 year ago I bought "Get Up an Boogie" Album on CD, but haven't seen it again since then. It's a german release.

Silver Convention "Get Up and Boogie" Jupiter Records distributed by BMG 74321 11435 2

Allmusic.com has the code number of the Hong Kong release of "Summernights" album on CD but I haven't found it.

Hope this helps

[dfc99bb]

Ritchie Family's 1975 album 'Brazil' was on 20th Century Fox records, subsequent albums through 1978 were on Marlin Records. 'Brazil' may have been on CD at one time, I'm not sure. As disco passes it's 30th year we're going to see fewer and fewer CD re-issues.

Ritchie Family 1975-78 vinyl info--

Label___Catalog #_Artist______________Year___Title
20th CENTURY (FOX) T498 RITCHIE FAMILY, THE 1975 BRAZIL
MARLIN 2201 RITCHIE FAMILY, THE 1976 ARABIAN NIGHTS
MARLIN 2206 RITCHIE FAMILY, THE 1977 AFRICAN QUEENS
MARLIN 2203 RITCHIE FAMILY, THE 1977 LIFE IS MUSIC
MARLIN 2215 RITCHIE FAMILY, THE 1978 AMERICAN GENERATION

[BrunoRepublic]

Ritchie Family's 1975 album 'Brazil' was on 20th Century Fox records, subsequent albums through 1978 were on Marlin Records. 'Brazil' may have been on CD at one time, I'm not sure. As disco passes it's 30th year we're going to see fewer and fewer CD re-issues.

Ritchie Family vinyl info--

Label___Catalog #_Artist______________Year___Title
20th CENTURY (FOX) T498 RITCHIE FAMILY, THE 1975 BRAZIL
MARLIN 2201 RITCHIE FAMILY, THE 1976 ARABIAN NIGHTS
MARLIN 2206 RITCHIE FAMILY, THE 1977 AFRICAN QUEENS
MARLIN 2203 RITCHIE FAMILY, THE 1977 LIFE IS MUSIC
MARLIN 2215 RITCHIE FAMILY, THE 1978 AMERICAN GENERATION

There are an additional 4 RF LPs: Bad Reputation, Give Me A Break (both on Casablanca), All Right All Night, and I'll Do My Best on RCA (both very different, no involvement from Jacques Morali). None have ever appeared on legit CDs. Given that I used to routinely find still-sealed copies of RF LPs until a few years ago, I think it's safe to say that there isn't nearly enough demand to warrant a CD release of their material. :(

[discotom73]

Thanks to everyone who responded to this post! I was hoping to get better luck, but it looks like we may be stuck with vinyl and cassette albums. It's too bad. Both Silver Convention and The Ritchie Family deserve some credit for their records. If I ever find a CD copy of their original albums, then I'll post a topic here! I have "Madhouse" on cassette, but would like to have "Golden Girls" which had "Telegram" and if I remember correctly, it had "Save Me '77" also!

The Ritchie Family's "Brazil" album has a nice front cover. Two songs I like besides "Brazil" are "Dance With Me" (I think of loving romance) and "Peanut Vendor" (I can't find it anywhere else!) Does anyone remember the songs I mentioned? What do you think of them? Thanks again!

[BrunoRepublic]

A remix of "Dance With Me" was released as a promo 12" in the US, and a 7" in Canada, with long and short versions (both different from the LP mix). Worth seeking out of you really like the album. The songs on side 2 of "Brazil" don't really hold my interest though.

[swerzer]

My favorite song on the Brazil album (which actually got alot of radio play in my area) was "Let's Pool". My favorite song on the Madhouse album was "Fancy Party".

swerzer

[ol'skinflint]

but I own the "Madhouse' album but don't like it. The songs don't seem as catchy to me as those on the earlier albums, and the sound quality is not good either, at least not on my copy. And regarding the comments on the Ritchie Family, I'd kill to have their catalog on CD, and SOMEBODY definitely has the master recordings in their entirety, otherwise they couldn't make the compilations that have been released. I still that if we disco fans were to circulate enough CDr recordings of our favorite out of print albums, record companies would realize how much interest there is in the music and re-release it (that's my theory anyway).

[JussiK]

As for the Ritchies, there's also the Morali-penned soundtrack to the 1978 French film "Je Me Tiens Tu Te Tiens par la Barbichette", on which the troupe does 2 exceptionally cheesy numbers, and quality cheese it is too: "La Barbichette" and "Forever Dancing". The record is very rare but film itself is now out on region 2 dvd, try Amazon France.

[dfc99bb]

Regarding the Ritchie Family releases on Marlin Records. Marlin was distributed by TK Records. The TK catalog was sold to Rhino Records in 1990 upon the dissolution of the TK Label as noted in the link below. I'd have to assume that Rhino owns the U.S. re-ssue rights to the Marlin/TK part of the Ritchie Family catalog.

from - http://www.discomusic.com/people-more/57_0_11_0_C78/

"In 1990, all the assets, including the entire TK and associated labels record catalogue, had been sold to the reissue specialist Rhino Records."

(Rhino - drrhino@rhino.com or call 1-800-546-3670)

----------------------------------------------------------
'Brazil' was on the 20th Century label, a part of the 20th Century Fox Corporation in 1975. I don't know who owns the rights to their disco stuff today. Apparently the label has been out of business for many years.

[QUINNY]

Let's say someone from a record company came to you (as original writer/composer/artist/producer) and said "we'd like to re-issue XYZ album on CD, you might get $1000 out of it", would you be that bothered or that excited? This would be especially true if you'd made decent bucks from it BITD.
That's the bottom line, I guess. There's no real money in it for anyone. Sad, but true.

[BrunoRepublic]

'Brazil' was on the 20th Century label, a part of the 20th Century Fox Corporation in 1975. I don't know who owns the rights to their disco stuff today.

PolyGram, which is now part of the Universal group.

[discotom73]

I realize how BIG Rhino Records is especially since it has re-issued so many albums. However, it seems like the only things Rhino has done for disco is "The Disco Years, Volumes 1-7" and "The Disco Box". Both collections are quite similar. For Silver Convention, all it contains is "Fly, Robin, Fly" and "Get Up And Boogie (That's Right!)". The Ritchie Family has "The Best Disco In Town".

I do understand that licencing is a key issue: the demand must be there. Of course, we would all like a copy of SC and TRF studio albums, but the demand must be there. I guess we may have a very long wait! I think that the opportunity happened back in the '90s when disco (along with 1970's music in general) had it's 20-year reunion. Now, we have the 1980's to look back on so maybe the 1970's reunion may have to wait again!

[ol'skinflint]

You didn't list the Ritchie Family album on Casablanca called "Give Me A Break", and I'm referring to the full length 6 track album, NOT the "Can't Stop the Music" soundtrack. I own the album. How'd you miss that one?

[dfc99bb]

I only listed what I have in my vinyl collection. Rhino has re-issued some TK stuff in the past, so the Ritchie Family albums may show up on CD one day. We're near the unofficial '30th anniversary' of the disco era so you may see a flurry of compilations and CD re-issues. But after that this stuff is going to disappear forever.

(Could you imagine a '40th anniversary' disco event? 60 year old women in platform shoes. Old guys in white suits that don't fit. Scary.)

As for 'Brazil' another poster pointed out that Universal owns the rights to that album. Universal has been very slow in releasing stuff from it's huge back-catalog of movies onto DVD, so I expect even less interest on their part in releasing back-catalog 1970s disco.

[discotom73]

Does anyone remember the "Can't Stop The Music" movie from 1980? The Village People were in it and they had their moments in the film. I'm guessing the soundtrack is quite hard to find in record stores.

As for the Ritchie Family, I always like "Quiet Village" but for some odd reason it was missing in the "Best Of..." disco series. It has a nice tropical sound perfect to play in July. Do you feel it was one of TRF better songs?

As for Silver Convention, I always like "Fly, Robin, Fly" but maybe the underrated "Everybody's Talkin' About Love" is one of their better songs. Does anyone like "Dancing In The Aisles" from "Madhouse"? It always sounded like a remake of "Fly, Robin, Fly".

[DiscoKidd]

If you look at the copyrights on the early Ritchie Family albums (the ones prior to "Bad Reputation"), you will see that rights are held by Can't Stop Productions, which I believe is still operating as a music publishing company.

The Ritchie Family greatest hits CDs that came out on Unidisc Canada and Hot Productions US both contained the Can't Stop Productions copyrights rather than PolyGram (Universal) or Rhino (EMI).

So my guess is that the reason we haven't seen any Ritchie stuff on CD lately is because Can't Stop is lazy in exploiting their catalog which also includes Eartha Kitt and David London.

[JussiK]

Could you imagine a '40th anniversary' disco event? 60 year old women in platform shoes. Old guys in white suits that don't fit. Scary.

Well, might happen that way in NYC but sure didn't happen that way in Paris a couple of months back when Discolady '75 threw her "30th anniversary of Disco" extravaganza under the gilded mosaics of the Delaville. No old women in platform shoes, no guys young or old in white suits, no "funny" afro wigs, no polyester, no shoulderpads and rhinestones like seen at the opening of the disco exhibit in New York some months earlier. The crowd that moved tables aside for more dancing floor at the Delaville was young, hip and good looking. And don't you think in a city in which a Cerrone concert sold out in a flash 30 years after "Love In C Minor" was first seen in stores disco music new and old will be for sale quite for some time to come? As will in the rest of Europe as well, absolutely sure won't be gone forever ! :-)

[BrunoRepublic]

Does anyone remember the "Can't Stop The Music" movie from 1980? The Village People were in it and they had their moments in the film. I'm guessing the soundtrack is quite hard to find in record stores.

Actually, this is (or was) relatively easy to find. All of the VP's material, save for a few remixes, was widely available on CD a few years ago -- even their 80s albums which nobody bought BITD.

[FlyRobinFly]

Could you imagine a '40th anniversary' disco event? 60 year old women in platform shoes. Old guys in white suits that don't fit. Scary.

Well, might happen that way in NYC but sure didn't happen that way in Paris a couple of months back when Discolady '75 threw her "30th anniversary of Disco" extravaganza under the gilded mosaics of the Delaville. No old women in platform shoes, no guys young or old in white suits, no "funny" afro wigs, no polyester, no shoulderpads and rhinestones like seen at the opening of the disco exhibit in New York some months earlier. The crowd that moved tables aside for more dancing floor at the Delaville was young, hip and good looking. And don't you think in a city in which a Cerrone concert sold out in a flash 30 years after "Love In C Minor" was first seen in stores disco music new and old will be for sale quite for some time to come? As will in the rest of Europe as well, absolutely sure won't be gone forever ! :-)

Hey thank you Jussik! Cause I don't know any 60 year old women who still wear platform shoes including my mother and mother-in-law! I would have loved to have been in Paris dancing to Love in C Minor!

[discotom73]

I like the song "Love in "C" Minor", but you have to love "Fly Robin Fly" especially with the strings and catchy beat! I have always enjoyed disco instrumentals since it wasn't just the vocals that made disco very popular during the 1970s.

[Discovery]

So my guess is that the reason we haven't seen any Ritchie stuff on CD lately is because Can't Stop is lazy in exploiting their catalog which also includes Eartha Kitt and David London.

Besides "Sound of the City" and "Samantha", what else did David London do with Can't Stop Productions?

[DiscoKidd]

So my guess is that the reason we haven't seen any Ritchie stuff on CD lately is because Can't Stop is lazy in exploiting their catalog which also includes Eartha Kitt and David London.

Besides "Sound of the City" and "Samantha", what else did David London do with Can't Stop Productions?

Ya, I guess that's it. :roll:

I wonder where Mr. London is today?

But I still wish that Can't Stop would license the Ritchie stuff to somebody for reissue.

We can all dream