Some people think that by now “every” album has been reissued ad-nauseam by now, especially in these times of vinyl renaissance. But that isn’t the case. Here is a list of five albums that are difficult to find on vinyl for a variety of reasons and they can be very high priced if you do find a copy! Happy hunting!
1. The Grateful Dead, Wake Of The Flood
The story goes that all copies of this green fan club near-release were damaged in a an actual flood (!) and never distributed. I have only seen photos. Of course, you can get plenty of reissues including different color variants but not the green! Last year a copy apparently surfaced at an auction, selling for somewhere between $5000 and $8000!
2. Edgard Varèse, Complete Works Of Edgard Varèse, Volume 1
“Edgard who?” you ask? If it weren’t for music legend Frank Zappa, most of us would be asking the same thing. But indeed a young Zappa sought out this album after reading about it in a magazine and it changed his life. That said, as a life long Zappa fanatic, I looked for this particular album for decades (mostly pre-Internet). But it wasn’t until I walked into an estate sale that I found it (for $2!). These albums are never in great condition but I was thrilled to finally hear it in all its madly inventive percussive glory. Amazingly, a year later I found an earlier pressing (with the maestro’s signature printed in red on the otherwise black and white cover) in lesser condition still but it was also an early color vinyl variant (sort of blood-purple). How rare is this? Three originals are now on Discogs, only one is in Near Mint condition selling for about $75.
Brenda & The Tabulations (Top And Bottom Records)
3. Brenda & The Tabulations
Both LPs by this wonderful but sadly overlooked Philadelphia soul group — 1967’s Dry Your Eyes and 1970’s eponymously titled follow up — are super hard to find in the wilds and worth seeking out. Copies can be found online at Discogs but I have searched high and low all around California and have yet to find one here in music stores, flea markets, thrift shops and garage sales. Well, I did find one: a totally trashed stereo pressing that is barely playable (scored at a low end thrift shop in Palm Springs). I’ve actually had two different vinyl dealers literally laugh at me when I’ve asked about it! I suspect these albums sold primarily in the Philadelphia metro area.
I eventually bought mine via eBay (for me, that is a last resort). You can find CD reissues, but we’re talking about vinyl here so a quick look at Discogs shows 15 copies of the debut ranging from $20 to more than $200. Only two copies of the second album are there right now selling for $60-80.
4. The Flame
In 1970, Carl Wilson of The Beach Boys befriended a South African group The Flame, producing an album for them, the only non-Beach boys LP ever released on their label. For mysterious (and admittedly speculative reasons which I won’t go into here), this amazing album has never been reissued. That is a crime! Never properly promoted, it disappeared quickly as it was distributed via country western label Starday-King (not Warner Brothers, then The Beach Boys’ label)!
The Flame sounds like an alternate version of The Beatles’ Abbey Road. Seriously. Key members Blondie Chapman and (future Rutle) Ricky Fataar eventually became official Beach Boys, invigorating the group’s sound and enabling their mid-70s renaissance. Right now there are six Flame LPs on Discogs ranging in price from $45 to just over $90.
5. Billy Nicholls, Would You Believe
There is a fascinating back story behind this album (which I have written about elsewhere on the web, if you want to search key words). The short story: famed producer Andrew Loog Oldham wanted to make a British answer to The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, pairingthis young artist (recommended by George Harrison) with The Small Faces. A small quantity of promotional albums were printed and for some reason never fully released. An instant uber rarity ensues. There are exactly zero originals available on Discogs. A 2LP reissue, which I only learned about recently, sells for upwards of $200 (only three copies listed in the US!). I found a used CD reissue some years back but even those now sell for premium collectors prices. According to Discogs, the last original sold there in 2023, and the highest price was $9,684.21 while the median is $3,464.58
Mark Smotroff is a deep music enthusiast / collector who has also worked in entertainment oriented marketing communications for decades supporting the likes of DTS, Sega and many others. In addition to writing for eCoustics.com, he reviews vinyl for Analog Planet and has written for Audiophile Review, Sound+Vision, Mix, EQ, etc. You can learn more about him at LinkedIn.
Related Reading:
