Park Foundation Music App

Home > Labels

RCA Pure Gold

Profile

RCA Records launched its "Pure Gold" album series in the United States in 1975 under the supervision of longtime RCA producer Ethel Gabriel. This highly successful series consisted of mid-priced reissues of some classic and best-selling RCA Victor albums as well as new "Pure Gold" compilations by many popular RCA Victor artists. LPs issued in the U.S. in this series carried an ANL1 prefix; beginning around 1981, many "Pure Gold" series albums were reissued in the RCA "Best Buy" series; these reissues carried an AYL1 prefix and some (not all) had a "Best Buy" logo printed on the album covers. A typical "Pure Gold" series label was of the same style as regular RCA Victor labels issued between 1968-76, but was bright yellow (rather than orange-yellow or tan) and without "Victor" to the right of the spindle hole. This label was not redesigned when the standard RCA Victor label reverted to the long traditional black color and restoration of the "His Master's Voice" trademark in mid 1976. Beginning about 1981 when the "Pure Gold" series became part of the RCA "Best Buy" series, the label was changed slightly, with the catalog , matrix numbers and Side A and B information moved from the top of the label to the right of the spindle hole. NOTE: Not all reissues carried these label changes; Some reissues did feature "Victor" to the right of the spindle hole. Some reissues late in the LP era had the large vertical "RCA" logo moved from the left side of the label to a horizontal position across the top of the label. Reissues new to the "Best Buy" series around 1981 carried the black RCA Victor label with the "His Master's Voice" trademark. A few older "Pure Gold" series albums with the typical yellow RCA labels were reissued in the "Best Buy" series with black RCA Victor/"His Master's Voice" labels. (I have personally seen three: [i]Elvis Presley Pure Gold, The Best of Spike Jones[/i] and [i]The Best of Glenn Miller[/i]). There is a strong possibility that these later label variations may have been accidental.