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Adam VIII Ltd.

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A direct-marketing label owned by [l=Roulette Records], active until the sale of Roulette to [l=EMI] and [l=Rhino Records (2)] in 1989. Infamously involved in a court case with [a=John Lennon] after releasing a rough mix version of the former Beatle's [b]Rock and Roll[/b] album before Apple/Capitol released the final version in 1974. Labels on Adam VIII LPs appeared in various colors, including red, yellow, blue, green, silver, lavender, beige, and orange for different issues. Different records in multi-disc sets would typically have different label colors. Occasionally, there were single albums that got released using different color labels intermixed (i.e. blue on Side 1, red on Side 2). The label print was in black prior to 1977, but after that they went to different label/print color combinations. The jackets of the records tended to be posterboard-like material as opposed to the more common heavy cardboard. Misspellings on the covers and labels were common and some fold-open gatefold jackets were completely blank inside. Since the albums were being sold through TV ads, it was felt that there was no particular reason to create extravagant cover art designs to catch a potential customer's eye. You got what you paid for, even if sometimes it was in a plain cardboard sleeve with [b][i]Another Hit From Adam VIII[/i][/b] printed on it and a hole in the center where you could read the label. [B]Please be aware that there are bootleg releases appearing under this label (mostly [a=Beatles]-related but various other types have turned up). Please use [L=Adam VIII Ltd. (2)] for them![/B]