For me i have a hand numbered CD Rare Rehearsals by S.V.E.S.T…my number is 22 out of 66…yeah, only 66 copies of this thing were made…thank goodness.
For records i have an original pressing of Obscuritatem Advoco Amplecentere Me by Abrutpum…don’t have any real numbers on how many exist, but given their popularity at the time, couldnt have been much over 200.
Cassettes…i really only have one cassette in my collection, from a friend of mine living in the Netherlands who produces symphonic black metal by himself. In Umbra Spectare Magnificentia Tuus Et Obedientia Me Pronuntiam by Hell Icon is the title, and there can’t be more than 100 in existance.
So…audiophiles, collections, fanatics…share your rarest in your collection!
I don’t know how rare it is, but I have a Roy Wood LP called “Boulders” that nobody I know has ever heard of. Roy was one of the founding members of ELO (along with Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan), but left after one album over creative differences.
Suffice it to say, the album is an acquired taste.
With Love by Pete Townshend , it was never released commercially. It was sold to Meher Baba followers , some of the songs are by other artists. The songs are acoustic and mostly about Meher Baba or spiritual ideas. A few of the songs ended up on the CD version of Townshend’s Who Came First album.
CD: Armenian Liturgical Chants
or
Bach for Bachelor Pads
Cassette: Phil Keaggy-Love Broke Thru/What a Day
Vinyl: The Way I Feel-Honeytree
or
Firewind-Terry Talbot, Jamie Colline et al
I have a few CDs that sell well on eBay or rather would sell
I have the soundtrack to Olivia Newton-John’s ill fated “Two Of A Kind.”
I also have both albums on CD by Charlene (“I’ve Never Been To Me.”
I have a both the EMI and the One Way version of Sheena Easton’s “A Private Heaven” which would fetch a nice amount
I have an unopened copy of Danielle Brisebois’s “Portable Life,” though the price for that plummetted when iTunes issed the CD in mp3 format. Previously that was unreleased.
I have a lot of Jo Stafford CDs which may or may not be hard to find, depending on the version and particular one.
I have Debbie Gibson’s Japanese pressing of her CDs which contain extra songs. The regular pressings are usually in the 99 cent bins but people are usually surprised to see the Japanese versions all have unreleased music on them.
As you can see I like female vocals and there is very little of those that go out on torrents so they tend to be, well I wouldn’t say rare but “very uncommon”
I had the LP and foolishly sold it. Recently I realized my mistake and sought out the expanded/remasted CD. My absolute favorite cut is “Wake Up” with Roy’s one-of-a-kind splish-spash percussion.
Luckily for those of us that missed the LP, it’s available from Eel Pie as part of theJai Baba compilation.
I have the Girl You Know It’s True CD by Milli Vanilli. It’s probably not that rare, but there are no reinforcements coming, as it is permanently out of print.
In the early 2000s I went through a Kid Creole obsession and saw the disk referenced on a fan site, but it was not for sale anywhere on the internet. Finally I emailed a French friend and asked him to contact the French multi-media company that had released the disk.
They had some remaining and sent him one for no charge, which he forwarded to me (in St. Louis.)
It’s a prestige product, with fine photography, tasteful design and a good sized lyrics /credits booklet. But Mr. Darnell did not waste a single good melody or smart lyric on the project. It seems like some sort of strange contractual obligation.
On a more well known level, I own a Velvet Underground LP with the authentic “peel off” banana sticker.
My wife and I are huge Kate Bush fans. She’s produced so few records that she doesn’t have a huge number of rarities, but I have one -
Kate’s second (Lionheart) and third (Never For Ever)albums weren’t released in the United States until after her fourth album (The Dreaming). But EMI-America actually pressed copies of Lionheart, but changed their minds and destroyed them. I have one of these LPs that were supposed to have been destroyed, given to me by the guy who had the job of destroying them.
Transistor Revolt, Demo (? copies on CD-R) - demo material for what would become the band Rise Against
Fall Out Boy / Project Rocket, Split EP (Valentine’s Day Edition, Limited to 10 copies) - girlfriend owns this, it’s sitting on my desk waiting to be photographed and sold.
I tried to get this several times off eBay before giving up. I noticed I could buy it as mp3s on Amazon a couple months ago and was ecstatic.
I’ve got a couple CDs from local bands that no one cares about, but I’m not sure if that counts. If it does, then I have CDs that only exist as one or two copies from friends of mine.
I DO have a CD of Donna Summer’s “I Remember Yesterday”, which I don’t understand but it goes for over $50 usually.
I don’t know how rare it is, but I have the original LP, not a reprint, of Ark 2, by the group that Phil Collins was in before he joined Genesis, Flaming Youth. Not rare at all, but I also have all his albums with the group Brand X.
Probably not extremely rare, but I have an original American pressing of Genesis’s first album From Genesis To Revelation, recorded when they were all snot-nosed public school twits, way pre-Phil Collins. It’s a good album underneath all those horrible strings Jonathan King slapped on after the recording sessions. After they became more well-known, lots of countries released pressings of that album, every one with different covers. I used to collect them. It was hopeless trying to keep up with them.
We have an American 8-track of Kate Bush’s first album, which is pretty damned bizarre.
I have lots of rare cassettes, but they’re all worthless unless cassettes come back in style.
And horns. Strings and horns. Man, that guy ruined that record. Still, there are some great songs. This is my favorite, “One Day.” Imagine what the song would be like without the strings and horns, and a bit more respect for the song itself. Not bad for a bunch of 16-year olds.
