A refreshing excerpt from the liner notes of the 1973 "All Singing, All Talking, All Rocking" Warner Brothers sampler album:
"It has come to our attention that the American record distribution game is not always the Utopia we've been asking for: not all albums can be found in all stores.
If this frustrates your lust to possess any elusive Warner's album, relief is at hand. Write down what you want and send that, together with the money (full list price, unfortunately) to:
FRUSTRATED
WARNER BROS. RECORDS
(A post office box address is listed.)
Because we read our mail, that should do it."
The "All Singing..." album is a diverse sampler, featuring Jimmy Cliff, Bonnie Raitt, Maria Muldaur, The Doobie Brothers, Peter Yarrow, Jesse Colin Young, and many other Warner Brothers recording artists.
It's a breath of fresh air to see a record company sympathizing with its customers' frustrations in not finding the music they desire and specifying "full list price, unfortunately," without mentioning any full list prices. That's something you wouldn't see today. I wonder how they handled requests for albums from people who enclosed money but fell a dollar or two short of guessing the full list price.
