Track Records: The Label That Ruled British Rock From 1967-1973
A plethora of labels came of age in the 60s, releasing classic single after classic single and charting some of the finest music ever recording during this groundbreaking era. Among iconic imprints such as Deram, Pye – and even a major label such as EMI, who snagged The Beatles – there lay one label that confidently moved from the 60s into the 70s while riding high in both the artistic credibility and sales-figures stakes. From its first single release, in 1967, Track Records made one thing clear: it was here to release iconic “Swingin’ Sixties” cuts from some of the best artists around. Not only did it issue Jimi Hendrix’s groundbreaking psych-rock in the UK, it also put out some of the first recorded music by Marc Bolan.
Then performing with British freakbeat upstarts John’s Children, Bolan’s presence on the roster gives Track Records a direct link to T.Rex and the glam movement of the early 70s, while also providing psych collectors with a bona fide holy grail. Issued in July 1967, their ‘Come Play With Me In The Garden’/‘Sara, Crazy Child’ single commands £200 today, but a withdrawn single, slated for release the previous month, had initially paired ‘Midsummer Night’s Scene’ with ‘Sara, Crazy Child’, and is now so scarce that it’s been valued at an eye-watering £4,000.
Track Records was also responsible for era-definining psychedelic mind-melts from the likes of The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown – and even branched out into soul, releasing The Parliaments’ ‘(I Wanna) Testify’ (a song that George Clinton and co would later re-record under his Parliament guise), and other now-scarce Detroit soul cuts from the likes of The Debonaires and The Precisions. As the 60s turned into the 70s, Track Records issued evergreen singles from Thunderclap Newman (‘Something In The Air’) and Golden Earring (‘Radar Love’).
But if one band can be said to define Track Records through its key years, 1967-73, it’s The Who, whose singles from this period are collected in the 5CD box set Maximum As & Bs. The label picked the group up just as they were morphing from mod icons into an altogether more grandiose outfit. Indeed, early indication of their high-concept ambitions came in their first album for Track Records, The Who Sell Out, which was presented as pirate-radio broadcast and included the iconic 1967 single ‘I Can See For Miles’. Two years later, the group were back with the pioneering rock opera Tommy (from which ‘Pinball Wizard’ and ‘I’m Free’ were lifted, the former becoming their ninth Top 10 entry in just five years), which set them squarely on the path to becoming stadium giants.
Both the group – and Track Records – saw the 70s in with further groundbreaking releases, not least the epic standalone single ‘The Seeker’ and even more bombastic ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’, taken from The Who’s 1971 album, Who’s Next. With Quadrophenia following fast in 1973 (and quickly taking on a life of its own as one of the group’s most iconic works), The Who saw out their time on Track Records as one of the few bands that could justifiably claim to have released era-defining material in both the 60s and the 70s.
Scroll down to listen to the Track Records UK singles discography from 1967-1973, and purchase The Who’s 5CD Maximum As & Bs box set here.
Track UK Singles Discography: 1967-73
Jimi Hendrix Experience
‘Purple Haze’/‘51st Anniversary’
17 March 1967 (cat no 604001)
The Who
‘Pictures Of Lily’/‘Doctor, Doctor’
22 April 1967 (cat no 604002)
John’s Children
‘Desdemona’/‘Remember Thomas À Beckett’
24 May 1967 (cat no 604003)
Jimi Hendrix Experience
‘The Wind Cries Mary’/‘Highway Chile’
5 May 1967 (cat no 604004)
John’s Children
‘Midsummer Night’s Scene’/‘Sara, Crazy Child’
June 1967 (cat no 604005 – withdrawn)
John’s Children
‘Come And Play With Me In The Garden’/‘Sara, Crazy Child’
14 July 1967 (cat no 604005)
The Who
‘The Last Time’/‘Under My Thumb’
30 June 1967 (cat no 604006)
Jimi Hendrix Experience
‘Burning Of The Midnight Lamp’/‘The Stars That Play With Laughing Sam’s Dice’
August 1967 (cat no 604007)
The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown
‘Devil’s Grip’/‘Give Him A Flower’
15 September 1967 (cat no 604008)
Curtis Knight And Jimi Hendrix
‘How Would You Feel’/‘You Don’t Want Me’
September 1967 (cat no 604009)
John’s Children
‘Go-Go Girl’/‘Jagged Time Lapse’
6 October 1967 (cat no 604010)
The Who
‘I Can See For Miles’/‘Someone’s Coming’
13 October 1967 (cat no 604011)
Tony Simon
‘Gimme A Little Sign’/‘Never Too Much Love’
October 1967 (cat no 604012)
The Parliaments
‘(I Wanna) Testify’/’I Can Feel The Ice Melting’
10 November 1967 (cat no 604013)
The Precisions
‘If This Is Love (I’d Rather Be Lonely)’/‘You’ll Soon Be Gone’
November 1967 (cat no 604014)
The Sand Pebbles
‘Love Power’/‘Because Of Love’
December 1967 (cat no 604015)
Al Kent
‘You’ve Got To Pay The Price’/‘Where Do I Go From Here’
December 1967 (cat no 604016)
The Cherry Smash
‘Sing Songs Of Love’/‘Movie Star’
December 1967 (cat no 604016)
Andy Ellison
‘It’s Been A Long Time’/‘Arthur Green’
29 December 1967 (cat no 604018)
The Eire Apparent
‘Follow Me’/‘Here I Go Again’
January 1968 (cat no 604019)
Fairport Convention
‘If I Had A Ribbon Bow’/‘If (Stomp)’
February 1968 (cat no 604020)
The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown
‘Fire’/‘Rest Cure’
14 June 1968 (cat no 604022)
The Who
‘Dogs’/‘Call Me Lightning’
14 June 1968 (cat no 604023)
The Who
‘Magic Bus’/‘Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde’
11 October 1968 (cat no 604024)
Jimi Hendrix Experience
‘All Along The Watchtower’/‘Long Hot Summer Night’
October 1968 (cat no 604025)
The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown
‘Nightmare’/‘Music Man’
15 November 1968 (cat no 604026)
The Who
‘Pinball Wizard’/‘Dogs Part Two’
7 March 1969 (cat no 604027)
The Sand Pebbles
‘Love Power’/‘Because Of Love’
March/April 1969 (cat no 604028)
Jimi Hendrix Experience
‘Crosstown Traffic’/‘Gypsy Eyes’
April 1969 (cat no 604029)
Marsha Hunt
‘Walk On Gilded Splinters’/‘Hot Rod Poppa’
25 April 1969 (cat no 604030)
Thunderclap Newman
‘Something In The Air’/‘Wilhelmina’
23 May 1969 (cat no 604031)
The Parliaments
‘(I Wanna) Testify’/‘I Can Feel The Ice Melting’
1969 (cat no 604032 – reissue)
Jimi Hendrix Experience
‘Fire’/‘The Burning Of The Midnight Lamp’
14 November 1969 (cat no 604033)
Marsha Hunt
‘Desdemona’/‘Hippy Gumbo’
14 November 1969 (cat no 604034)
The Debonaires
‘I’m In Love Again’/‘Headache In My Heart’
30 January 1970 (cat no 604035)
The Who
‘The Seeker’/’Here For More’
21 March 1970 (cat no 604036)
Marsha Hunt
‘Keep The Customer Satisfied’/‘Lonesome Holy Roller’
13 March 1970 (cat no 604037)
Thunderclap Newman
‘Accidents’/‘I See It All’
15 May 1970 (cat no 2094 001)
The Who
‘Summertime Blues’/‘Heaven And Hell’
10 July 1970 (cat no 2094 002)
Thunderclap Newman
‘The Reason’/‘Stormy Petrel’
28 August 1970 (cat no 2094 003)
The Who
‘See Me, Feel Me’/‘Overture To “Tommy”’)
9 October 1970 (cat no 2094 004)
Thunderclap Newman
‘Wild Country’/‘Hollywood’
13 November 1970 (cat no 2094 005)
Jimi Hendrix
‘Angel’/‘Night Bird Flying’
1971 (cat no 2094 007)
John Entwistle
‘I Believe In Everything’/‘My Size’
1 April 1971 (cat no 2094 008)
The Who
‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’/‘Don’t Know Myself’
25 June 1971 (cat no 2094 009)
The Who
‘Let’s See Action’/‘When I Was A Boy’
15 October 1971 (cat no 2094 012)
The Who
‘Join Together’/‘Baby Don’t You Do It’
16 June 1972 (cat no 2094 102)
John Keen
‘Old Fashioned Girl’/‘That’s The Way It Is’
25 August 1972 (cat no 2094 103)
Valentine
‘Time’/‘Leader Of The Band’
24 November 1972 (cat no 2094 104)
The Barking And Houndsditch Chroal Society
‘Queen Of The Alley Dogs’/‘Dog Rock’
24 November 1972 (cat no 2094 105)
The Who
‘Relay’/‘Waspman’
5 January 1973 (cat no 2094 106)
Rigor Mortis
‘Made In Japan’/‘Hound Dog’
January 1973 (cat no 2094 107)
John Keen
‘Let Us In’/‘Keep On The Grass’
26 January 1973 (cat no 2094 108)
Billy Nicholls
‘Forever’s No Time At All’/‘This Song Is Green’
23 February 1973 (cat no 2094 110)
Roger Daltrey
‘Giving It All Away’/‘The Way Of The World’
16 March 1973 (cat no 2094 110)
John Otway And Wild Willy Barrett
‘Murder Man’/‘If I Did’
13 April 1973 (cat no 2094 111)
Roger Daltrey
‘Thinking’/‘There Is Love’
1973 (cat no 2094 013)
Hi-Shots
‘Here Come The Three Bears’/‘Time To Change’
1973 (cat no 2094 015)
The Who
‘5.15’/‘Water’
5 October 1973 (cat no 2094 115)
Golden Earring
‘Radar Love’/‘Just Like Vince Taylor’
16 November 1973 (cat no 2094 116)
UK English
