Love Songs - published by Balkanton (BTA 1141)

In 1982 (some say 1983), the Bulgarian label Balkanton (Балкантон) released the double-disc compilation Love Songs, which was originally released on October 21, 1977, by Capitol Records in the US and a month later in the UK by Parlophone. At least a dozen pressings were produced in Bulgaria between 1982 and 1989, some for export with labels in Russian or English.

The Bulgarian edition of this compilation album does not list the songwriters or vocalists, either on the cover or on the labels.

Cover

The first Bulgarian pressings used the original leather-effect cover design, and the first pressing was likely printed using British matrices. On the back cover, all the gold text was retouched, and the track listings in Bulgarian and English were printed in the same color but in a slightly larger font. This first pressing featured the original UK release texts „Available on tape” and „Made and printed in Great Britain” at the bottom of the back. The second pressing blurred these texts, replacing them with „Made in Bulgaria” and the price of 8.00 lev.

Over time, it was decided that the lyrics on the imitation leather cover were too faint, and the decision was made to replace it with a different design. Subsequent pressings of this album (from around 1985) appeared with a white cover.

According to The Beatles Get Back In The USSR, all known editions of the brown cover are made of thin plain or glossy cardboard, while the later white covers are made of plain „soft” paper.

The cover of this double album is a foldout, and inside is a large photo of the band members, with Paul McCartney and John Lennon in the foreground and George Harrison and Ringo Starr in the background. In the lower right corner of the right-hand page of the foldout is the record company logo and the album’s catalog number, BTA 1141/42. The same number also appears in the lower right corner of the back cover, but it is quite illegible.

Labels

My copy of this album has labels partially in English, although the format (stereo) is in Bulgarian. It’s unclear what the intended use of this particular pressing was, but Balkanton likely released it for sale abroad (outside the Eastern Bloc).

Matrix numbers

Due to the large print run and the large number of pressings, there are many known matrix number combinations. Here are some examples (the first bold numbers are from my copy).
Page 1: BTA 1141 A S1 9 89 N, BTA 1141 A S1 6 88 N, BTA 1141 A S1 3 86 N, BTA 1141 A3 S 6 84 W
Page 2: BTA 1141 B S1 9 89 N, BTA 1141 B S1 6 8 N, BTA 1141 B S3 9 86 N, BTA 1141 A3 S 6 84 W
Page 3: BTA 1142 A S1 11 89 N, BTA 1142 A S4 6 88 N, BTA 1142 A S3 9 86 N, BTA 1142 A5 S 1 85 W
Page 4: BTA 1142 A S1 11 89 N, BTA 1142 B S3 6 88 N, BTA 1142 B S2 3 86 N, BTA 1141 B4 S 9 84 W