Popular Singers - compilation (Bulgaria)

In 1970, a Bulgarian record label released a compilation album featuring songs by various artists, including The Beatles. It features what is arguably the strangest version of „Oh! Darling” ever released on any album. The song begins… with the second verse.

At the very beginning, the last chord of the chorus is clearly audible, giving the beginning the impression of a poorly remastered version. The original „Oh! Darling” lasts 3:25, while the version on this album only lasts 2:46. In addition to the 35 seconds of the first verse, the last 3 seconds were cut, and an additional second was lost due to the slightly increased speed of the song.

„Oh! Darling” is in mono on the Popular Singers album, and according to Nikolay Kozlov, a Russian expert on The Beatles discography from St. Petersburg, it was based solely on the left channel of the original.

It’s unclear why the Beatles song was treated this way. In any case, it’s likely the first LP released in Bulgaria to feature a Beatles song, and for that reason alone, it’s a valuable collectible.

Additionally, the album features a cover of the Beatles’ „Hey Jude” by Tom Jones.

Cover

Balkanton pressed a large number of records for export, and they were released with a single cover. The artist names are large and appear on the front cover. The back cover carries the misleading and generally incomprehensible phrase „Accompanied by orchestra.”

Several editions were released in Bulgaria, one of which even featured the same cover as the export edition. The remaining covers are much more enigmatic and several versions can be found on Discogs, indicating the multiple reissues and correspondingly high popularity of this compilation.

Since the covers of subsequent reissues differed mainly only in the front, I am including two more versions below.

Labels

There are at least three versions of the „export” label, which essentially differ only in color. We have red, black, and the less common white.

There are at least two similar versions of labels produced for the local market in Bulgaria: red and black with song titles and artist names in Bulgarian.

Some of the Popular Singers edition was pressed for export to the Soviet Union, so versions with labels in Russian also appear on the market from time to time.

For obvious reasons, the Popular Singers compilation has a lot of different matrix numbers. Here are a few examples (version 1 is my copy):

Version 1: BTA 1206 A 4 1 73 (side 1), BTA 1206 B 1 (side 2)
Version 2: BTA 1206 A 4 1 74 (side 1), BTA 1206 B 1 (side 2)
Version 3: BTA 1206 A 1 (side 1), BTA 1206 B 3 (side 2)
Version 4: BTA 1206 A7 177 ST 7 70 (side 1), BTA 1206 B4 177 ST 7 70 (side 2)