The single most important figure (imo) in the vinyl LP reissue business.

When The Houston Kid by Rodney Crowell was released by Sugar Hill Records in 2001, it immediately became my favorite album in many, many years (and remains my favorite of this century. I love saying that). It was released on CD only, but got an LP release in 2024 by Vinyl Me Please (VMP), a subscription LP company (now out-of-business). The owner of VMP consulted with Chad Kassem throughout the life of the company, and would surely not have started VMP had Kassem not proven the financial viability of such a business (though Acoustic Sounds is not a subscription-based company). QRP did a lot of the LP pressings of VMP titles, which were generally excellent.

I can now listen to The Houston Kid on either CD or LP. Most of Crowell’s albums following The Houston Kid were offered in both CD and LP formats, for which we owe all involved in bringing the LP format back to life a debt of gratitude.

Now here’s a fantastic idea for a series of videos, posted today by Dylan of Noble Records, a dealer in rare and out-of-print LP's.

https://youtu.be/fp29xjmcMso?si=0Fd0hvpCpuof03q2

Another very important figure who must be included in this discussion is Michael Hobson, who along with partner Ying Tan started the LP reissue label Classic Records in 1994. Ying Tan was a dealer of out-of-print records in Los Angeles, whose apartment near the Capitol Records building I had already visited. The place was stuffed-to-the-gills with LP’s, with narrow isles between stacks to walk through. At some point Hobson bought out Ying, owning and carrying on the company alone.

Classic---along with Chesky Records in New York (another very important player in the vinyl reissue scene)---began by putting out mostly Classical titles, in particular the legendary RCA Victor and Mercury LP’s from the 1950’s and ’60’s, many of them very hard to find, and relatively expensive. Classic eventually started issuing Rock and Pop titles, which now themselves fetch high prices on the collector’s market.

Okay so I just spent a bunch of money on that website because of this freaking post. Who can blame me I just bought a turntable with no albums and I've got like a dozen almost . Now I've got half a dozen more . This is some heroin addiction . Is there a 12-step group for it? 

No known cure aside from ………