LAURA NYRO - New York Tendaberry

Item Description

Vinyl, , Alternate Cover
LP Album Reissue

Quoted from the article by Tim Kozul published in Record Collector Magazine March 2009 (Issue 366): This letter might be called the continuing mystery of Laura Nyro’s New York Tendaberry album. I read with interest the articles in RC 326 & 331 about the ultrarare alternate NYT cover, as I have been looking for one for over 20 years. I finally purchased one in March ’08 from a Disk Union store in Japan. It is the nicest copy of this LP I have ever seen: absolutely NO ring-wear! On the back in the upper left-hand corner stamped in gold was a rectangular box with the inscription ‘For Governmental Sale Only’. The record was PC9737 and there was no booklet. I kind of assumed that the booklet was lost and perhaps the original record was replaced with a newer one. I didn’t care – all I wanted was the jacket. But, what if the record numbered PC9737 was the original album? Now we have not one, not two, but three catalogue numbers: CS9737 on the front and spine, KCS9737 on the back and PC9737 on the LP itself. Now it gets more interesting. At the end of ’08, another LP exactly like mine was auctioned on Japan’s Yahoo site. As with all others except the one I purchased, it showed some ring-wear. Photographs of this item showed an LP with catalog no. PC9737 and a gold ‘For Governmental Sales Only’ rectangular box stamped on the back of the jacket as well! The URL for this item is: http://page9.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/auction/k105929710. I believe Columbia started using the PC prefix sometime in the mid 70s. So my theory is that both of these LPs were purchased in a PX at a US military base in Japan sometime in the mid to late 70’s. Could Columbia possibly have sold a batch of these albums to the US government, and running short of covers a second time. reached back to use some of the old original covers that still happened to be lying around? Any other ideas, theories or info about this mystery album would be greatly appreciated.