Complete copies include the AdamVIII company inner sleeve and advertisement insert.
Presented on this album are Lennon's rough mixes of what became his "Rock & Roll" album. The release of this mail order album in January 1975 resulted in Lennon stepping up the process of releasing "Rock & Roll" a month later. The following law suit was resolved in favor of Capitol Records and John Lennon. Production of this LP was halted and about 3000 copies survived.
Many counterfeits exist. This is the genuine version of both the record and cover, which have all of these features:
1) SPINE:
- spine is square. Counterfeits can have round or flat spines.
- title on spine says "GREAT", as it does on the cover. Some counterfeits say "GREATEST".
2) COVER MATERIAL is white posterboard. Some counterfeits have paste-on cover slicks.
3) FRONT COVER IMAGE: the skin of John's shoulder at lower right is visible. Some counterfeits use a slightly enlarged copy of the front cover which crops out the shoulder.
4) FRONT COVER LETTERING: has the word "STEREO" in the bottom right corner of the cover printed in separate letters. Some counterfeits have the letters running together.
5) REAR COVER IMAGES: the printing on the little album covers in the advertisement are legible. This is not to say they are perfectly obvious because the print is really small. But the lettering on the Solid Gold album that read "Original Hits" & "By the Original Artists" are in distinct letters that don't bleed into each other. Similarly, the artist names on the small Soul Train cover ("Sylvia", "Isaac Hayes", "B.B.King", "Spinners", "The Dells", etc.) are in distinct white letters that don't bleed into each other. Lettering on counterfeits are illegible.
6) VINYL WEIGHT: originals are light-weight. Some counterfeits were pressed on unusually thick vinyl.
7) MATRIX: has "Bell Sound" stamp in tight italics. Some counterfeits lack the Bell Sound stamp.
8) RECORD LABEL SIZE: originals are standard. Some counterfeits have an unusually large compared to a standard 1970's pressing.
9) "A8018" ETCHED IN SIDE A LABEL: There is one definitive thing that separates the originals from the fakes. All original copies have the matrix number of A 8018 pressed into Side 1 Label. No counterfeits have this feature.
Copies under this listing satisfy all these criteria, and match the photos. Variants are listed under other pressings.
Other Items of John Lennon - Roots : Sings The Great Rock & Roll Hits
