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*** MINIMUM ORDER REQUIREMENT (Prior to Shipping Charges): *** USA: $25.00 Minimum Merchandise Purchase required for All orders. REST OF THE WORLD: $35.00 Minimum Merchandise Purchase required for All orders. ************************************************************* LETTER TO COLLECTOR: Hey Music lover! Thanks so much for responding to our GEMM catalog listing. In Beach Bum Collectables you`ve found an Oasis for the Worldwide Music Collector. Even though some of us may speak different languages, the universal love We ALL have for Music makes this large world of ours so much smaller!!! Offered here at Beach Bum Collectables are only half of the more than 14,000 items we stock covering many musical categories! We specialize in Rare & Hard to Find! Rock / New Wave / Soul / Disco / Funk / Dance Classic 12-Inch Singles, Compact Disc Singles, Soul - Funk - Disco LPs, Radio Shows, Promotional Only Releases, VHS Music Videos, D.J. Only Remix Services, and All That Jazz! Currently listed at Beach Bum Collectables are many Extremely Rare 1975-76 Promotional Only & Commercial 12-inch singles, some of the Very First 12-inch singles ever pressed in the World!!! B.B.C. also offers a fantastic selection of Disco Era 12-inch singles and LP's! We also offer many of the Very First Compact Disc Singles released in USA Promotional Only issues in 1986-89!!! All titles listed at Beach Bum Collectables - Gemm site are "In-Stock", absolutely nothing is backordered! All titles are available only in Quantity~1 (sorry, no multiple copy orders). All titles listed are Original U.S.A. Issues (unless otherwise noted by Import Country), and are out of print! While browsing our varied list, please select the "INFO", button to the right side of each song title for the Additional Descriptions on every item we offer! At B.B.C. we note Essential Information on all of our selections including Additional Tracks, Mixes, Producer, Writers, Re-mixers, Release Year, Record Label, Picture Sleeve, Condition, and more Pertinent Data on each specific release! For a quick look at the Many Rare & Hard to Find Selections we offer, please select our easy to search "Browse by Category" (Rock, Soul, Disco, Funk, New Wave, ect.) buttons, or for our complete Gemm inventory list available under the "Browse Complete List of all items" switches, both of which are found at the top of our Gemm home page. You may be surprised at what you will find, and you will Happy you did !!! At Beach Bum Collectables we offer extensive knowledge as Collectors & Sellers of 12-inch singles, and offer several thousand Rare & Hard to Find selections from the mid 70's to 90's! Included are many of the Dance Classic Labels such as Salsoul, Casablanca, Prelude, & T.K. Disco, as well as many small label pressings. All of the 12-inch singles we offer at B.B.C. are the Original Pressings issued at the time of their original release date. They feature the Original Mixes, Record Label, Sound Quality, and sometimes a just a little bit of Nostalgia! The Very Limited Pressings of these original releases give your record collection the Most in Value Today, and for Years to Come!!! Since USA record companies offer minimal reissues, all the 12-inch single titles listed at B.B.C. are the Original releases and are Long Out of Print! However if a reissue is offered in our listing, it will be noted as such in our description block. Please place your Order with Confidence, Beach Bum Collectables is a 1998 "Goldmine Customer Service Award" Winning Business (USA record collector magazine) in Product Quality, Representation, and Service! In the past year we have sold to Record Guide Publishers, Top Remixers, Record Companies, and Serious Collectors Worldwide. We offer Conservative Grading by Goldmine standards, and offer the Best Overall Selection! All orders shipped from B.B.C. are "Insured" with "Delivery Confirmation" or "Signature Required on Delivery" for your personal safety. In closing, we hope you find many Rare and Desirable Titles while browsing our varied list of Music Collectables. We have a minimum purchase requirement as noted above, and we love to sell collectors more than one or two titles per order, so please "Take a Closer Look" at our Gemm listing! We also offer a 5% ~ 10% Discount on all merchandise orders over $150.00. We suggest that you search your favorite Categories for new additions weekly. Thanks so much for your interest, please check back soon to see "What's New" at Beach Bum Collectables!!! B.B.C. 1/2006. ****************************************************************** If you are a Collector of 12-Inch Singles, here's a little Schoolin' for ya!!!! ****************************************************************** The Innovation of the 12-inch single was originally created by a few small record companies and by the Disc Jockey`s desire to offer the music fan a longer dance version for use in the disco nightclubs. Many 7-inch singles in the early 70`s averaged a mere three minutes long, hardly enough time for the patrons to get out of their chair and hit the dance floor! So a few DJ`s conceived a longer mix by meshing two 7-inch singles of the same song together "live" on their turntables to fulfill the needs of their patron`s favorite song, and of course without missing a beat!! Although many DJ`s aspired to perfect this method, few succeeded on a nightly basis. When record promoters became aware of this inconsistency, they worked together with the best mixing DJ`s to solve this problem. Record labels required a special tool to Showcase their New Single or LP release and these longer mixes gave their recording artist more play time in the clubs. Debuting in 1974 the original "Extended Mix Single" first appeared as a promotional only 7-inch copy and proved to be a great addition to both the DJ`s musical arsenal, as well as an instant sale for the shorter commercial release in the record store! Although very few 7-inch extended mix titles were released, the sound fidelity of the 33-1/3 or 45 rpm single was inferior and picked up many of the imperfections in the vinyl pressing. So in early 1975 nightclub DJ`s rallied a few small record labels and recording engineers to make up test pressings of these special mixes on a 12-inch vinyl single for their superior audio fidelity. These Rare Promotional Only Records became very popular with DJ`s! At the same time the dance music fan`s desire to purchase these limited extended mixes heard the night before created a collector`s market, and soon commanded a high value. A few DJ`s quickly acknowledged this demand and offered these special disco mixes along with other top hits of the day to consumers in a non-stop dance mix on bootleg 8-track and cassette tapes to the frustration of the original record label. Many record companies countered these bootleg tapes by releasing some of these same promotional extended mixes on compilation LP`s, sometimes in a non-stop mix to simulate a night at the disco. But often these special LP releases came out several months after the song charted and had lost it`s initial selling potential. One New York label envisioned offering these special 12-inch limited edition pressings of their new artist`s release to the public, and in early 1976 Salsoul Records began distributing them to the record stores around the country at a list price of $2.98. Many of these stores had expected little demand for this expensive oversized single, but these vinyl hot cakes flew off the griddle and the rest they say is music history! Although these 1976-77 limited edition 12-inch single pressings were originally designed to sell LP`s, most didn`t and would often times out sell the LP release. This forced many major labels to change their 12-inch single release programs and offer only occasional limited edition commercial pressings. A practice that continued throughout the Disco, Funk, and New Wave Era`s. As a result Many of the Most Desired Titles prior to 1983 were released as Promotional Only Copies (noted as Promo Only in our lists) featuring Special Mixes for Radio Station or Nightclub use only. After a new resurgence of dance music in 1983 many current releases by new artists once again became commercially available offering otherwise Unavailable Special Mixes and Non-LP Tracks to 12-inch Collectors of All Musical Genres!!! The above article is written & copyrighted by Beach Bum Collectables. Any use of it without the prior permission availible from B.B.C. Only is in direct violation of Copyright infringment laws. BEACH BUM COLLECTABLES, U.S.A. HTTP : // GEMM.COM / S.CGI / BEACHBUM