I MOVED TO CALIFORNIA from Pennsylvania in June 1978. I naively believed I would find some semblance of “the sixties” hidden away in San Francisco. But in only a few years, most of it had been blotted out. There were still a lot of hand-painted Victorian houses and a few hip coffee shops and bookstores.
Longhairs still walked the streets and played in the parks. But Baghdad-by-the-Bay had changed since the brief heyday of the hippies. Through a series of events that might make a good movie, I ended up in Napa Valley. Needless to say, this was one of the least “hip” parts of Northern California. There I did what every record collector does: I found the used record stores and closest flea markets. Then I hit the garage and yard sales.
Everywhere I went, I found these strange, cheaply constructed albums with covers photocopied from “real” albums. They were counterfeits, manufactured in Taiwan, of legitimate albums from other countries. The Taiwanese had not signed international treaties regarding intellectual property rights.
The sole redeeming quality of many Taiwanese pirate albums is that they were pressed on brightly colored vinyl.
The quality of the covers varied from album to album even within the same title by the same record company! Many were countless generations removed from the original source.
Most of the albums were copies of rock albums from the US although some were from the UK. I saw few country & western, jazz, or soundtrack albums and I don’t recall ever seeing a classical album
They sold these records to American servicemen stationed in Taiwan. Apparently, they cost less than a third of the price of an authorized album. The original owners treated them poorly and few of the albums I saw were in “collectible condition.”
When I asked other record collectors about them, they usually laughed and told me to ignore them.
I was told, “Up north, there ain’t nobody buys them.”
And I said, “But I will.”
I did not write this article for educational purposes but for entertainment. If you are familiar with albums of the ’60s, you will be familiar with many of the albums below. Below you will find such popular and historic titles as the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, Donovan’s Sunshine Superman, Jefferson Airplane’s Surrealistic Pillow, and the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper.
Collecting Taiwanese albums
The first time I saw the Byrds’ FIFTH DIMENSION album (Columbia CL-2549) in July 1966, I bought it. The jacket had a gorgeous cover with the four Byrds posing on a beautiful (magic?) carpet. This photo was set against a pure black backdrop and the group appeared to be floating in the void of space on a magic carpet. (Whether it was outer or inner space was uncertain.)
Just as fetching were the big, psychedelically colored letters in “The Byrds” at the top of the cover. They stood out from any typeface I had ever seen and are still eye-catching in the 21st century. It immediately became one of my favorite album covers of all time, a position it holds fifty years later.
The first time I saw a Taiwanese pressing of FIFTH DIMENSION (Large World LW-200) in July 1978, I bought it. But I bought it for the opposite reason that I had purchased the original version a decade prior: the Taiwanese album was so shoddy a reproduction of the original that it looked like a cynical joke. The photo of the four Byrds was blurred and the blackness of the void had been replaced with a ghastly blue.
I do not normally appreciate kitsch or camp; I bought it for its sheer cheesiness!
Then I found something even cheesier!
Selling Taiwanese albums
In 1980, I took my first trip to Sacramento to look for records that were important for two reasons: I met Lee Cotten at his record shop and I found a copy of the Beatles’ SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND on orange vinyl (Liming LM-2220).
When I saw it, I thought, “Surely somebody will want this!”
So I paid $7.99 for it, which was considerably more than the dollar or two that most people asked for these albums. I put it up for auction in Goldmine magazine, which was one of the few places to reach an international market at the time.
Like most of the Taiwanese albums I found, it was far from “collectible condition”: I graded the jacket VG and the record VG-.
Lo and behold, it sold for $35!
This motivated me to buy other Taiwanese albums on colored vinyl for resale. Unfortunately, the $35 bid was a fluke, and it was difficult to sell the other records at any price. Collectors did not see these records as necessary additions to their collections. They saw them as something best avoided.
I never bought another Taiwanese album again.
About Taiwanese albums
These Taiwanese records were unauthorized reproductions and therefore counterfeits or “pirates.” But were technically legal when sold in Taiwan. After researching these albums, I am uncertain of the validity of many of the “facts” on the internet. Here is the best summation I found:
“The pirate would acquire a copy of a legit LP and create a straight disc dub, which became the master. From the master, stampers were made and new LPs were then pressed in one of the plants [in Taiwan]. Up until the late 1960s, the sleeves and labels were printed in Taiwan. Afterward, most were printed in the Philippines.
“The albums were usually pressed in batches of about 500, with no two batches looking or sounding the same. Covers were usually recycled, meaning art for a different album was on the reverse side of the paper. The covers were thin paper wrapped in cellophane.
“In 1970, there were reportedly over 45 modern equipped pressing plants in Taiwan. They were churning out 200,000 pirate albums per month. They were sold openly in legit record stores alongside legitimate pressings. The [repros] usually sold for 20–25% of the legit copy and the pirates outsold the legit pressings 5 to 1.” (Discogs)
The main companies making these albums in the ’60s include (but are not limited to):
Black Cat
Cathay
Chung Sheng
First Record
Hae Shan
Haishan
Large World
Song Jwu
Sun Shine
Tongsheng
The Cheese Factor
In this article, there are 101 covers of Taiwanese albums. Some I have selected for their sheer ugliness, others for their cleverness. But most of them are third-rate and I have referred to them for almost forty years as being “cheesy.” In popular vernacular, the adjective cheesy means “cheap, unpleasant, or blatantly inauthentic” (Google).
All the albums here have official counterparts in the rest of the world, notably the US and the UK. The year of their original release—not the year of the Taiwanese pirate’s release—is listed after each album title. Readers familiar with the authorized titles will know the difference in the reproductions.
I have rated each of the covers below for their cheesiness on a very simple three-part scale:
1. This is usually a copy of all or part of the original album with some kind of interesting and attractive creative input. Covers with a 1 should be of interest to a variety of collectors.
2. This is usually a copy of all or part of the original album that shows some care or creative thinking. In a few cases, it may be an alternative cover design. Covers with a 2 should be of interest to collectors who have everything and need to look outside their normal parameters.
3. This is usually a shoddy copy of all or part of the original album without any redeeming graphic qualities. They are of interest only because of the ugliness and shoddiness. Covers with a 3 should be of interest to collectors of ugliness and shoddiness or those with a droll sense of humor.
Each image has the album title below it. I linked each title to a page on Discogs with the original album. That way, you can compare the Taiwanese pirate to the American or British original.
I use the term reproduction rather loosely. It means that most of these covers appear to be reproductions made with a photocopy machine. Full-color copiers were not available commercially until 1968 when 3M introduced the Color-in-Color copy machine. Not coincidentally, the quality of Taiwanese pirate albums increased dramatically in 1969.
My favorite cheese
The overwhelming majority of the pirate albums here were featured photocopied cover art. Occasionally, the record company had an artist paint a copy of the original album cover photo! Most of these look like the work of a competent fan or student.
This means that these albums have completely “different” covers from the original. For the few I was able to find and include below, I have assigned them a Cheese Factor of 2. No matter how much more clever they are than shoddy photocopied covers, they are nonetheless truly cheesy.
Counting the featured image and the five images used as illustrations above, there are 101 cheesy Taiwanese pirate albums in this article . . .
A Gallery of Tai Cheese
The Association
And Then Along Comes the Association (1966)
Tai Shen KT-3077
Cheese Factor: 2
The Association
And Then Along Comes the Association (1966)
Haishan HS-534
Cheese Factor: 3
These two albums feature a different image than the original Valiant album. This photo of the group posing with an old car is a black & white photo from the back cover of the original album.
I don’t mind the design, although it’s inferior to the original and the colors on the Tai Shen album are effective. Is the Haishan cover a reproduction of the Tai Shen cover?
When “Along Comes Mary” hit the AM radio in 1966, many listeners thought it was about marijuana. (“Mary Jane” was supposedly a street name for pot although when I became a pot-smoker a few years later, I never heard anyone use it except ironically.) When the Association’s first album was released, they looked like the straightest group on the planet!
The Association
Insight Out (1967)
Chung Sheng CSJ-633
Cheese Factor: 3
This is a reproduction of the original Warner Brothers album but with a blue background instead of white. Dig the hand-lettered artist credit and album title and the misspelled hit single! Instead of “Windy” tripping down the street of the city, everyone knows it’s “Widy”!
The Astronauts
Surfin’ with the Astronauts (1963)
Hae Shan HS-234
Cheese Factor: 2
This album features a different image than the original RCA Victor album. Although it’s an inferior image, this is not a bad-looking album.
The Band
The Band (1969)
Chung Sheng CSJ-893
Cheese Factor: 3
This is a reproduction of the original Capitol album that replaces the brown background with mustard-yellow. Reflecting the return-to-roots movement in rock music and the back-to-the-earth movement in the counterculture, here The Band looks like the bad guys in True Grit or a spaghetti western.
The Beach Boys
Surfer Girl (1963)
Large World LW-202
Cheese Factor: 3
This is a reproduction of the original Capitol album that replaces the white background with yellow. Hell’s Belles, even the surfboard is yellow!
The Beach Boys
All Summer Long
Haishan HS-263
Cheese Factor: 2
This is a reproduction of the original Capitol album that replaces the white background with yellow. It also reduces the color photos to black and white. Overall, it’s a rather attractive cover.
For some reason that isn’t obvious, Haishan lifted the two lines of text (the artist credit, the album title, and the song titles) and separated them from the photos with an inch of the yellow background. (They also eliminated the nifty sun logo from the original cover.).
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys Today! (1965)
First FL-S-1193
Cheese Factor: 2
This is a reproduction of the original Capitol album that replaces the brown background with yellow. Again.
The Beach Boys
Beach Boys’ Party! (1965)
Liming LM-2026
Cheese Factor: 3
This is a reproduction of the original Capitol album that replaces the orange background with pink. Reducing the original color photos to blue and pink was an interesting decision; surrounding them with a pink background was not.
The Beach Boys
Pet Sounds (1966)
Chung Sheng CSJ-293
Cheese Factor: 2
The Beach Boys
Pet Sounds (1966)
First FL-1362
Cheese Factor: 1
Both of these albums are decent reproductions of the original Capitol album but with some alterations. The Chung Sheng album has a white field at the top instead of green, and the original large yellow song titles have been replaced with teeny-weeny red ones. Still, it’s a nice-looking cover.
The First album has a red field at the top instead of green and the album title is centered instead of flush left. The song titles have been eliminated completely. I like this cover for its boldness and may prefer it to the original. (I know—I blaspheme, but that’s life.) I especially like the deft touch of adding a dash of red to the bits of food that Carl and Brian are offering the goats.
The photo that the Beach Boys or Capitol selected for PET SOUNDS is charming but it was probably not the best image to put across the “genius” of Brian’s “new” music. Still, it was a huge step forward from striped Pendleton shirts that they wore for the Sloop John B picture sleeve a few months earlier.
The Beach Boys
Best of the Beach Boys (1966)
Sun Shine SS-160
Cheese Factor: 1
This is a reproduction of the original Capitol album but the original cover has the song titles in red, blue, and black print. This Sun Shine cover has red and black titles and adds a blue border around all four sides. This is actually a more effective design.
The photos on the cover don’t acknowledge the sixth Beach Boy, Bruce Johnson. By the time this album was released, he was a permanent member, performing at all the group’s concerts and singing background on their records.
The Beach Boys
Smiley Smile (1967)
Song Jwu SAL-7041
Cheese Factor: 1
This is a decent reproduction of the original Brother album but with some alterations. On the original, the vegetation is several tones of green and brown with shading. The title and artist credit are green.
The Song Jwu cover changes all the vegetation to shades of green and changes the title and artist credit to a bright red.
This is nowhere near as lovely as the original but it is stronger graphically and would probably attract more attention from casual browsers in a record store.
This music was received as rather “unhip” in 1967, and this cover art didn’t help. The album was used as evidence that “Brian is a genius” was not an astute observation by Jules Siegel and Paul Williams, but merely a clever ploy to make the group look hip to the emerging hip counterculture. Fortunately, time and succeeding generations have been very kind to SMILEY SMILE, a truly beautiful (if truly weird) album.
The Beatles
With the Beatles (1963)
Chung Sheng CSJ-274 [a]
Cheese Factor: 3
The Beatles
With the Beatles (1963)
Chung Sheng CSJ-274 [b]
Cheese Factor: 3
These albums feature a different image than the original Parlophone album, using a photo from another source. On the image on top [a], the Beatles’ bodies are flat but their heads have tone and shading and jump out of the background. The effect is merely cheesy.
On the image on the bottom [b], the bodies and background have been even more flattened. But the way the shaded heads pop out of the simple, bold colors is both ridiculous and striking. This was a common effect on Taiwanese covers and below I refer to them as “pop-out heads.”
Also, the first nine song titles are typeset but the bottom four are hand-lettered.
The letterer ran out of room for the final title, “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me”—instead of breaking it up into two lines and indenting the second line, he curved the last three words up over Ringo’s shoulder!
The Beatles
Meet the Beatles (1963)
Hae Shan HS-238
Cheese Factor: 2
The Beatles
Meet the Beatles (1963)
Haishan HS-251
Cheese Factor: 2
The Hae Shan album is a reproduction of the original Parlophone album. Here Hae Shan cropped the Beatles’ heads out of the famous blue-black backdrop of the original cover and pasted them onto a white or neutral field and added a few Chinese characters. All in all, it’s an effective cover design.
The Haishan album features a different image than the original Capitol album. It is a painting of another photo and looks like “fan art” that might have appeared in a quality fanzine.
The Beatles
A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
Chung Sheng CSJ-34
Cheese Factor: 3
This album features a different image than the original Parlophone album. It uses a photo from another source. This is so shoddy that even the red-on-pink color scheme can’t save it.
The Beatles
Beatles for Sale (1964)
First FL-1157
Cheese Factor: 3
The Beatles
Beatles for Sale (1964)
Hae Shan HS-281
Cheese Factor: 3
The First album is a reproduction of the original Parlophone album with the background whited out. Robert Freeman’s original photograph is so stunning that even an incompetent designer can come away with a striking image.
The Hae Shan album is a reproduction of the original Parlophone album but with the Beatles cropped out of the photo and set into a not particularly attractive green field. This one looks like a high-quality bootleg from the early 1970s when there were no high-quality bootleg manufacturers.
The Beatles
Help! (1965)
Chung Sheng CSJ-105
Cheese Factor: 2
The Beatles
Help! (1965)
First FL-S 1198
Cheese Factor: 3
These albums feature a different image than the original Parlophone album. They are reproductions of the original Capitol picture sleeve for the Help! single. The monochromatic blue of the Chung Sheng cover is kinda nice looking while the First album has a modest pop-out head effect.
The Beatles
Rubber Soul (1965)
Chung Sheng CSJ-152
Cheese Factor: 3
The Beatles
Rubber Soul (1965)
First FL-1255 [a]
Cheese Factor: 3
The Beatles
Rubber Soul (1965)
First FL-1255 [b]
Cheese Factor: 3
These are all reproductions of the original Parlophone album, which was one of the outstanding covers of the ’60s. Each looks like a photocopy many generations removed from the original.
The second First album [b] is considerably sharper but still gives the Fab Four a sorta ghostly quality, which is attractive.
The Beatles
Revolver (1966)
First FL-1337
Cheese Factor: 2
The Beatles
Revolver (1966)
Chung Sheng CSJ-384
Cheese Factor: 2
The First album is a reasonably accurate reproduction of the original Parlophone album but with “Revolver The Beatles” dropped onto Paul’s face. This gives the pristine look of the original a slightly tacky look. The Chinese characters don’t detract all that much.
The Chung Sheng album features a different image than the original Parlophone album. It does away with the cover art and prints the lyrics to some of the songs instead.
The Beatles
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Black Cat BC-4113
Cheese Factor: 3
This album features a different image than the original Parlophone album. It is a reproduction of the interior photo on the gatefold jacket. The album title has two typos: “Peppep’s” and “Loney.”
The Beatles
The Golden Hits by Beatls 67′ (1967)
Large World LW-299
Cheese Factor: 3
Most readers will immediately note the misspelling of the band’s name in the title. Fewer will catch the fact that the apostrophe in the contracted year is in the wrong place. It should be “Beatles ‘67” instead of “Beatls 67′.” (Actually, the title should be “The Golden Hits of the Beatles 1967.”)
Fewer still will get far enough to discover that this is not a compilation of hits from 1967 but is, in fact, the complete SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND album!
The Beatles
The Beatles (1968)
Liming LM-2237
Cheese Factor: 2
The Beatles
The Beatles (1968)
Liming LM-2238
Cheese Factor: 2
Liming 2237 contains sides 1 and 2 of the two-record set THE BEATLES from 1968 (also known as The White Album). Liming 2238 contains sides 3 and 4.
Instead of the plain white jacket of The Beatles, these albums use the four bonus photos that were included with the original two-record album.
The front cover of 2238 credits “The Beatles,” the back cover credits “The Beales,” and the record labels credits “The Bealfs.”
The Byrds
Mr. Tambourine Man (1965)
Cathay CA-1029
Cheese Factor: 2
The Byrds
Mr. Tambourine Man (1965)
Chung Sheng CSJ-244 [a]
Cheese Factor: 3
The Byrds
Mr. Tambourine Man (1965)
Chung Sheng CSJ-244 [b]
Cheese Factor: 3
These are all reproductions of the original Columbia album. The Cathay album has a dark blue backdrop and combined with the Chinese characters it is rather eye-catching. The Chung Sheng album [a] is a reproduction of the original Columbia album but with the black backdrop replaced with aquamarine. It also adds a yellow tint to the artist’s credit and the photo that enhances the cover somewhat.
The Chung Sheng album on the bottom [b] is an even shoddier album and may be a reproduction of the first one but with a pink tint to the artist’s credit and the photo that is less effective. This album looks like a kissin’ cousin to the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s ARE YOU EXPERIENCED on World Record below.
I bought the MR. TAMBOURINE MAN album as soon as it came out in 1965. I was 13 years old and had never seen an album cover that looked anything like it. The fish-eye lens photo cropped into a circle set against a black backdrop looked like the Byrds were peering from California through a hole in the universe into my room in Pennsylvania.
The Byrds
Turn! Turn! Turn! (1965)
Large World LW-113
Cheese Factor: 3
The Byrds
Turn! Turn! Turn! (1965)
Chung Sheng CSJ-245
Cheese Factor: 3
The Large World album is a reproduction of the original Columbia album but with the beautiful blue backdrop replaced with an ugly green.
The Chung Sheng album is a reproduction of the original CBS from Japan but turning the beautiful full-color cover of the original to a garish red tone.
The Byrds
Younger than Yesterday (1967)
Sun Shine SS-120
Cheese Factor: 3
This is a reproduction of the original Columbia album. If I had to choose a Favorite Album Cover of All Time, it would be the cover of the original stereo release of YOUNGER THAN YESTERDAY. But all the subtlety and beauty of the original is lost on this Sun Shine album.
The pointillist effect of the original cover art (click on the link on the title above) was lost in the multiple generations of photocopies used for this cover. The glorious color photo was reduced to black and white with pink, green, and blue tones added. This makes the four Byrds look like creatures from a bad horror movie!
Johnny Cash
I Walk the Line (1964)
Chung Sheng CSJ-49
Cheese Factor: 3
This is a reproduction of the original Columbia album but the results are so bizarre I am uncertain as to whether Johnny’s face is a distorted photo or just some ugly artwork! Either way, it makes Johnny look like he was auditioning for Eraserhead.
Petula Clark
Chante en Anglais (1966)
Black Cat BC-4064
Cheese Factor: 2
This is a reproduction of the original Vogue album but with the background replaced with a pink field. There is also a pop-out effect on Pet’s head. (I also remember when girls drank sodas out of bottles with two straws. I don’t know why, but I found it sexy. Sigh . . .)
Cream
Wheels of Fire (1968)
Chung Sheng CSJ-815
Cheese Factor: 3
Cream
Wheels of Fire (1968)
First FLS-1629/1620
Cheese Factor: 2
The Chung Sheng album is a reproduction of the original Atco album but with a yellow border. The original Atco album featured one of the first outrageous album covers with black line drawings by Martin Sharp. The art was covered with a faux silver foil finish that made the gatefold jacket shine.
The clothes that Baker, Bruce, and Clapton wore and the instruments they played during their mind-altering tour of the US in 1968 were designed and painted by Simon Posthuma and Marijke Koger They were the leaders of a Dutch art collective known as The Fool. While Cream was colorfully psychedelic in person, little on this album topped DISRAELI GEARS for psychedelicness.
The First album eliminated the original cover art and replaced it with graphics that look like they were done by an 8-year-old. This may be the cheesiest cover on this page! I awarded it a 2 instead of 3 for sheer chutzpah.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival (1968)
Tai Shen KT-3070
Cheese Factor: 3
This is a reproduction of the original Fantasy album but with a pop-out effect on the entire figure of the four band members. The original cover design was kind of cheesy: a nice color photo of CCR hanging out in the woods was bordered on three signs by what looks like the type of filigree art associated with 19th-century books.
Donovan
Sunshine Superman (1966)
Liming LM-2177
Cheese Factor: 1
These are both reproductions of the original Epic album with interesting alterations in the colors. While the Epic cover is attractive, it’s also kinda laid back. I think the Liming color scheme is a more effective and eye-catching scheme than the Epic cover.
The Doors
The Doors (1967)
Chung Sheng CSJ-611
Cheese Factor: 3
The Doors
The Doors (1967)
World Record SLW-1642
Cheese Factor: 2
These are both reproductions of the original Elektra album. The Chung Sheng album adds a white border to the photo (and red to Morrison’s lips), more or less ruining a great cover. The World album also adds an unnecessary border but I like the pink-orange tone.
The Doors
Strange Days (1967)
Chung Sheng CSJ-655
Cheese Factor: 2
This album features a different image than the original Elektra album. The original album has a photo of a group of circus people, including the gentleman above in the photo above. It hinted at the carnival of sounds and effects on the record within.
The Chung Sheng album uses the photo on the back cover of the Elektra album, adding a blue border. This ruins the whole effect of the marvelous original cover. The back cover of the Chung Sheng album features the lyrics to the songs.
Bob Dylan
Bringing It All Back Home (1965)
Sun Shine SS-176
Cheese Factor: 3
This is a reproduction of the original Columbia album that blurs many of the details that made the cover so interesting to Dylanaddicts for years. Many of them believed that Dylan selected and arranged the items in this Daniel Kramer photograph as clues to the puzzle that Dylan was becoming in early 1965.
Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Faithfull (1965)
First FL-1302
Cheese Factor: 3
This is a reproduction of the original Decca album with the addition of the horizontal bar or stripe on the left, which looks like a Japanese obi. Miss Faithfull was one of the legendary beauties of Swinging London in the ’60s. She was the one who got Mick Jagger and kept him for several years. Unfortunately, few of the photographs on her records capture that beauty, this one being no exception.
The Four Seasons
Sherry (1962)
First FL-1070
Cheese Factor: 2
This is a reproduction of the original Vee-Jay album that replaces the black background with a dull blue. Stereo copies of most Vee-Jay albums from the early ’60s are rather rare records. It’s rather interesting that First Record got hold of a stereo copy in Taiwan to use as the source for this cover.
Connie Francis
Never on Sunday (1961)
Haishan HS-4
Cheese Factor: 2
Connie Francis
Never on Sunday (1961)
Haishan HS-4
Cheese Factor: 2
These albums feature a different image than the original MGM album. These two pressings of Haishan 4 feature photos from another source. The design isn’t half bad.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Are You Experienced (1967)
World Record SLW-1652
Cheese Factor: 3
This is a reproduction of the original Reprise album that replaces the green background with a dull blue. The original full-color, psychedelic photo by Karl Ferris has been replaced with a black & white photocopy. This album looks like a kissin’ cousin to the Byrds’ MR. TAMBOURINE MAN album on Chung Sheng above.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Axis: Bold as Love (1967)
First FL-1610
Cheese Factor: 2
This is a reproduction of the original Reprise album with the subtle shaded pink and orange rays in the background turned into garish red and yellow beams. While the original is more attractive, the boldness of this design makes the First album more of an attention-getter.
Herman’s Hermits
Introducing Herman’s Hermits (1964)
First FL-1242
Cheese Factor: 1
This album features a different image than the original MGM album. This design is similar to the original HERMAN’S HERMITS EP album from Spain (Odeon 7EPL-14.185), but replaces the original photo with a painting of the photo! It looks like fan art that might have appeared in a quality fanzine.
The Hollyridge Strings
The Beatles Song Book (1964)
First FL-1268
Cheese Factor: 3
This album features a different image than the original Capitol album, using a photo from another source. It bears no resemblance to the original album, which does not have any image, just text against a blue background.
Ian & Sylvia
Early Mornin’ Rain (1965)
Haishan HS-528
Cheese Factor: 3
This is a reproduction of the original Vanguard album with the colors washed out. Haishan took the original full-color photo and reduced it to black and white, they then added blue and red tones to everything but the faces. Interesting effect.
Jefferson Airplane
Surrealistic Pillow (1967)
Large World LW-335
Cheese Factor: 1
This is the same design as the original RCA Victor album but replaces the original photo with an amateurish painting of the photo. It looks like fan art that might have appeared in a quality fanzine.
Jefferson Airplane
After Bathing at Baxter’s (1967)
Large World LW-349
Cheese Factor: 2
This is a reproduction of the original RCA Victor album without the big white stars in the blue banner at the top. The original design and art were done by Ron Cobb, the king of the underground press cartoonists at the time.
AFTER BATHING AT BAXTER’S is one of my favorite album covers, so I even like this cheesy repro (even if it ruins the intricate coloring of the airplane by making everything green).
Jefferson Airplane
Crown of Creation (1968)
First FL-1639
Cheese Factor: 1
This album features a different image than the original RCA Victor album. First Record took the multi-exposure photo of the group from the back cover of the original album and superimposed it over an atomic fireball.
This is a more striking design than the original album! This is one of the few instances where a Taiwanese design team showed real creativity and beat the original graphics people at their own game.
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin (1968)
Chung Sheng CSJ-846
Cheese Factor: 3
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin (1968)
Union TD-1721
Cheese Factor: 2
These are both reproductions of the original Atlantic album. On the Chung Sheng cover, the original white background has been filled with a muddy sepia color.
The Union album uses a negative image of the original cover to great effect. I prefer it to the original.
The Lovin’ Spoonful
Do You Believe in Magic? (1965)
Leico PLS-3087
Cheese Factor: 3
This is a reproduction of the original Kama Sutra album but replaces the black background with an ugly blue.
Lulu
To Sir, with Love (1967)
First FL-1523
Cheese Factor: 2
Lulu
To Sir, with Love (1967)
Liming LM-2204
Cheese Factor: 2
Both of these albums are packaged as the soundtrack to the movie To Sir, With Love. Both contain the same track content as Lulu’s solo album LULU SINGS TO SIR, WITH LOVE. At least, that’s the title of the US release; in the UK, it was saddled with the sales-killing LOVE LETTERS TO LULU.
The cover for the Liming album is a collage that was lifted from a movie poster. The cover to the First album is a collage of images from the movie and, while amateurish, is more effective than the staid photo of Mr. Thackeray (Sidney Poitier) at his desk in school gracing the cover of the actual soundtrack album.
The Mamas & The Papas
If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (1966)
Tai Shen KT-3023
Cheese Factor: 2
This album crops a portion of the photo on the original Dunhill album and sets it against a blue background. While it ruins the charm of the original cover, it’s hard to be angry with a design with a big green “Mama’s & Papa’s” on it (even if there are apostrophes incorrectly added to each noun).
The Mamas & The Papas
John – Michelle – Cass – Dennie (1967)
Chung Sheng CSJ-445
Cheese Factor: 2
This album features a different image than the original Dunhill album using a photo from another source.
Moby Grape
Moby Grape (1967)
Chung Sheng CSJ-599
Cheese Factor: 3
This is a reproduction of the original Columbia album that replaces the black border with yellow. It’s the original, untouched cover with Don Stevenson’s finger still attached to his hand.
The Monkees
The Monkees (1966)
Large World LW-230
Cheese Factor: 2
This a reproduction of the original Colgems album. The original photo is full color but here it’s reduced to black and white with a red tone. But my-o-my look at those teeth! This highlighting of the teeth occurs on many Taiwan albums, only a few of which are on this page.
The Monkees
More of the Monkees (1966)
First FL-1427
Cheese Factor: 3
The Monkees
More of the Monkees (1966)
Liming LM-2157
Cheese Factor: 2
Both of these albums are reproductions of the original Colgems album but with the group’s faces enhanced so that they have that absurd pop-out head effect.
The Monkees
Pisces Aquarius Capricorn & Jones Ltd. (1967)
Chung Sheng CSJ-663
Cheese Factor: 1
This album features a different image than the original Colgems album. It is one of the more adventurous efforts by a Taiwanese record company’s art department. It’s also one of the more interesting covers on any Monkees record anywhere!
Peter, Paul & Mary
See What Tomorrow Brings (1965)
Liming LM-2027
Cheese Factor: 3
This is a reproduction of the original Warner Brothers album but is just plain ugly, removing all the charm of the original photo.
Peter, Paul & Mary
Late Again (1968)
Liming LM-2247
Cheese Factor: 2
This album features a different image than the original Warner Brothers album, using a photo from another source. It looks homemade. As cheesy as it is, I kinda like it.
Gene Pitney
Golden Greats (1967)
Song Jwu SAL-7039
Cheese Factor: 1
This is a decent reproduction of the original Musicor album with the original solid black background replaced with bright red and all those stripes. This is a more effective design for attracting the eye of a record buyer.
Elvis Presley
Elvis’ Golden Records Volume 3 (1963)
First FL-S-1209
Cheese Factor: 3
This is a reproduction of the original RCA Victor album that replaces the blue background with gold. Like most of the photos used on Elvis’s albums and pictures sleeves in the ’60s, this presents the singer so blandly as to be devoid of spark and pizzazz.
Elvis Presley
Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966)
First FL-1373
Cheese Factor: 3
This is a reproduction of the original RCA Victor album but First Record cropped the photo of Elvis and surrounded it with a blue border. It’s tacky as all get-out but the blue adds a touch of drama to the blasé original.
Paul Revere & The Raiders
Midnight Ride (1966)
Tongsheng MXL-1082
Cheese Factor: 3
This is a reproduction of the original Columbia album but Tongsheng cropped the group photo and surrounded it with a gold border added to the photo. The border makes the album look like the quadraphonic albums that Columbia released in 1973-1975.
Paul Revere & The Raiders
Revolution (1967)
World SLW-1648
Cheese Factor: 2
This is a reproduction of the original Columbia album with a banner added to the top and a nice pop-out head effect on the group.
Cliff Richard & The Shadows
Finders Keepers (1966)
Liming LM-2137
Cheese Factor: 3
This is a reproduction of the original Columbia album in which the dismal photocopy makes the boys look like some form of British undead. With this cover, it’s hard to believe this is the soundtrack album for a movie that boasts, “The beat is the wildest, the blast is the craziest, and the fun is where you find it!”
The Righteous Brothers
Soul and Inspiration (1966)
Chung Sheng CSJ-363
Cheese Factor: 3
Righteous Brothers
Soul and Inspiration (1966)
Chung Sheng CSJ-363
Cheese Factor: 3
These albums feature a different image than the original Verve album. They use a reproduction of the original Moonglow album THE BEST OF THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS. But they are so poorly reproduced that Bobby Hatfield looks like he was used as a sparring partner (sans headgear) in a workout with Mike Tyson (sans gloves).
The Rolling Stones
Aftermath (1966)
Chung Sheng CSJ-435
Cheese Factor: 2
The Rolling Stones
Aftermath (1966)
First FL-1305
Cheese Factor: 1
In 1968, Mick and Keith decided they wanted to outrage us all with tasteless cover art for the brilliant BEGGARS BANQUET album, which Decca had the good sense to quash. Most of the sleeve art that followed was tacky at best. But from 1964 through 1967, Rolling Stones picture sleeves and album covers were among the most beautiful of the ’60s.
AFTERMATH had two covers: the one the group selected appeared on the Decca album in the UK and most of the rest of the world. Then there was another cover that appeared on the London album, apparently selected for the American market. Both are fine but I prefer the London album cover.
Fortunately, the Taiwanese companies chose to ape the London album. Chung Sheng added a yucky green banner to the top so that the album looks like a bootleg. First reduced the color photo to black and white and added a red tint, making an effective and attractive alternative to the original.
The Rolling Stones
Big Hits (High Tide & Green Grass) (1966)
Black Cat BC-4110
Cheese Factor: 2
This is a reproduction of the original Decca album—which was another beautiful Stones cover—with the background reduced to black and white. The images of the five Stones are in washed-out colors with a pop-out head effect.
The Rolling Stones
Flowers (1967)
Chung Sheng CSJ-610
Cheese Factor: 2
This album features a different image than the original London album, using a photo from another source. While it’s nothing like the original cover—of which I am rather fond—it’s not bad-looking.
The Rolling Stones
Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967)
Large World LW-351
Cheese Factor: 1
This is a reproduction of the original Decca album with the group’s name and the album title added. Original copies of the album had a plastic, lenticular window glued over the photo. This gave the photo a 3-D effect where the parts of the photos appeared to move when the jacket itself was moved.
Due to the clarity of the photo here, I assume that Large World used an album cover that had did not have the lenticular window.
The Shadows
Out of the Shadows (1962)
Chung Sheng CSJ-81
Cheese Factor: 3
This is a reproduction of the original EMI album. The original cover is full color and has the four band members posing in a black environment while being lit from their right.
(Has anyone ever suggested that the striking chiaroscuro effect on the cover of the original OUT OF THE SHADOWS album may have been the inspiration for Robert Freeman’s iconic photo for the With the Beatles album? There the four band members are posing in a black environment while being lit from their right with a striking chiaroscuro effect.)
Simon & Garfunkel
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme (1967)
First FL-1428
Cheese Factor: 2
Simon & Garfunkel
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme (1967)
Large World LW-331
Cheese Factor: 2
Both of these albums are reproductions of the original Columbia album with the black background replaced with blue. The person who cropped the foreground photo from the black did a poor job on poor Paul’s head. It’s so poor that it gives the new image a Dada-like look. This may be my favorite pop-out head effect in this article!
Nancy Sinatra
Boots (1966)
First FL-1343
Cheese Factor: 3
This is a reproduction of the original Reprise album, which is one of the most distinctive album covers of the ’60s. The reproduction of the photo of Nancy crops the point off the end of the boot on her right foot, making it look like her toes have been amputated!
The Supremes
The Supremes at the Copa (1965)
Chung Sheng CSJ-197
Cheese Factor: 3
The Supremes
The Supremes at the Copa (1965)
Haishan HS-405
Cheese Factor: 3
Both of these albums are reproductions of the original Motown album. The Chung Sheng album cropped the foreground photo (the audience, the Supremes, and the musicians) out of the original cover and replaced the dark drapes with a plain pink screen.
The Haishan folks cropped just the Supremes and the audience out of the photo and replaced it with a garish orange background. The cropping of the figures is crude, giving this cover a Dada-like look. The orange backdrop reminds me of the cover for Pink Floyd’s MORE album.
The Supremes
I Hear a Symphony (1966)
Sun Shine SS-121
Cheese Factor: 3
This is a reproduction of the original Motown album. The intricacy of the lighting and shadows on the original Motown album was replaced with a cheese-colored background.
Diana Ross & The Supremes
Supremes Greatest Hits (1967)
Song Jwu SAL-7042/7043
Cheese Factor: 1
The is a tasty reproduction of the original Motown album but with the dark blue background replaced with white at the top and vertical stripes on the bottom. This is one of the better design changes on a Taiwanese album.
The sole redeeming quality of many Taiwanese pirate albums of the ’60s is that many of were pressed on brightly colored vinyl. Click To Tweet
FEATURED IMAGE: The photo at the top of this page is of the Liming Record pressing of Donovan’s SUNSHINE SUPERMAN album on orange vinyl. At the time these albums were made, Taiwan was ripping off American recording artists, songwriters, record companies, and publishing companies. Nonetheless, the US was forcing the rest of the world to recognize the Taiwanese government (the Republic of China) and its 14,000,000 population as the “true” China.
I am going to leave this here. The quotes on the page that I clicked to get here from Hoffman and Morrison are still true today. Re: Morrison’s- I could not get a haircut for the past three months from the haircutter that has cut my hair for 25 years ’cause his shop shut down for that period of time. I had an appointment then the isolation started, so the appointment then never happened. I have an appointment Friday and I have to wear a mask during it! Ridiculous. I hope going there won’t turn out a mistake. Anyway, get any records lately?
GARY
I don’t know who Hoffman and Morrison are.
I made an appointment with my haircutter for two Saturdays from now. He is only taking old customers he knows well and he is only allowing one person in his salon at a time (besides himself). He will wear a mask and every client has to wear a mask as well.
I wouldn’t have it any other way ...
NEAL
Just for clarity, A. Hoffman and J. Morrison are quoted on, I think it was your home page, that got me to this article. They are in red on the right side of the page.
127 Doctors signed a letter that cited the restrictions on this Covid-19 are way over the top. That is not all, I will just stop on this topic as this is not the place for it.
Thanks, and you have a great site here!
G
I didn’t realize you meant Abbie and Jim! Glad that somebody is reading the quotes on the sidebar on my homepage! Thanks.
I’ll betcha a buck-three-eighty that those 127 doctors went to the same colleges as the 3% of scientists who don’t think global clomate change is happening.
N
G
PS: Thanks for the kind words about my site.
N
I moved from Boston to San Diego in 1998. As a long time record collector, I continued to haunt yard sales and thrift shops for records. It was in SD that I first came across these Asian bootlegs.
I always bought them for their “cheese factor.” At one yard sale, I asked the seller where he got them. He said they were the records that were available to the GI serving in Vietnam in the 60s. They brought them home to the US when they were discharged. That made sense to me.
TOM
Thanks for the comment.
In all my years collecting records on the East Coast, I don’t remember ever seeing one of these albums. But the first record show I attended on the West Coast (at the monthly meet at the Castro Valley’s Boy Club in 1979), I saw them everywhere. They were always in VG- condition and no one ever asked more than a few dollars for them—regardless of artist or title.
I was awed when I watched Chris Chatman sell a yellow/gold vinyl copy of Sgt. Pepper in the usual VG- for $35 out of his shop in Sacramento a year or two later. That’s the first time I realized that there could be a market for the darn things.
Keep on keepin’ on!
NEAL
They were not available in Vietnam. I was there from 12/18/69 to 2/25/1971.
I bought some of these bootlegs when I went to Taiwan for R&R. They sold for .25 each.
I still have them. They are in their original shape and probably play about the same.
I’d be interested in selling them for a price that makes it worthwhile for me.
LARRY
Thanks for the comment.
The best places to sell those records online are probably eBay and Discogs. The former has a much larger base of readers/buyers but takes as its fee a much higher percentage of the sale.
If you go to Discogs, you can look up the individual records you own and find out what they have sold for in the past. Knowing how to grade albums (jackets and records) comes in mighty handy.
Good luck ...
NEAL
Thanks, Neal.
Looks like you’re probably old too and don’t sleep at night.
Are you a Nashville cat as cool as country water!
LARRY
I’ve never been much of a sleeper and as I await my 70th birthday, I sleep less each year. Not a problem, really, as I get a lot done in the wee hours.
I hail from the coal-mining area of northeastern Pennsylvania. As close to being cool as country water I ever got was just digging the Spoonful’s records.
How many Taiwanese albums do you have to sell?
NEAL
I’m looking at either turning 71 or 72 this year. I get confused. Too lazy to subtract 1949 from 2021.
Yea, them spoons
could pick more notes
than the number of ants
on a Tennessee anthill!
I probably have about a dozen of those albums. I’d have to look. The House of The Rising Sun by Frigid Pink was the main reason that I bought them.
L
Don’t expect big bucks for most of them.
And with that, I say what Ringo said at the end of The White Album: “Now it’s time to say good night—Good night, sleep tight.”
Even us old farts gotta sleep some time.
Best,
N
I have a ton of these Taiwan pressings, would like to get in touch with the poster, as I collect these also.
JEFF
There are thousands of Taiwanese pressings listed on Discogs, many for sale. Here is the site’s listing for First Records:
https://www.discogs.com/label/72896-First-Record
Hope this helps.
NEAL
I found a Mary Hopkins Taiwanese copy of Mary Hopkins at a thrift store. They were confused by it and gave it to me for a dime. Then I found a Cream one but no cash and went back the next week and it was gone! I was gutted! Losing a bid right now for McCartney and The Who Tommy.
JAMES
Thanks for the comment!
How did the bids on McCartney and The Who end up?
NEAL