This month we are featuring the 1981 K-Tel compilation Horizons on Adventures in Vinyl. This album comes to us from a suggestion by AiV listener, Jermaine Mack, from New Jersey. Jermaine often posts suggestions to our Facebook page. Thanks for the suggestion, Jermaine!Horizons was released in 1981 and is a collection of soft rock hits released in 1981. A K-Tel collector known as Herc has a website devoted to rating K-Tel albums. His website is K-Tel Kollection 1973-1983 and features a very unique "K-Tel" scale to rate albums. The scale measure the popularity of songs on the album by examining the placement on various charts for each song. A number then is calculated; the higher the number, the more hits on the album.
Horizons has a score of 23.18. Although the highest possible score is a 43, Horizons is worth a listen. Check out his website. If you love K-Tel, you'll love this.
This album does contain some great soft rock hits from Melissa Manchester, Robbie Dupree, Air Supply and many, many more.
This episode of Adventures in Vinyl can be heard every weekend during the month of February at 12:30 Saturday and 4 pm on Sunday--all times Central.
Or, you can listen anytime you want via Mixcloud.
Hey Bruce, thanks for the love. It's mutual, my friend.
ReplyDeleteThe K-Tel Scale ain't no big thing but it allows me to put an objective number on an otherwise subjective undertaking - the ranking of my favorite K-Tel albums. I'll list my subjective favorites at the end of the project, which is currently planned for the end of 2016.
It should be noted that though the theoretical highest score is 43.00, it is all but impossible as each song on the album would have had to have been Number One on the Top 40 as well as Number One on each of the five or six other charts in use, which varies depending on the album's release date. No one wants the same songs to dominate all the charts. It has been pointed out to me that this may be one of many flaws in my scoring system - I've collaborated with two college math professors, a military engineer and a real life rocket scientist on the current formula. And by collaborate, I mean they made suggestions and I adopted them without questioning.
The median K-Tel Scale score through 64 "official" albums is 28.84 and the average score is 28.32. I'd say any score over 22 is definitely worth one's time if they are a fan of the music from that era. A score of 32.92 or better currently gets you into the Top 10 and your Time Machine compilation came pretty dang close. Can't wait for your next collection.