A division of the mainly-budget-priced company Rediffusion Records. Singles and EPs of Classical music used to be commonplace in the '50s and early '60s, but by the time 1979 - the date of this offering - rolled round they had all but died out. The music lovers of the '70s apparently preferred to listen to works in their entirety rather than in bite-sized chunks; this was in the days before Classic FM made such things fashionable. One or two pieces from the more recognizable parts of the Classical repertoire still appeared in 7" format, but it was usually as a result of their being used in a television advert or as a theme in a popular film or TV programme. It was against this unpromising background that Rediffusion started their 'Classical Pops' series. There appear to have been just five records in the series; they were numbered in the CLA-0s, and they came in a generic sleeve. They don't seem to have sold in any sort of quantity. Rediffusion had made an earlier venture into the 7" Classical market in 1977, when they licensed a version of Carl Orff's, 'Carmina Burana' - which was being used on an advert for 'Old Spice' at the time - and released it on the Supraphon label (qv). The Hungarian company Supraphon supplied Rediffusion with much of its classical material, including all the tracks used on the 'Classical Pops' singles.
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.