Contempo-Raries was the reissues arm of Contempo Records; it came on the scene as the same time as Contempo's 'Pop' label, Surrey International (q.v. both), presumably at a time when the company was diversifying. Its arrival was heralded by 'Music Week' of the 23rd of February 1974, which referred to it as 'Contempo Rarities'; according to the article the first releases were due out later that month, but in the event they didn't appear till the 10th of May. A lot of its output consisted of Soul music, but there were also some Rock 'n' Roll items on its catalogue - singles and LPs by the likes of Del Shannon and Johnny & The Hurricanes. Numbering was in the CS-9000s, and the label put records out from May 1974 to February 1976. The only one of its singles which troubled the compilers of the Singles Charts was Tami Lynn's 'I'm Gonna Run Away From You' b/w 'The Boy Next Door' (CS-9026; 4/75), which made it into the Top 40, but some other items sold well: 'MW' of the 5th of February 1977 observed that CS-9004, which coupled The Teddy Bears' 'To Know Him Is To Love Him' with 'The Birds And The Bees' by Jewel Akens, had shifted 9,000 copies in the three years that it had been on catalogue, and that as a result Contempo were re-promoting it. One label design served throughout, and singles shared the same sleeves that were used for ones on the main Contempo label. There were no specially-marked promo copies.
Copyright 2007 Robert Lyons.