A series rather than a label, but the records were prominently and specially marked and came in a dedicated sleeve (8), which for my money justifies treating them separately. I could have done a page each for MGM Action Replay, Atlantic Action Replay and so on, but for the sake of convenience I've grouped them all together here. 'Action Replay' got its only mention in 'Record Retailer' in the issue of the 22nd of May 1971, which reported that Polydor was planning to release a series of popular recordings from its back catalogue, by twenty-one artists across the group's family labels, under that banner. According to the article the first five singles, by Aretha Frankin, The Young Rascals, the Dixie Cups, Connie Francis and Jimmy Jones, were due out on the 11th of June, with six more following on the 25th and five more on both the 9th and the 23rd of July. The schedule doesn't seem to have been met exactly, as a couple of the records didn't emerge till September. Four members of the series came out as three-track maxi singles, while one was a four-track EP split between The Drifters and Ben E. King. Labels were issue ones overprinted. As was usual with Polydor group records at the time there were no demo labels, a 'Sample' sticker serving that purpose (7, 8).
Copyright 2017 Robert Lyons.