Bob Shad's Mainstream Records produced some of the all-time great soundtrack albums of the mid-60s. Once their selling cycle had ended, they were frequent residents of cut-out record bins in bygone department stores such as WoolCo, Two Guys, Bradlees, J.M. Fields, J.J. Newberrys and Topps. Shown here are still-sealed Mainstream cut-outs of Johnny Mandel's score for HARPER (56078 [mono], S/6078 [stereo]) and Malcolm Arnold's THE HEROES OF TELEMARK (56064 [mono], S/6064 [stereo]).
As late as January 1977 I personally found a copy of Mainstream's rarest soundtrack title, John Barry's THE WRONG BOX (56088 [mono], S/6088 [stereo]) in a WoolCo cut-out bin for 99 cents ... a pristine sealed copy in stereo. It was one of the more memorable days in my years as a cut-out record hunter. Mainstream's more common soundtrack titles such as Barry's KING RAT (56061 [mono], S/6061 [stereo]), Ruby Raksin's THE LOLLIPOP COVER (56067 [mono], S/6067 [stereo]) and Elliot Kaplan's THE SQUARE ROOT OF ZERO (56070 [mono], S/6070 [stereo]) could still be found in cut-out bins in the early 80s.
Today, those of us who still revere vinyl can spot fresh un-opened copies of Mainstream's soundtrack LPs (with their ancient cut-out price stickers intact) on eBay or at the occasional flea market or yard sale. They're pleasant reminders of an era when music downloading and online bidding couldn't get you the soundtrack music you wanted. It required some good old fashioned legwork or vigilant scouring of mail order catalogs from the likes of A-1 Record Finders and Soundtrack Album Retailers.
It was very fun times. I miss them.
email Tim Ferrante although some may question your judgment.
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