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Did you ever join a mail-order record club like Beaver Cleaver?
You could build up a sizable record collection for just pennies, but as Beaver learned, there was always a catch!
Subscription delivery services seem to be more prevalent today than ever before. You can get everything from laundry detergent to groceries to curated clothes delivered on a regular basis for a monthly fee. That doesn’t even count the restaurant meals, household items and cars that can now be ordered online with one click.
But mail-order shopping is nothing new. Sears became an iconic brand through its extensive catalogue and many other companies began introducing delivery options for their products in the 1950s.
The music industry was no exception. In 1955, Columbia Records formed the Columbia Record Club, later renamed Columbia House. It gave music lovers the option to buy multiple records for a dollar or less and get them delivered monthly. There were often enticing sign-up offers like free records and discounted phonographs.
Capitol and RCA Records soon developed their own mail-order clubs. At first, artists were exclusive to each company, but over time, music was licensed between each brand. The record clubs thrived for as long as music on physical mediums was popular, from records, to eight-track tapes to cassettes and then even CDs.
Of course, there was more to it than just getting full albums for pennies. The fine print stated that customers agreed to buy a certain number of records for full price later on. There was also a stipulation that you had to fill out a card each month determining your order, or canceling an order altogether for the time being. If you forgot to send the card, you would get the “album of the month” and be charged for it.
That’s the situation Beaver Cleaver gets himself into in the season six episode “Beaver Joins a Record Club.” His father believes the club will teach him financial responsibility, but the plan backfires when records keep arriving and racking up a bill far higher than Beaver can pay.
Today, anyone can stream whatever song they want or listen to extensive playlists centered around specific genres. Back in the day, we had to decide our musical tastes by checking boxes on a card and waiting for the records or tapes to arrive in the mail. The physical objects gave you as the listener a different connection to the music, however, and don’t even get us started on the superior sound quality!
Did you ever sign up for a record club? Maybe more than one or the same club multiple times to capitalize on those free offers? Let us know in a comment!
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61 Comments
When I was 10 she bought me a cool record player which I kept for several years! This time she brought me with her to the record section of a local department store! I looked at the selection and saw a SPIDER-MAN album, which she purchased, as well as something for herself!
Now we were cooking!
We're on a rock and roll band.
We used to be on TV on
Channel Ten"
Does anyone know the name of
That song and who sang that
Song ??
Answer To my Question above this comment or how I can find
the answer to my question.
We're an American band
We're an American band
We're coming to your town, we'll help you party it down
We're an American band
(Never said it was Shakespeare, folks.)
I bought with my babysitting money ($2.98) my very first LP 33 and 1/3 album soundtrack for the classic movie The Pink Panther. I began to love movie soundtracks throughout my teens; and into my adult life I would order LP sountracks from Columbia House. I still have most of those albums (most are over 55 yrs old now) and are collectors items. I still collect film soundtracks today but now they are on CDs or I can listen to them on Spotify.
1st time I was 12, last time I was 16. I never received my penny back the last time I tried. I know I got them for next to nothing but they were like Timelife music & made cheap. Love the memories & I know they loved my 8 cents wory of investments ♡
If you want bad there were the K-Tel records. A great way to get the latest hits, but I gather they tampered with the recordings to fit more songs o toa record. And weren't some recordings redone for K-Tel? Cheaper than buying rights to the original recordings. Even in the past 20 years I've seen CD sets like that, all excited until I read the fine print "may be new recordings".
Or Pickwick. I once saw one of those, looked like the real thing, but one or two songs missing.
At the beginning of the sixties, the parents ruled. Rock and Roll was for the kids, over in the corner. But as the decade progressed, youth increasingly had some control. So Ed Sullivan had The Doors on,but wanted some lyric change.
"Captain Jack"- Beaver and Wally mail order an alligator
" Wally's Pug Nose" - Wally mail orders a contraption to change the appearance of his nose.
"Beaver's Accordion"- With a little encouragement from Eddie Haskell, Beaver sends in the mail order form for an accordion.
And the " Beaver Joins a Record Club" episode.
They got some good use of the theme.
Cassettes took over, until CDs took over. I think there must have been fine print if your medium wasn't in the ad.