Description
Offered for sale is an original Japanese white label promotional pressing of If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears by The Mamas and the Papas, including the original obi.
This copy has songs in a different order than the U.S. release.
About this copy: This copy of If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears is a 1966 Japanese pressing on the Victor label.
The cover is VG++ and close to M- with slight discoloration from age and some minor creases.
The obi is VG++ with some slight foxing, but no tears. The insert is missing.
The white label promo disc is VG++ and very close to M- with a couple of faint sleeve scuffs but no significant marks. It’s a very clean disc that appears to have only been played a couple of times.
A beautiful and very rare copy of a terrific album and the only copy we’ve ever seen to include the original obi.
Background: If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears was the debut album by the Mamas and the Papas, and it turned them into superstars overnight. Containing the hits “Monday, Monday,” “California Dreamin’,” and “I Call Your Name,” the album reached #1 on the Billboard charts.
Allmusic.com gave If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears a 4 1/2 star review:
In the spring of 1966, If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears represented a genuinely new sound, as fresh to listeners as the songs on Meet the Beatles had seemed two years earlier. Released just as “California Dreaming” was ascending the charts by leaps and bounds, it was the product of months of rehearsal in the Virgin Islands and John Phillips’ discovery of what one could do to build a polished recorded sound in the studio — it embraced folk-rock, pop/rock, pop, and soul, and also reflected the kind of care that acts like the Beatles were putting into their records at the time. “Monday, Monday” and “California Dreamin'” are familiar enough to anyone who’s ever listened to the radio, and “Go Where You Wanna Go” isn’t far behind, in this version or the very similar rendition by the Fifth Dimension. But the rest is mighty compelling even to casual listeners, including the ethereal “Got a Feelin’,” the rocking “Straight Shooter” and “Somebody Groovy,” the jaunty, torch song-style version of “I Call Your Name,” and the prettiest versions of “Do You Wanna Dance” and “Spanish Harlem” that anyone ever recorded.
The album is also interesting in that there were at least five different covers used for the album in various countries, often with variations intended to disguise the fact that the cover photo was shot in a bathroom. The most obscure cover was one with a heavily cropped photo with large black border that hides everything except the members of the group.
In Japan, the album was originally released in 1966 or 1967 on the RCA Victor label on black vinyl only with a cover that showed the full bathroom, but with a banner covering the toilet. When the group reunited in 1971 to release the People Like Us album, all of their earlier titles were reissued in Japan on the Stateside label, and some of those records were pressed on red “Everclean’ vinyl.
As the albums sold best when they were first released, the reissues are quite scarce. Those reissues included If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears, which was reissued with the heavily cropped photo with the black border.
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| Country of origin: | Japan |
| Size: | 12″ |
| Record Label: | Victor |
| Catalog Number: |
SHP-5557 |
| Year of Release: | 1966 |
| Format: | Stereo |
| Share: |       |
