Reader’s Digest Record Collections: Sensational Seventies and the Rise of Mail-Order Music
The Reader’s Digest compilation that started it all
In the early 1980s, mail-order music was everywhere. Television adverts promised huge collections of songs for surprisingly little money. Glossy box sets arrived by post, often split across several records or cassettes, each one packed with familiar hits.
For a young music fan trying to build a sense of musical credibility, these compilations did not always feel like the obvious place to start. Reader’s Digest albums in particular were widely seen as something designed for the family living room rather than the serious record collector.
But for me, one of those box sets became a turning point.
It was called Sensational Seventies, and it quietly became the catalyst for my love of music, which ultimately led to the Vinyl Historian.
The Sensational Seventies box set
The Sensational Seventies collection did exactly what the title promised. It gathered together a wide spread of hit singles from the decade and organised them chronologically across six records, twelve sides in total.
Each pair of sides broadly represented a year, beginning in 1970 and ending in 1979, creating a guided tour through the decade.
At the time, I was far too young to notice what was not there. There were no Bee Gees, no Eagles, no Rolling Stones, and none of the obvious arena-sized classics that now dominate so many 1970s retrospectives. You would not find ‘Hotel California’ or ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ anywhere in the set.
What the collection offered instead was something slightly different: a cross-section of the decade that mixed major hits with songs that now feel very much of their time. Mantovani-style strings appeared alongside Rodrigo’s guitar. Novelty songs like ‘The Streak’ sat next to country heartbreak, including Billy Connolly’s comic version of ‘D.I.V.O.R.C.E.’
Looking back at the full track listing today, that may be the real strength of Sensational Seventies. Alongside chart-topping artists like ABBA, Rod Stewart, Blondie, Elton John and 10cc, there are glam rock hits from Slade and Sweet, soul classics like ‘Rock Your Baby’, and novelty records that once dominated British television and radio.
Elsewhere the collection moves into unexpected territory: Deep Purple’s ‘Black Night’, Hawkwind’s ‘Silver Machine’, Roxy Music’s ‘Virginia Plain’, and Kate Bush’s ‘Wuthering Heights’. Add in brass bands, country songs, disco anthems and TV-theme instrumentals, and the result is less a greatest hits package and more a time capsule of what the charts actually sounded like during the 1970s.
But there were also songs that stayed with you. Tracks like ‘Boy From New York City’ by Darts, ‘Dancing in the City’ by Marshall Hain, ‘Forever Autumn’ from Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds, and Elton John’s ‘Song for Guy’ became part of a sequence you gradually learned by heart.
After a while, you did not just know the songs. You knew the order of the songs, the way one track seemed to follow another. In its own way, it was an introduction to the pleasure of listening to a record from beginning to end.
In hindsight, the set feels less like a conventional hits package and more like a compact archive of the decade, a reminder of how varied the charts once were, and how many different styles of music could share the same airwaves.
The rise of Reader’s Digest record collections
Reader’s Digest began producing record collections in the early 1960s, building on the company’s global publishing reach. The concept was simple: curate large themed collections of popular music and sell them directly to households through magazine advertising and television campaigns.
Instead of buying individual records one at a time, listeners could order a complete set containing dozens of songs spanning a particular theme or decade.
These collections were often attractively packaged and carefully sequenced, making them easy to live with. For many households, they became the foundation of a record collection.
By the 1970s and early 1980s, Reader’s Digest had sold millions of LP box sets around the world.
Mail-order music, compilation albums and home record collections
The success of Reader’s Digest records was part of a wider mail-order music boom.
Before streaming, before digital downloads, and before the rise of large chain record shops, mail-order offers provided a simple way for people to build a music collection. Television adverts and magazine inserts promised large selections of songs delivered directly to your door.
Compilation albums became especially popular because they offered immediate familiarity. Dozens of recognisable songs gathered into one convenient set. In many ways, these collections acted like the playlists of the vinyl era, introducing listeners to a wide range of artists across a single box.
Why the Eagles, the Rolling Stones and other major acts are missing
Like many mail-order compilations, Sensational Seventies reflects the licensing realities of its time. Reader’s Digest did not operate like a traditional record label. Instead, it licensed recordings from major labels, and not every rights holder was willing to take part.
Labels were often protective of their most valuable artists, particularly when it came to budget or mail-order collections. This limitation gives the set much of its character. Instead of presenting only the most obvious blockbusters, it captures a wider range of music that once filled the charts. It offers something closer to the texture of the decade itself.
Rediscovering Reader’s Digest vinyl in charity shops and record stores
Reader’s Digest box sets still appear regularly in charity shops, second-hand record stores and the occasional crate-digging find. They rarely command high prices, and many collectors overlook them.
But for anyone interested in exploring a particular decade, they can be rewarding.
Within those boxes are dozens of songs that once filled the airwaves, many of which rarely appear on modern compilations. For listeners curious about the sound of a particular period, they can act as a useful starting point.
For me, Sensational Seventies was exactly that. It introduced artists, songs and styles that I would later go on to explore more deeply.
Sometimes the path into music history begins with the most unexpected record in the collection.
From Reader’s Digest to Now That’s What I Call Music
By the early 1980s, compilation albums were becoming one of the dominant formats in the music industry. In the United Kingdom, the launch of Now That’s What I Call Music in 1983 turned the idea into a retail phenomenon, bringing together chart hits from multiple labels into a single album.
Like the Reader’s Digest collections, these albums offered listeners a snapshot of a particular moment in popular music. Not every artist appeared, as licensing restrictions still meant some major acts were missing, but the format proved highly successful and went on to define the compilation market for decades.
In a sense, the Reader’s Digest box sets helped establish the idea. Large, carefully sequenced collections of familiar songs, presented as a complete listening experience.
If Sensational Seventies belongs to the world of mail-order vinyl, Now That’s What I Call Music belongs to the next chapter, when the compilation album moved from the television advert and the order form to the high street.