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The Awesome Threesomes…..
( AKA A Hattrick full of Soul)

It is NOT what is in the grooves that counts…..well of course the MUSIC is the most
important but collecting picture sleeve 45s is equally interesting especially in
Europe !
In the sixties and seventies it was not uncommon that the same song was released
with a totally different picture sleeve in each country. The most important countries
who released picture sleeve singles were: The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.
In the UK and USA there were occasional picture sleeve releases mainly EPs in
the UK and Jukebox EPs in the USA. It was not until the eighties the UK and USA
started to produce picture sleeve 45s in large quantities.
The first vinyl 45 RPM single was introduced in 1949 by RCA Records.
Very gradually the 45 seven inch single was taking over from the big breakable
78s . One of the last 78s was Barrett Strongs "Money"( thats what I want) in 1959.
One of the first picture sleeved R&B 45s was "Cold cold heart" by Dinah Washington in 1951. For a very long time the only picture sleeved 45s in the USA were the Jukebox EPs ( which are now very hard to find and consequently very expensive).

After collecting mainly albums for a long time Harrys attention at record fairs was more and more drawn to picture sleeved Soul singles . Especially singles with weird graphic designs, splashing colours, spelling mistakes etc got his attention . Over the years his collection grew and grew . The start of the internet site e-bay opened up even more opportunities to collect picture sleeve singles from all over the world ! The plan of putting together three singles with same theme came some time later ….now this idea of the "Threesomes" has become almost an obsession !

At the moment a lot of themes are nearing completion . For example : Classic Soul Songs (every threesome starts with the original followed by two covers).
Songwriters ( three songs by one or two writers) . Politics , Sports, From head to toe ( all the parts of the body three times !), Trains and boats and planes, From coast to coast ( all the US cities three times ) , Hollywood ( singing actors, blaxploitation movies etc). Its a family affair ( Soul families, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters).
It takes two ( all the Male/Female duos),Blue-eyed Soul, Soul music sung in different languages , designs from different countries, Fashion etc etc.
The plan now is to compile a book with hundreds of Threesomes all by theme .
To get included in the book the genre of music is mainly Soul/ R&B but also Rap, Jazz, Blues, Reggae are covered. Just like our show Fingerpoppin Soul likes to combine all kinds of Soulful music, Harrys book will be a celebration of more than fifty years of good music and evolving design styles !

Here is just a very small preview ……..