Of course, some companies now seem to have spotted that niche and decided to cater for it with one-off premium (or sometimes "premium") pressings for Record Store Day and the likes - e.g. I finally laid hands on a vinyl incarnation of Terry Hall's splendid Home last year after a 26-year wait spent tolerating the CD version. Other third-party reissue specialists (Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab et al) also do limited runs of previously-digital-only albums, presumably when they negotiate the individual rights - but these are super-premium anyway, and if you miss 'em when they're released they end up going for silly money on Discogs. Case in point - a copy of the MFSL single LP of Aimee Mann's Bachelor No.2 (for which I paid about £30 in the late '00s and thought that steep) would now set you back at least £150 or more - though in that instance, I see that Aimee's tackled it from both sides by issuing her own 2LP version for (US & Canada) RSD to undercut the fleecers .

Anyway, what I'd really like would be some sort of more comprehensive all-year-round reasonably-priced programme of first-time-on-LP issues from the major labels in particular - kind of like the Back To Black thing, but without the "back", if you see what I mean. There must be a market for this, no?

All of which thinking led me to making my own list of albums that really need to be available on vinyl. Here's my top 10 (all of which I've already got on CD, inevitably )...

1) Gillian Welch - Time (The Revelator)

https://www.discogs.com/Gillian-Welch-Time-The-Revelator/release/5405444 - https://www.discogs.com/Gillian-Welch-Time-The-Revelator/release/5405444

2) Aimee Mann - I'm With Stupid

https://www.discogs.com/Aimee-Mann-Im-With-Stupid/release/2863240 - https://www.discogs.com/Aimee-Mann-Im-With-Stupid/release/2863240

3) The Klezmatics - Rhythm + Jews

https://www.discogs.com/The-Klezmatics-Rhythm-Jews/release/2037161 - https://www.discogs.com/The-Klezmatics-Rhythm-Jews/release/2037161

4) Richard Thompson - You? Me? Us?

https://www.discogs.com/Richard-Thompson-You-Me-Us/release/3528912 - https://www.discogs.com/Richard-Thompson-You-Me-Us/release/3528912

5) Brian Eno - Another Day On Earth

https://www.discogs.com/Brian-Eno-Another-Day-On-Earth/release/5092994 - https://www.discogs.com/Brian-Eno-Another-Day-On-Earth/release/5092994

6) Wynton Marsalis Septet - Citi Movement (Griot New York)

https://www.discogs.com/Wynton-Marsalis-Septet-Citi-Movement-Griot-New-York/release/367352 - https://www.discogs.com/Wynton-Marsalis-Septet-Citi-Movement-Griot-New-York/release/367352

7) Chico Hamilton Quintet With Eric Dolphy - The Original Ellington Suite

https://www.discogs.com/Chico-Hamilton-Quintet-With-Eric-Dolphy-The-Original-Ellington-Suite/release/9426441 - https://www.discogs.com/Chico-Hamilton-Quintet-With-Eric-Dolphy-The-Original-Ellington-Suite/release/9426441

8) Don Pullen - Random Thoughts

https://www.discogs.com/Don-Pullen-Random-Thoughts/release/3477810 - https://www.discogs.com/Don-Pullen-Random-Thoughts/release/3477810

9) Mark Eitzel - 60 Watt Silver Lining

https://www.discogs.com/Mark-Eitzel-60-Watt-Silver-Lining/release/2189670 - https://www.discogs.com/Mark-Eitzel-60-Watt-Silver-Lining/release/2189670

10) Stan Tracey & Bobby Wellins - Comme D'Habitude

https://www.discogs.com/Stan-Tracey-Bobby-Wellins-Comme-DHabitude/release/9879729 - https://www.discogs.com/Stan-Tracey-Bobby-Wellins-Comme-DHabitude/release/9879729

So - what albums would other people like to see finally vinylised, eh? 

f.

PS - apologies if the Discogs links don't work - they previewed OK, but I've been having real trouble with getting them to work in my postings...

Do not available 'in your country of residence on Vinyl' count.. always wanted this on vinyl and technically it was .. but only in Canada.

http://https://www.discogs.com/Holly-Cole-Trio-Girl-Talk/release/5628752 - http://https://www.discogs.com/Holly-Cole-Trio-Girl-Talk/release/5628752

Yep, I reckon they'd count - especially if never available in Europe. Canada seems to be a bit of a goldmine for such stuff...

Is Canada particularly good place for Vinyl, It seems a lot of people give rave reports on this country when it comes to getting hold of hard to get vinyl releases. I have been on websites and a lot go by the - shipped from Canada. I years ago was after a record and the only place I could get it from was Canada, I didn't buy it as I'm not that confident on buying from outside the UK (you just don't know if they are genuine or not) there must be companies that are genuine good and honest? 

Jon - I've ordered individual LPs from 2 or 3 different Canadian sellers* on Discogs and always had positive experiences. To be fair, that's also true of my (rather larger) orders from the US - though I did get hammered for VAT on one particular purchase when the US seller listed the price I'd actually paid for a couple of rare LPs as the import "value" . Luckily, most out-of-UK sellers seem to be wise to this and list "used LPs" as being worth only a nominal amount . If in doubt, you could always ask a seller to list a low "value" figure on the export declaration - it's no skin off their nose, and (as a now-retired Royal Mail employee) I very much doubt whether either HMRC or the Mail have any real idea of the price/value of "used" vinyl...

Market-wise, Canada naturally seems to get almost anything pressed in the US feeding into its own sales networks - and it's also clear that the big US companies (Columbia, WEA et al) maintained Canadian manufacturing plants at least into the 70s/80s, often producing highly-thought-of variants (e.g. of Blonde On Blonde). Canadian pressings IME tend to be as good as the best US ones.From a GB viewpoint, the fact that the Canadian dollar is weaker than its US equivalent probably helps pricewise as well.

Of course, I should also have acknowledged probably the highest-quality non-European s/h vinyl source of all - Japan. Again, I've had only positive Discogs experience when buying (mostly jazz) LPs from there - stuff takes a while to arrive, but it's always pristine and in bombproof packaging IME . Plus there's lots of stuff that gets issued there and nowhere else...

Hope I haven't tempted you to empty your wallet still further! 

* i can probably dig out the details of those suppliers if you want...

Had to wait 12 years for k.d. lang's 'Hymns of the 49th Parallel'. As the title alludes to it's all based around Canadian influences with her take on songs penned by her fellow native singer-songwriters including Neil Young, Leonard Cohen and Ron Sexsmith. 

Had to wait even longer for a vinyl copy of Boz Scaggs 'Dig'. Originally released on cd in 2001, the vinyl version became available in 2016. 

no I'm not tempted at the moment (I am now waiting on the Boygenius EP can't wait to hear it on my system the sound quality will be better than my laptop)

As I have said before I only buy what I like and at the moment nothing springs to mind but that may change, someone may post something on this forum to tempt me!!

As for details of suppliers I'm OK, I can always ask later if I find something but great tip on the  VAT side of things

At the time I thought how can it be cheaper than buying from the UK, but it was.

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Its-Electric-Classic-Hits-From-An-Electric-Era/master/37974

3) Recently got into this this last year... but on researching it might be another name of a an obscure French release from 1971/3
https://www.discogs.com/Munir-Bashir-Irak-LArt-Du-Ûd-The-Art-Of-The-Ûd/release/9032500 - https://www.discogs.com/Munir-Bashir-Irak-LArt-Du-Ûd-The-Art-Of-The-Ûd/release/9032500

Me being me not good with computers I got the link to work some how!!

I appreciate this is a really old post, all of which makes it more barmy that we’re still awaiting Time (The Revelator) on vinyl. Hopefully, now that the pandemic appears to be waning, it’ll finally get the release it deserves. 

Hi Andrew!

The rumour a while back was that Dave Rawlings - who's invested in his own lathe for cutting vinyl versions of his and Gillian's records - was preparing a super-deluxe no-holds-barred (multi?-) LP version of this masterpiece for its 20th anniversary last year. Of course, that was before The Plague struck...  For what it's worth, all 14 'reviews' of T(TR) on Discogs are actually pleas for a vinyl release:  https://www.discogs.com/master/87360-Time-The-Revelator/reviews - https://www.discogs.com/master/87360-Time-The-Revelator/reviews

The irony is that the newer Welch/Rawlings stuff is available on home-cut vinyl (see  https://store-uk.aconyrecords.com/ - https://store-uk.aconyrecords.com/ ) - so maybe it's a case of the dreaded "rights issues" with T(TR)? I'm sure everyone involved knows there'd be a market for it, to put it mildly...

I have all of the other available Welch and Rawlings vinyl releases and The Harrow and the Harvest is up with the best sounding records I have the privilege to own. The recent box set, The Lost Songs, although expensive, was great value and just sounds incredible.