Herbie Mann / The Jimmy Castor Bunch - Hijack / Bertha Butt Boogie Part 1 FLAC album

A major management / marketing mistake by Atlantic for not putting the original killer, funky version of Hijack by Barrabas on side B instead of Bertha Butt Boogie and pressing this split-artist UK 12" at 45 rpm instead of 33.3 rpm. The Herbie Mann cover of Hijack is respectable but watered-down without the big, funky bassline, driving male lead vocal and additional orchestration. Atlantic could have easily pushed both the Herbie Mann cover and the Barrabas original on one UK 12", especially since they were both signed with Atlantic at this time and their original/cover versions were released on UK LPs in the same year. Now that would have made this UK 12" significantly more playable, collectible and valuable.

Yes, the Herbie Mann cover was very popular in hip New York City neighborhoods back-in-the-day because it was also "pushed" (marketed / promoted) by Atlantic on the airwaves significantly more than the Barrabas original, even though they were from the same year. The Barrabas original was released in the US on Atco, an Atlantic sublabel and was not given much commercial support. I definitely remember hearing the original and always found the Barrabas version funkier and clubbier than the Herbie Mann cover without the big funky bassline, passionate driving male lead vocal and breakdown. To reinforce, I like them both, I just like the Barrabas original better for the aforementioned reasons.

I do agree - to have both versions on the same 12" single would have been awesome. I must say though, the Herbie Mann version is more than just respectable - we were rocking to his version in the Bronx. That was the jam back in the day!

SAM 26 (Herbie Mann) and SAM 27 (Ben E. King) went out to DJ's and radio jocks in October '75 according to PRS and MCPS returns (disco and radio play reports) as well as DJ questionnaire returns that I saw in a file when I was at Warners. these were probably junked years ago, and I wished I had grabbed them. At least I had the foresight to grab a copy of the vinyl...The man who really knows (and instigated a lot of these releases) is Fred Dove, WEA A&R and Promotions man extraordinaire.

Hi,Would you happen to know how many of these were pressed..?

After shelling out major $$$ for this , multiple times and for the others in the "Disco Special Cut" series...I am very curious to hear from some old school UK Disco Dj's when these first appeared on the scene.........If you read Vince Aletti's book....he confirms the approximate release dates of most of the big time US Promo Disco 12"s that he got to review....I find very little info on these online......can anyone finally shine some light on these???? I am happy as hell to have all of them.......but would love to know the history behind them.

Vince did not cover these because they are UK issues, not US issues. He was in domestic record pools, that most likely would not have received too many UK pressings.