Many of us may have secondary school qualifications French, but just as many will regrettably have forgotten all we learnt by now. You’ll be relieved to discover, then, that these three offshoots of Jukebox magazine are rather light on text and heavy on pictures. Trés bien. In fact, taken together they’re a special edition of the magazine, concentrating exclusively on French EPs, and it’s worth a look, if only for the aesthetics. This catalogue is to record-junkies what pornography is to ordinaries, it’s just missing a centerfold.
With prices that range from 5 to 800 Euros, and an A-Z as indiscriminate as Switzerland, there are around 4,000 nostalgic covers for you to gawk at, spanning 1954-69. What makes this a veritable French-tickler, though, is its invaluable function as a point of reference. EPs aren’t that easy to come by these days, and this is a dusty arsenal of rarities complete with tracklistings, price guide, release dates and catalogue numbers.
Those folks at Jukebox ship you any of these Korans of the EP connoisseur for €15 each, postage included. But if that doesn’t convince you, then check out the picture of Anita Harris on page 77. C’est une belle femme.
