The Right Thing to Do: Rhino’s New Quadio Batch Features Carly Simon, Bread, Judy Collins, The New Seekers
We recently filled you in on Elektra’s 75th anniversary vinyl campaign which sees a variety of titles arriving this month. Now, the celebration is continuing with four new Quadio releases on Blu-ray Audio, all greatest-hits collections drawn from the Elektra catalogue. These four-channel surround titles from Carly Simon, Bread, Judy Collins, and The New Seekers are all available now, exclusively from Rhino.com. Every one of these titles boasts both the original quadraphonic mix with a high-resolution 192 kHz/24-bit stereo mix, both sourced from the original analog four-track quad master tapes.
1972’s Colors of the Day: The Best of Judy Collins beautifully anthologized the first decade of Judy Collins’ extraordinary career, showcasing the breadth of her shimmering voice as she expanded the boundaries of folk music. Colors of the Day features songs by The Beatles (“In My Life”), Donovan (“Sunny Goodge Street”), Jacques Brel (“Sons Of”), Leonard Cohen (“Suzanne”), Sandy Denny (“Who Knows Where the Time Goes”), and Collins herself (“My Father”), as well as Joni Mitchell, who penned Judy’s top ten rendition of “Both Sides Now.” Closing with her stunning a cappella “Amazing Grace,” Colors of the Day set the stage for subsequent triumphs including the Grammy-winning “Send in the Clowns” and a career which thrives to the present day.
When The Seekers disbanded in 1968, the Australian folk-pop group left behind a legacy of hit songs including “There’ll Never Be Another You” and the Academy Award-nominated “Georgy Girl.” Guitarist Keith Potger, however, wasn’t ready to leave behind the group he had co-founded in 1962. In 1969, he announced the formation of The New Seekers. This iteration was based in Britain and decidedly more contemporary in sound than its predecessor. More surprisingly, Potger wouldn’t perform in the group, but rather serve primarily in a behind-the-scenes capacity. The New Seekers went on to carve out their own path, most notably for the anthemic “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing,” which began life as a Coca-Cola commercial and climbed to No. 1 in the U.K. and No. 7 stateside. It’s featured on the 1973 collection The Best of The New Seekers alongside tunes from Melanie (“Look What They’ve Done to My Song, Ma,” “Beautiful People,” “The Nickel Song”), Neil Young (“Dance, Dance, Dance”), Harry Chapin (“Circles”), Paul Williams (“A Perfect Love”), and even The Move’s Roy Wood (“Blackberry Way”).
The same year, Elektra released the first hits collection from the homegrown group Bread. The simply-titled The Best of Bread featured the classics that put David Gates, James Griffin, Robb Royer, Mike Botts, and Larry Knechtel (the latter a Wrecking Crew veteran) on the map including “Make It with You” (No. 1, 1970), “It Don’t Matter to Me” (No. 10, 1970), “If” (No. 4, 1971), “Baby I’m-a Want You” (No. 3, 1971), “Everything I Own” (No. 5, 1972), and “Diary” (No. 15). Further hits would still come (such as “The Guitar Man,” “Sweet Surrender,” and “Lost Without Your Love”), but these are the richly melodic and still-beautiful songs that captivated listeners then and still do today. The Best of Bread also offers a taste of the band’s more rocking side with the likes of “Mother Freedom,” “Down on My Knees,” and “Truckin’.”
Lastly, the Quadio campaign jumps to 1975 and The Best of Carly Simon. No fewer than eight top 20 hits are packed onto this all-killer, no-filler set from the quintessential singer-songwriter. Those include the haunting art song-as-pop hit “That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be” (No. 10, 1971), the sensual “Anticipation” (No. 13, 1971), chart-topping “You’re So Vain” (1972), Bacharach-inspired “The Right Thing to Do” (No. 17, 1973), playful “Mockingbird” duet with then-husband James Taylor (No. 5, 1974), and classically-flavored “Haven’t Got Time for the Pain” (No. 14, 1974), among others. The Best of Carly Simon has gone 3x Platinum and remains one-stop shopping for Simon’s earliest, still indelible hits.
All four Quadio titles are available for order now from Rhino.com as a bundle or individually. They’re housed in Super Jewel Boxes and adorned with Elektra replica labels. You’ll find links and the track listings below.
Judy Collins, Colors of the Day: The Best of Judy Collins (Elektra EQ-5030, 1972 – reissued Elektra/Rhino, 2025)
- “Someday Soon”
- “Since You Asked”
- “Both Sides Now”
- “Sons Of”
- “Suzanne”
- “Farewell To Tarwathie”
- “Who Knows Where The Time Goes”
- “Sunny Goodge Street”
- “My Father”
- “Albatross”
- “In My Life”
- “Amazing Grace”
New Seekers, The Best of The New Seekers (Elektra EQ-5051, 1973 – reissued Elektra/Rhino, 2025)
- “Look What They’ve Done To My Song, Ma”
- “Beautiful People”
- “Nickel Song”
- “Blackberry Way”
- “A Perfect Love”
- “Never Ending Song Of Love”
- “I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing (In Perfect Harmony)”
- “Tonight”
- “Evergreen”
- “Circles”
- “Beg, Steal Or Borrow”
- “Dance, Dance, Dance”
Bread, The Best of Bread (Elektra EQ-5056, 1973 – reissued Elektra/Rhino, 2025)
- “Make It With You”
- “Everything I Own”
- “Diary”
- “Baby I’m-A Want You”
- “It Don’t Matter To Me”
- “If”
- “Mother Freedom”
- “Down On My Knees”
- “Too Much Love”
- “Let Your Love Go”
- “Look What You’ve Done”
- “Truckin'”
Carly Simon, The Best of Carly Simon (Elektra EQ-1048, 1975)
- “That’s The Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be”
- “The Right Thing To Do”
- “Mockingbird”
- “Legend In Your Own Time”
- “Haven’t Got Time For The Pain”
- “You’re So Vain”
- “(We Have) No Secrets”
- “Night Owl”
- “Anticipation”
- “Attitude Dancing”
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9 thoughts on “The Right Thing to Do: Rhino’s New Quadio Batch Features Carly Simon, Bread, Judy Collins, The New Seekers”
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I am curious about the black Elektra label on the New Seekers, Judy Collins an Bread CDs. Why didn’t those get replicate like the Carly Simon CD?
The black Quadradisc label was used on the original Judy Collins and Bread four-channel releases. I’m not certain about The New Seekers, as that label appears to have been green for the Quadradisc. The art team at Rhino is typically scrupulous – and always does amazing work with these replica labels – so there’s likely an explanation, or perhaps this packshot doesn’t feature the final artwork. We’ll try to find out what we can.
Thank you Joe!
There were TWO separate releases of ‘The Best Of The New Seekers’
on Quad Vinyl (Elektra – EQ 5051)
Green Label
which has the following on the runout:
Matrix / Runout (Side 1 Label): EQ-5051-A
Matrix / Runout (Side 2 Label): EQ-5051-B
Black Label
which has the following on the runout:
Matrix / Runout (Runout, side A): EQ 5051 A-1 PRC MY P.R.
Matrix / Runout (Runout, side B): EQ 5051 B-1 PRC MY P.R.
Different pressing plants maybe?
Thank you so much, Noel!
Thanks, too, to Andrew Trager, who shared that “the original pressing of The Best Of The New Seekers has the black label. As you note in Comments, it was also released (later) with the green label.
More information at QuadraphonicQuad.com: ‘The original releases from Elektra appeared with the special black Quadradisc label as shown on the left. Eventually, they returned to their standard greenish label as shown on the right, at which time albums originally issued with the black label appeared with [sic] in stores with the green label.’
The Best Of Carly Simon also had two quad label variations, but not in black. Its original green was followed by Elektra’s non-Butterfly red. It appears that the black label was retired sometime after 1974, as it had been used for Hotcakes, but apparently wasn’t for Playing Possum.”
Much appreciated, everybody!
Judy Collins is a definite for me.
I’m glad these artists are all represented.
Great music for the waiting room in my dentist’s office…and in Quadio, no less!
Audio Fidelity released the quad mixes of Judy Collins and Bread on SACD. I still have the Judy Collins, but stupidly sold the Bread disc and now it goes for ridiculous money. Hopefully, with it being released on BD-Audio, the prices will come down.
& one of my fave songs form Carly Simon not listed which i find weird & quite strange killer song I’ve Got to have you. I wonder why it wasn’t included.