Overview
In October 1980, PolyGram Australia launched Rock Legends, an ambitious budget series initially comprising forty-five albums in a uniform sleeve design. At $5.99, it undercut CBS’s $6.99 Nice Price range and WEA’s $6.99 series. The commercial albums found a ready market, collectively selling more than 150,000 copies by June 1981, with exports accounting for an estimated twenty per cent.
Issued on 8 October, Rock Legends Sampler was a promotional double LP compiled for Australian record shops to support the series. Marked ‘Sampler—Not for Sale’, it was distributed in a pressing run of just 300 copies.
Across four sides, the sampler showcased the series through recordings by artists including Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, The Easybeats and Black Sabbath. Spoken announcements appear at the beginning or end of each track—and sometimes both—reflecting its purpose as an in-store promotional record.
The inner gatefold reinforced its role as a retail sales aid, listing all forty-five titles with their LP and corresponding musicassette catalogue numbers. The Beatles appeared at number 17, placing their Hamburg recordings within PolyGram’s wider catalogue campaign.
The group's contribution to the sampler was ‘My Bonnie’, recorded in Hamburg in 1961 backing Tony Sheridan and appearing as the second track on side one. Doug Parkinson in Focus’s version of ‘Dear Prudence’ provided a further connection to the group.
