John Denver Mini-LP "In The Beginning" Rare Recording

$

225

Nearly Impossible To Find John Denver Mini-LP

"In The Beginning"
Published on the American Gramophone Label

Tracks include:

This Road
Cherrybell Music (Sparks)

The Far Side Of The Hill
Cherrybell Music (Ames)

Anything Love Can Buy
Miller Music / Heritage House (Sparks)

Four Strong Winds
Warner Bros. Music (Tyson)

This is apparently one of the first recordings ever made by John Denver. We are unable to find it on ANY discography of his albums.

This record has never been played. To the best of my knowledge, it has not even been taken out of it's sleeve. I'm not touching it! By peeking inside the sleeve, it is very clean.

It is estimated to have been made in the late sixties or early seventies.This record was stored in a safe. It was acquired from a person who is no longer able to hold on to this item for personal reasons. Their loss could be YOUR gain! A scan of both sides of the sleeve is displayed below. It will be shipped to you in a manila file folder, reinforced with heavy cardstock in a flat-rate priority envelope. We are open to better ways to pack it, if you like, as we are not vinyl album experts. We are selling it for a friend.

By virtue of being unable to find anything about this record online, it must be very rare.

This Mini-LP is in brand new condition, here is a closeup of insert... the actual size of the graphic is 651x654 pixels, we shrunk the display to 400x400 to stay within what appears to EBay size limits.

As you can see, the paper is untouched by any spindle.

John Denver recieved his first acoustic guitar as a teenager and quickly rose to one of America's most beloved folk artists of the early 1970's. A major media fixture for much of the 70's, John Denver found his career waning as the 80's drew closer and he refocused his efforts towards humanitarian and conservation projects.

Biography: John Denver

One of the most popular recording artists of the 1970s, country-folk singer/songwriter John Denver's gentle, environmentally conscious music established him among the most beloved entertainers of his era; wholesome and clean-cut, his appeal extended to fans of all ages and backgrounds, and led to parallel careers as both an actor and a humanitarian.

Born Henry John Deutschendorf in Roswell, NM, on December 31, 1943, he was raised in an Air Force family, and grew up in various regions of the southwestern U.S. As a teen, his grandmother presented him with a 1910 Gibson acoustic guitar, and while attending Texas Tech University he began performing local clubs. Adopting the stage surname "Denver" in tribute to the Rocky Mountain area he so cherished, he dropped out of college in 1964 to relocate to Los Angeles; there he joined the Chad Mitchell Trio, a major draw on the hootenanny circuit of the early '60s but in the twilight of their career at the time of Denver's arrival. Over time, however, Denver helped resuscitate the group on the strength of his songwriting skills; signed to Mercury, the Trio recorded a number of tracks, which the label repackaged in 1974 as Beginnings With the Chad Mitchell Trio.

Upon the departure of the last remaining founding member, the Chad Mitchell Trio became known as Denver, Boise and Johnson; the new group proved short-lived, however, when Denver exited in 1969 to pursue a solo career. That same year he recorded his debut LP, Rhymes and Reasons; while not a hit, it contained one of his best-loved compositions, "Leaving on a Jet Plane," an international chart-topper for Peter, Paul & Mary. Still, neither of Denver's follow-up albums, 1970's Whose Garden Was This and Take Me to Tomorrow, launched him as a solo performer; finally, with 1971's Poems, Prayers & Promises, he achieved superstardom, thanks to the million-selling hits
"Take Me Home, Country Roads" and "Sunshine on My Shoulders." In the years to follow, Denver also scored with "Annie's Song" (penned for his wife) and "Back Home Again," and by 1974 was firmly established as America's best-selling performer; albums like 1975's An Evening With John Denver and Windsong were phenomenally popular, and he continued to top the singles charts with efforts including "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" and "I'm Sorry." Additionally, his 1974 best-of collection sold over ten million copies worldwide, and remained on the charts for over two years.

At the peak of his success, Denver was everywhere -- the governor of Colorado proclaimed him the state's poet laureate, his label Windsong was responsible for hits like the Starland Vocal Band's mammoth "Afternoon Delight," and he appeared in a number of ratings-grabbing television specials. In 1977, he even moved into film, co-starring with George Burns in the comedy hit Oh, God! During this time, however, he dramatically curtailed his recording output, and after 1977's I Want to Live, issued no new material until 1980's Autograph. The following year, he performed with opera star Placido Domingo, but as the decade progressed, Denver's popularity waned as he turned his focus more toward humanitarian work, focusing primarily on ecological concerns and space exploration; he also toured Communist-led Russia and China, and in 1987 performed in Chernobyl in the wake of that city's nuclear disaster. While maintaining a solid cult following, by the 1990s Denver had largely fallen off the radar, and he made more news for a 1993 drunk-driving arrest than he did for records like 1991's Different Directions. In 1994, he published an autobiography, Take Me Home. Tragedy struck on October 12, 1997, when his experimental aircraft suddenly crashed, killing him instantly. Denver was 53. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide.