Collecting log: AS REQUESTED AROUND THE WORLD U.S. promotion-only compilation album with great cover artwork (Part 4 of 4)

Until the commercial release in 1995 of GREATEST HITS (Columbia 7464-67060-1), compilation albums of Springsteen's studio-recording works were strictly limited for promotional use only (I'm talking about those containing his material exclusively). The very first examples in both vinyl and CD formats came out from Japan: the 1978's LP LAST AMERICAN HERO FROM ASBURY PARK, N.J. (CBS/SONY YAPC 95; 09/19/2015 and 01/28/2017) and the 1990's double CD BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN 70's TO 80's [sic] (better known as its subtitle THE FUTURE OF ROCK'N ROLL; CBS/SONY XADP 90009-10), two of the all-time greatest collectibles. The LAST AMERICAN ... LP, now impossibly hard to find, contains 10 songs culled from his first three albums:

• SIDE 1: It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City / Blinded By The Light / Spirit In The Night / Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) / New York City Serenade
  
• SIDE 2: Thunder Road / Born To Run / She's The One / Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out / Jungleland

Promotion-only vinyl and CD compilation albums before the release of GREATEST HITS in 1995. All the CD titles except for the Japanese FUTURE OF ROCK'N ROLL (2CDs) appear during 1992-93 primarily to support and promote HUMAN TOUCH / LUCKY TOWN. These CDs are pressed in Canada, Japan, Sweden (two editions), and the U.K., but curiously no releases from the U.S.

As detailed in the last three posts, AS REQUESTED AROUND THE WORLD (Columbia AS 978) is the second compilation worldwide, and the first in the U.S., released as a 9-track LP which first features tracks from his fourth and the then-latest fifth albums, although not including any from the debut album:

• SIDE 1: Sherry Darling / The River / Cadillac Ranch / Hungry Heart / Out In The Street
• SIDE 2: Born To Run / Badlands / Prove It All Night / Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)

In addition to custom-made sleeve (if available), on compilation albums, a central dispute among collectors is about the selection of tracks and the order they appear on each side of a vinyl disc. It is probably a major consensus that LAST AMERICAN ... is more preferred to AS REQUESTED ... at least in track selection. However, what was then intended with the release of AS REQUESTED ... is clear, compiling all the SIDE 1 tracks from THE RIVER to commemorate the conclusion and success of the '80/'81 promotional tour in North America and Europe (even the tour locations are listed up on the back cover). SIDE 2 is quite orthodox from the viewpoint of a "greatest hits" concept, putting together three single cuts and one fan-favorite from the previous albums.

Back in the early 1980s, there were two German nations, a socialist one in the East and a capitalist one in the West where Springsteen and the band toured four cities in 1981. The back cover lists the latter nation inconsistently as Germany for Frankfurt and Munich and West Germany for (the western part of) Berlin and Hamburg, although all belonged to the West.
 

In the 1990s, the Canadian compilation LP was sold
higher than AS REQUESTED ... (check here for an
example of the price) probably due to the relative
scarcity. Note that no condition is given to the
 sleeve while the disc as "m" (= mint), supporting the
idea that this promo does not come with the specific
sleeve originally. From the Backstreets Records
Warehouse Catalog #41 February-March 1996.

There was yet another promotion-only LP released in the early 1980s, following AS REQUESTED ..., which became the third and last studio-compilation album in vinyl format pressed for non-commercial purposes. It is simply called BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN "SAMPLER" (Columbia CDN-57), a 10-track LP that came from Canada in 1983, which was reported in the issue no. 7 of Backstreets Magazine (September 1983) as follows:
"Canada recently issued a special greatest hits collection to radio stations similar to "As Requested" but with a different song order and without a cover or sleeve. The LP contains material from all of the Springsteen albums, though none of it is live or different takes."

• SIDE 1: Born To Run / The River / Prove It All Night / Blinded By The Light / Cadillac Ranch       [Hand-etched matrix inscriptions: DM -1 CDN-57-A-1A-2HZ: ]
• SIDE 2: Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) / Hungry Heart / Spirit In The Night / Candy's Room / Thunder Road       [DM -1 CDN-57-B-1A-2HZ: ]

Here are some notes on this promo LP:

Note that "Sequencing by P. Bachynski & A. Graham."
Is this production credit for selecting and ordering the
tracks on this compilation? 

1. Several web databases and archives (for example, see the relevant entry in Discogs) describe that this album was released in 1980, which, based on this fanzine's report, is wrong. This is also supported by the release year ("1983") mentioned in C. Hunt's discography section of the Blinded By The Light book (Plexus Publishing Ltd, March 1985) and another Canadian promo LP with the preceding catalog number CDN-54 that is issued in 1982 (CBS ARTIST OF THE MONTH - April 1982 featuring Journey). 
2. Because this compilation does not include any track from NEBRASKA released in 1982, the last part of the fanzine's report is not correct. However, the Canadian LP exhibits the least biased song selection among the three promo-only compilations mentioned here, incorporating at least one track from each album up to THE RIVER. 
3. The major drawback of the Canadian release is that it comes with no custom or special sleeve, which is in marked contrast to the other two releases. It is often said that the record was issued in a white generic die-cut sleeve (for example, see the Lost In The Flood collector's site). Mine came in a generic black, though. To me, what the fanzine reports ("without a cover or sleeve") seems to be most realistic for the explanation of the sleeve. The Blinded book has no relevant description on this, which also implies no cover or sleeve for the record originally.
4. The run-off groove area on each side shows neither KP signature nor MASTERED AT CAPITOL stamp (see above). So, this promo is not mastered by Ken Perry at Capitol Records although the Canadian pressings of THE RIVER (Columbia XPC2 36854) carry both matrix characters on all four sides of the double disc.
5. The music on SIDE 2 does not start right from the guitar intro to Rosalita, but begins roughly (not fade-in!) with a short segment of the piano solo outro to Incident On 57th Street (which segues into Rosalita, exactly like on the regular second album). Sloppy editing that is certainly not professional work.

Finally, speaking of AS REQUESTED ..., there was a vinyl bootleg of the same title (exactly, THE BOSS ... AS REQUESTED AROUND THE WORLD ) out around in early 1982, which was briefly reported in the bootleg column of the Backstreets Magazine No. 3 (see the page scan here: 10/31/2019): "The Boss As Requested Around the World should not be confused with the promo record with a similar title. This boot contains some Follow That Dream material and a few other live cuts. The sound isn't too bad, but the packaging is pretty crummy."

The bootleg still keeps the original price tag of $16.98. The
unique inner sleeves with cat cartoons and Bible quotations
were not part of the bootleg but were the products of a
legendary record shop in Canada. The inset on the bottom
right corner shows another cat logo that is printed on
a clear record bag.

Early in my collecting years, I bought an original bloody red-vinyl copy of this double LP from a Canadian dealer or collector in Toronto, not knowing its content exactly but just because it was a "new" release. I remember I was quite disappointed with this bootleg when it turned out to be a kind of compilation gathering material already bootlegged on other titles. Anyway, I still keep the copy and when I started writing on this topic in these pandemic days, I pulled it out from the record shelf for the first time in a long while. However, what caught my eyes was not the bootleg itself, but rather the clear record bag and inner sleeves the slick-insert cover and two vinyl discs came in: these protective accessories had unique images of cartoon cats and Bible quotations printed on each. A quick web search revealed that these were original bags and sleeves made and provided by Peter Dunn’s Vinyl Museum, a legendary record shop in Canada (that's what record collectors and lovers there say), although I just got to know this and don't know anything about the shop ...
— Back to Part 1, Part 2 or Part 3.