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Heads and Tails of the single

In November 1973 the single "Rosalyn(Duncan/Farley)/Where have All The Good Times Gone! (Davies)" was released in New Zealand (RCA PROM 1) as a promotional item for Bowie's PINUPS LP (1973).  Earlier, in September 1973, "Sorrow" had been released worldwide with a variety of B-sides as the official single for PINUPS (1973).

Picture cover and inside panel 1 artwork

"Rosalyn/Where Have All The Good Times Gone!" was distributed by post to all members of the New Zealand RCA Victor Record Club Ltd., but was not available commercially within New Zealand, or anywhere elsewhere in the world making it a very collectible piece of David Bowie memorabilia today (especially with all the six cover sections intact).

Inside panels 3 and 4

It was issued in a six-sided wrap-around picture sleeve, with the cover and first inside panel featuring pictures of David Bowie in Ziggy Stardust garb.  The remaining four sides outlined the bonus offer for a cheaper version of the PIN UPS LP (1973) and also acted as a self addressed envelope for sending away to the record club. 

The third panel read as follows:

Dear Member

Here is a FREE Complimentary Single Play Disc of DAVID BOWIE which is yours to keep!  The tracks are from his biggest selling LP to date - "Pin Ups" on which we are making a special offer to you as a privileged Club member.  The full story is on the record itself, give it a spin - listen to these two fabulous tracks and the super deal we have going for you - you'll be glad you did!

Inside panels 5 and 6

The fourth panel read:

Yes! I think the two tracks from David Bowie's "Pin Ups" are fantastic and I want to take up the special offer made to me as a Privileged Club member.  Please rush me the full album together with my invoice.

Together, the fourth, fifth and sixth panels formed part of the return mail address to the RCA record club in New Zealand and so a version that includes all of these sections still intact is quite a rarity today.

To the dismay of many Bowie fans who received this bonus single a DJ named Tim introduced himself and outlined the special offer while the two singles played.  His voice-over occurred six times on the record (three times per side) fortunately (most of the time) either before or during breaks in Bowie's vocals as follows:

Side 1 - Rosalyn

Tim: Hi!  I'm Tim - your RCA Stereo Club Disk Jockey and I want to tell you about a very special offer that's open to club members only. Listen to this!

Plays...

Tim: Yes the track is "Rosalyn" from Pin Ups - David Bowie's top selling album to date.  Now here's the deal. If you like the two tracks on this disk and you decide to buy the full Pin Ups album we will charge you just $4 instead of the normal club price of $5.75.  Just $4 for David Bowie's Pin Ups.   That's REAL value.

Plays...

Tim: Pin Ups - a collection of classic English rock tunes from the mid sixties - all David's personal favourites.  Other great tracks on this album include "Here Comes The Night",...... (remaining tracks listed here)

Side 2 - Where Have All The Good Times Gone!

Tim: David Bowie takes you back with his own favourite musical pin-ups of the sixties - "Where Have All The Good Times Gone?"

Plays...

Tim: Remember this single is your to keep whether you decide to buy the album at the special discount price or not.

Plays...

Tim: Because the album is at much less than normal price, this purchase will not earn bonus points.  The offer is for a limited period only so fill in the special order card provided and return it to us immediately.  For RCA Stereo Club this is Tim signing off.

David Bowie and Tim the RCA DJ

Fan Kerry Armstrong was a member of the New Zealand RCA Victor Record Club at the time and recalls the day he received his plastic wrapped "Rosalyn" single (see above).

As an impressionable 13 year-old it was quite an unexpected thrill to find David Bowie in the milk container section of my letterbox one Saturday morning in November 1973!

Up to that point I had only just recently become a member of the RCA record club in New Zealand and it cost NZ$5 to join and for that amount you could choose 4 albums with no further obligation to buy! This was a record collectors dream! Especially in light of the fact that I was only earning $2.50 a week from my paper run in Pahiatua and saving it all for records and music magazines.

So my initial purchase upon joining was Deep Purple's ‘Machine Head’, Neil Diamonds ‘Hot August Night’ (a double album counted as two selections) and David Bowies ‘Pin Ups’. The fact that I already owned ‘Pin Ups’ did in no way dissipate my joy at receiving a free David Bowie single and one that was sporting an open-out cover as well!

And those pictures on the cover and the inside! I can still remember being mesmerized, wondering how and where he got that look of his clothes, his hair, his ‘other worldliness’ and of course THOSE SONGS!!

Another thing that was also very cool was that the single was not a flexi disc - it was real proper vinyl, but there was yet still another surprise in store for me when I played the single. I remember putting it on, and inspecting the cover again while the familiar blurred fat guitar chords of ‘Rosalyn’ greeted my hungry ears and Bowie spat out the first lines of this anthem of teen aggression and angst. Suddenly my ears were greeted to a new player in the Bowie band - it was ‘TIM YOUR RCA DJ"!

‘What the Fuck!" - I thought as ‘TIM YOUR RCA DJ’ began his spiel. Tim raves on over both sides of the single telling me what a great offer it was getting the ‘Pin Ups’ album for NZ$4 instead of the usual NZ$5.75 at that time. I remember that my friend over the road, who was also a member of the club, got a copy as well and both of us agreed that it wasn’t a cool thing to talk while David Bowie's singing!!

I haven’t had a listen to this promo since until Mike mentioned it to me in January 2001 and urged me to reminisce about it on the Ziggy Stardust Companion website. Listening again after all these years, its still a laugh hearing Tim talking over both tracks and selling the idea that ‘Pin Ups’ was a ‘good buy’. But then Tim didn’t need to sell the idea to me as I was already a Bowie convert and remain so to this day!

Kerry Armstrong (January 2001)

Ziggy Stardust memorabilia

---This page last modified: 15 Dec 2018---