Interview with Joe Sasfy from Time-Life

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   I'm always hesitant to promote here anything that has to do with my radio show, but I'll make one exception.

I recently talked with Joe Sasfy, who produced over 1000 compilation albums in his 25 years at Time-Life Music.  He was great - possibly the best guest I've ever had in the 29+ years of "Crap From The Past".  

He discussed their marketing strategy in detail, the TV commercials, the clout they had with record labels, the foreign (European/Australian) versions of some of their collections, and in remarkable detail.  He even clearly recalled what tracks were on Sounds Of The Seventies - Punk And New Wave, without any notes in front of him.  (I had to cheat and look them up while we talked.)

If you've wondered what it was like to work at the company that sold the most compilation albums, worldwide, ever (*), then this episode is for you.

Link is here - https://archive.org/details/cftp-2021-09-24

* = not sure how Time-Life's numbers compare with the Now collections

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crapfromthepast Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Music Fan Joined: 14 September 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 28	Post Options Post Reply Quote crapfromthepast Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Interview with Joe Sasfy from Time-Life Posted: 30 September 2021 at 8:55am
	I'm always hesitant to promote here anything that has to do with my radio show, but I'll make one exception. I recently talked with Joe Sasfy, who produced over 1000 compilation albums in his 25 years at Time-Life Music. He was great - possibly the best guest I've ever had in the 29+ years of "Crap From The Past". He discussed their marketing strategy in detail, the TV commercials, the clout they had with record labels, the foreign (European/Australian) versions of some of their collections, and in remarkable detail. He even clearly recalled what tracks were on Sounds Of The Seventies - Punk And New Wave, without any notes in front of him. (I had to cheat and look them up while we talked.) If you've wondered what it was like to work at the company that sold the most compilation albums, worldwide, ever (), then this episode is for you. Link is here - https://archive.org/details/cftp-2021-09-24 = not sure how Time-Life's numbers compare with the Now collections
	There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one Crap From The Past.

LunarLaugh Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Music Fan Joined: 13 February 2020 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 9	Post Options Post Reply Quote LunarLaugh Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 30 September 2021 at 6:36pm
	Thanks so much for sharing. I've done some email correspondence with Joe in the past and, as he comes across in your great interview, he is indeed very helpful and informative. Love your show, Ron.
	Listen to The Lunar Laugh!

AdvprosD Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Music Fan Joined: 12 June 2020 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote AdvprosD Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 30 September 2021 at 8:59pm
	I've been listening to this for over an hour now. It seems like this didn't get rolling well until after about 30 minutes or so. An interesting interview! I think Joe Sasfy leaves me with the feeling that Time-Life was trying hard to get the best content while also keeping the costs consistent, (While in subscription.) I was subscribed to Superhits, Guitar Rock, Sounds of the 70s, Sounds of the 80's and a few more. I heard you talk about the Time-Life "History Of Rock 'N' Roll." I picked up that whole set at once from an ebay seller, and I agree that it absolutely sounds top shelf! I can't say that I ran all the subscriptions to the end, but again ebay was a big help for me to make them complete as a collector. Originally, I started picking these up to get some of the best sounding sources for my DJ work. I didn't spend hardly any time watching TV, so I didn't see any of the commercials he talked about. I did go to youtube and look up the Superbad commercial. Not sure that would fly today! Have you ever had anyone from Top Hits USA, or TM Century on any of these shows? I was always told that sourcing was also a crazy time for these companies too. Edited by AdvprosD
	<Dave> Someone please tell I-Heart Radio that St. Louis is not known as The Loo!

crapfromthepast Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Music Fan Joined: 14 September 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 28	Post Options Post Reply Quote crapfromthepast Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 30 September 2021 at 9:49pm
	Glad you guys are enjoying the interview! Top Hits USA started their weekly CD collections in January 1992. I assume that initially, they used some analog processing step to play the promo CD singles and add the 22 KHz cue tone at the end. The sound got much better around 1999 (plus or minus a year), and I assume they went to a digital system to do the same. I don't know anyone personally at Top Hits, although I've been a subscriber since 1996 and could pretty easily find the right person to talk to. Not sure there's much of a story there, though. TM Century could be more interesting. Their late-'80s discs had some very rare material that didn't find its way onto CD until much later, if at all. They took audio from any sources they could find, including lots of vinyl in the late-'80s. We know they went overboard with noise reduction (NoNoise) in the early days.
	There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one Crap From The Past.

AutumnAarilyn Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Music Fan Joined: 22 August 2019 Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote AutumnAarilyn Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 01 October 2021 at 12:24am
	Midnight soul commercial for the British audience. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ae86GboIIc This is more my lane. Classic soul ballads with Peabo Bryson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIEWIti6bbY Edited by AutumnAarilyn

lbangs Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Music Fan Joined: 25 February 2016 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote lbangs Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 02 October 2021 at 2:22pm
	I greatly enjoyed this entire interview. Thank you! Now I must dig down and find the Dennis Drake show... Edited by lbangs
	Shalom, y'all! L. Bangs

EdisonLite Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Music Fan Joined: 18 October 2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 54	Post Options Post Reply Quote EdisonLite Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 23 October 2021 at 10:05pm
	Ron, have you had any special guests on your show since you had this Time-Life mastering engineer talk? It was nice that you let us ask him questions in advance in writing. In any case, if you've interviewed any other industry veterans since then, I'd sure like to check out the shows/links. Thanks.

crapfromthepast Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Music Fan Joined: 14 September 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 28	Post Options Post Reply Quote crapfromthepast Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 23 October 2021 at 10:19pm
	Gordon - Recently, just Dennis Drake and Joe Sasfy from Time-Life. I'll be working on one more compilation producer soon, hopefully in the next few months. Joe Sasfy was fantastic. We got into the business aspects of how these were produced and marketed. Really fascinating stuff.
	There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one Crap From The Past.

EdisonLite Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Music Fan Joined: 18 October 2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 54	Post Options Post Reply Quote EdisonLite Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 24 October 2021 at 9:52am
	Ron, I didn't realize you interviewed 2 guys from Time-Life. It must have been only the 1st one I heard (Dennis Drake). Was the Joe Sasy one the more recent one? I'll have to click on your link to check it out if that's the one I missed.