The Rock Machine Turns You On

The Rock Machine marketing campaign was initiated in the US in January 1968, by CBS's American parent, Columbia Records, under its president Clive Davis. The campaign was intended as a promotion for its expanding roster of rock and folk rock acts, who included Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Simon and Garfunkel, Leonard Cohen, Moby Grape, Spirit, Taj Mahal, and Blood, Sweat and Tears. Early promotional material in Billboard magazine stated:[1]

"The Rock Machine...it's the happening sounds of today. Out of it comes the biggest, hottest rock list that ever started off any month. And with our Columbia Rock Machine, the most exciting and meaningful merchandising campaign we've ever devised..... It's all here - the talent, the product and the big concept to make it all happen. Now, doesn't that turn you on?"

The design of the "Rock Machine" logo, used in subsequent publicity material, including album covers, was by Milton Glaser.[2][3]

As part of its highly successful campaign,[4] CBS Records released The Rock Machine Turns You On, the first budget sampler LP,[5] in the UK in 1968. The album was priced at 14 shillings and 11 pence (£0.75), less than half the cost of a full priced LP at the time.[6] It entered the UK Albums Chart in June 1969, several months after its first release, rising to no. 18,[7] and was estimated to have sold over 140,000 copies.[8]

The Rock Machine Turns You On influenced a generation of music fans.[9][10] At the time, what was then called "underground music" was starting to achieve some commercial success in Europe, bolstered by new radio and TV programmes such as John Peel's Top Gear. CBS competed actively for this new market against other “progressive” labels such as Elektra, Island, Immediate, and the EMI subsidiary Harvest, who followed with similar samplers of their acts. Although some of the featured artists were already stars, others such as Leonard Cohen, Taj Mahal and Spirit were only starting to become known in Europe, and the album made a major contribution to their success.

CBS released a second, similar, sampler album in the UK in 1968, Rock Machine I Love You. The company followed up these LPs in 1970 with three double sampler albums - Fill Your Head with Rock,[11] Rockbuster,[12] and Together!.

Some years later, the affiliated company, Epic Records, used a similar format for The Rock Machine Still Turns You On, Vols. 1 and 2, in 1983.[13]

A version of The Rock Machine Turns You On was issued on CD by Sony Records in 1996, but it lacked the Simon and Garfunkel track for licensing reasons.[9]