Japan Double Dealer

I've been on a Deep Purple kick lately. The band have a new album coming out next month, and while I haven't generally been that interested in newer Deep Purple albums, for some reason this one has me curious. On top of that, I've really been digging in with the first few albums with the Mark I line up featuring Rod Evans on vocals. Then, I've also been heavily obsessing over the Mark III Coverdale albums. Needless to say, I've been listening to a lot of Purple this year. Combine that with my interest in singles and Japanese pressing and it was inevitable that they were all going to converge.

Man, I've been loving anything Coverdale lately, including Whitesnake and his albums with Deep Purple. When I was obsessing over singles earlier this year, I stumbled upon a few eBay auctions from a Japanese seller and there were a few Deep Purple 7 inches that caught my eye. Damn, these things looked cool, and since I was feeling pretty loose with my money, I threw a winning bid on this single for Lady Double Dealer. There is just something about those 7 inch picture sleeve covers that capture my attention, and this one from 1974 looks great.

I actually ordered this Deep Purple single from Japan back in March, and like the AC/DC record that I'd ordered from Australia around that time, the COVID-19 pandemic put international shipments on hold so this 7 inch sat in Japanese customs for two months before it even started to make its way over to the US. This record didn't come close the price tag on that AC/DC album, but it was still a relief when it finally arrived.

Picking up this Highway Star single was much easier from a US seller on Discogs. The price was very reasonable and it was delivered within a week.

Highway Star was originally released as a single back in '72. For some reason, Japan reissued the single in '76 with a different cover and changed out the b-side track to Strange Kind Of Woman. Love the clean pink layout for this one, but I'm going to need the original single cover as well at some point.