Back in May, I featured an unusual West German Target CD of Linda Ronstadt Greatest Hits issued by the Columbia House Music Club (click here).  Today I am writing about another rare Ronstadt Target CD, as well as a common variation.  The discs that are the subject of this post are color variations and involve Ronstadt’s 1984 pop standards effort with Nelson Riddle, Lush Life (Asylum, catalog number 9 60387-2).

The two color variations of Lush Life are West German Target pressings.  Both discs are standard retail issues, as opposed to Columbia House mail-order releases.  The common version of Lush Life, and it is rather common as Target CDs go, has a royal blue target and yellow paint coating.  The rare version, and it is extremely rare in my experience, has a purple target and light blue paint coating.  You may be thinking that a Target CD on the Asylum label should have a purple target and light blue coating.  Well, it depends.  Asylum Targets that bear the older lower-case ‘a’ logo were issued in the purple/light blue combination (see the aforementioned post on the Ronstadt Greatest Hits Target).  However, Asylum Targets that bear the later capital ‘A’ over a “sunrise” logo (see the pictures below) were issued in the royal blue/yellow combination.

Lush Life was issued with the newer Asylum logo, so the royal blue/yellow combination would be expected.  I suspect the purple/light blue disc is either a simple error or a test disc.  Pictures of the two variations are shown below.   Both discs have the same matrix code — “7559 60387-2 2895 184 02 #”.  They also have identical inserts, which were printed in West Germany.

As stated above, the purple/light blue version is very rare.  I just obtained it this week, after years of searching.  By contrast, I have seen the royal blue/yellow version in used CD shops and on eBay many times over the years.

The common West German Target pressing of Linda Ronstadt Lush Life (Asylum, catalog number 9 60387-2).  This color combination is typical of Target CDs that bear the newer Asylum logo showing a capital ‘A’ over a “sunrise”.

The very rare West German Target pressing of Linda Ronstadt Lush Life (Asylum, catalog number 9 60387-2).  This color combination is typical of Target CDs that bear the older lower-case ‘a’ Asylum logo.  It is believed that this pressing of Lush Life is an error or a test pressing.