Many people will know of the Fresh From Apple box set of CD’s which includes most of the artists once signed to the Beatles’ Apple Records label.

That set came out in December, 2010 and gathered together sixteen original albums on CD, plus a “Best Of” CD collection of Apple singles, and a double CD of rarities from Badfinger, Mary Hopkin and Jackie Lomax.

But fewer will know that this wasn’t the first time that Apple attempted to do this.

Over a number of years (between 1991 and 1996) Apple slowly re-issued some twenty-two titles from its back-catalogue, not only on CD but also on vinyl, and included in many instances a wide range of bonus material.

These releases were done in a number of “phases”, and you can read all about this 1990s re-issue program here.

Over the years we’ve been steadily trying to add to our collection all the vinyl releases from that 1990s re-issue program – and just last week we acquired one more:

This is the UK Apple Records with the original catalogue number SAPCOR 18, The Radha Krsna Temple by The Radha Krsna Temple London. It was re-issued in 1993. Here’s the rear cover:

That this is a re-issue is immediately identified by the barcode you can see in the upper right-hand corner – something that just didn’t exist when this LP first came out in 1971. The album was produced by George Harrison.

Another distinguishing feature is that this release has additional liner notes written by long-time Beatle friend, confidante and publicist Derek Taylor. These begin inside the gatefold cover (alongside descriptions of what each track is about, and information about Krsna consciousness from the original release) and they tell the story of how Apple Records and the Krsna movement got together:

Taylor’s liner notes conclude on the inner bag which holds the record:

Here’s the other side of that inner bag:

And the 1993 re-issue Apple labels:

This particular release doesn’t have any bonus material and so is a single LP release that is true to the original.

The striking cover is designed by the English art director and album cover designer John Kosh. If his name looks familiar, that’s because you’ve probably seen it on a number of record covers from a wide variety of artists. Kosh was a bit of a favourite at Apple and was responsible for the design of Abbey Road and Let It Be LP covers along with numerous solo projects by John Lennon and Ringo Starr.

The Radha Krsna Temple was included in the 2010 box set Fresh From Apple.

For a couple more of the 1990’s vinyl reissues see John Taverner The Whale, Billy Preston That’s The Way God Planned It, and Badfinger Magic Christian Music.