At the time this album was recorded, Jefferson Airplane had expanded from a rock group into something of a San Francisco collective of musicians and launched its own record label, Grunt, necessitating a flow of product. As a result, there was a flurry of releases by the Airplane itself and several offshoots, with each of these records featuring several members of the loose aggregation informally dubbed PERRO (the Planet Earth Rock 'N' Roll Orchestra). Papa John Creach, violinist for the Airplane and its spin-off group, Hot Tuna, was the leader on this set, which featured members of the Airplane (Grace Slick, for example, duets with Creach on the lead-off track, "The Janitor Drives a Cadillac"), Quicksilver Messenger Service, and the Grateful Dead. The result sounds like the Airplane records of the period, with a bit more of Creach's electric violin soaring over the proceedings.

First 2,000 pressings are numbered on the back of the jacket and pressed at Quality Record Pressings.
Unnumbered copies may be pressed at either Quality Record Pressings or RTI, which is only identified by the sticker on the outer plastic bag. Issued in a dual pocket gatefold jacket. Includes a double sided insert for "Atlantic Records 75th Anniversary" and an Acoustic Sounds catalog. Each LP comes in a "Quality Record Pressings" rice paper inner sleeve. There are 2 stickers on the front of the outer plastic bag - a "75 Atlantic Audiophile Series" hype sticker and "Quality Record Pressings". Some copies have an additional sticker with "AAPA 005-45A" and a barcode on the back of the plastic bag. The gatefold interior has 2 photos of Otis Redding.

Recorded in Ed Chalpin Studios in New York July/August 1967.

There are two quite distinct faces to the world of the rock musician: faces so contrasting that it is little wonder that so many contemporary stars appear at times to have lost touch with any kind of reality. While mass adulation hounds and sometimes even destroys the successful ones, the road to that status remains a golden dream for generation after generation of young people. Show me a boy with an interest in pop music who never once imagined himself as a rock superstar and I’ll show you a liar. Jim Maclaine, the anti-hero of the film STARDUST, was such a boy. To him success as a star was an end in itself, and before he achieved it he never questioned what price he might have to pay for that goal. And it is the way in which he achieves his ambition and the resulting pressures and despairs that are the subject of the film. Jim Maclaine is a fictitious figure, created on screen by David Essex. But the problems he faces are known and understood by all of today’s top musicians. And ironically it is out of these problems that some of the best music of the last decade has sprung. Rock music is to do with contemporary life: with the way in which young people see themselves and their problems. On stage, or in the recording studio, an artist can, by virtue of his creativity, cast aside the self doubts and neuroses which were frequently responsible for much of his success.

First 2,000 pressings are numbered on the back of the jacket and pressed at Quality Record Pressings.
Unnumbered copies may be pressed at either Quality Record Pressings or RTI, which is only identified by the sticker on the outer plastic bag. Atlantic Records began releasing 12-inch LPs of hit singles by their established rhythm & blues artists in 1956. An early release in this "8000 'popular' series" was Ray Charles' 1957 album of the same name. It was not only the pianist and singer's first studio album, but also a compilation of his hit singles up to his debut. The LP was re-released in 1962 as "Hallelujah I Love Her So".

The Great Ray Charles is the second studio album by American musician Ray Charles, released in 1957 by Atlantic Records. An instrumental jazz album, it features cover art designed by Marvin Israel.