That Harumi set was never released in Japan.
He got the big push from an appearance on the late 60's TV popshow, American Bandstand.
Unlike say John Peel, Dick Clark was certainly not known for introducing musical change in direction. But Harumi's single sparked this and he was a big sensation with flowery robes and lightshow like not seen at that time on tv.
Verve gambled big and did an unprecidented thing - put out Harumi "same" as a double set. This at a time when only handful of KNOWN artists - like Dylan - had made it to double lp sets.
And one of the 2 lp set being long track spoken word mingled with atmospheric music - totally unlike the popmusic on the first disc.
Big risk for the record label - and likely they lost money on it.
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