Richards Places Ring Skull on His Package

For months, Keith Richards fans have been able to buy compact discs of “Talk Is Cheap”--the Rolling Stones guitarist’s solo album debut--for the usual $13 to $15 retail price.

But those fans are now being offered the chance to buy the same music on CD for $24.98--and Virgin Records executive Jeff Ayeroff thinks it’s a deal that at least 15,000 fans won’t be able to resist.

The lure is in the packaging.

Instead of the normal 5-inch disc and conventional jewel box, the higher-priced album will feature three 3-inch discs in a specially designed can that sports a replica of the “skull” on Richards’ celebrated skull ring.

Ayeroff, co-managing director of Virgin, said these types of special packages are frequently distributed as promotional items within the industry, but he thought it would be fun to make about 15,000 copies of the item--informally called “Keith in a Can”--available to the public.

“There are rock ‘n’ roll fanatics out there . . . Keith Richards fanatics--who will love it,” he said this week. “The idea isn’t to make money. . . . The cans are basically being sold on a break-even basis. We just wanted to (salute) the collector’s spirit in rock ‘n’ roll.”

MORE ZAPPA: Rykodisc has relased three more Frank Zappa albums in CD. The titles: “Absolutely Free” (the 1967 package that contained “Brown Shoes Don’t Make It”), “Waka Jawaka” (the mostly instrumental 1972 effort) and “One Size Fits All” (from 1974). The trio brings to 20 the number of Zappa albums now in CD from Rykodisc--and there’s more to come. Due in April: “Broadway the Hard Way” (a live album from Zappa’s 1988 tour) and “Bongo Fury” (the 1975 collaboration with Captain Beefheart).

Now that the Zappa partnership has worked so well, Rykodisc is negotiating with David Bowie for the CD rights to his RCA catalogue, which includes such influential works as “Hunky Dory,” “Ziggy Stardust” and “Low.”

BUDGET REVIEWS: The Byrds’ “Notorious Byrd Brothers” and the Byrds’ “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” (both Columbia)--With the first two Byrds albums already in CD, Columbia introduces two more packages by the classic L.A. rock band to its Collector’s Choice budget line (retails for under $10). While “Notorious” offers the innocence of “Goin’ Back” and lots of “Sgt. Pepper”-ish studio experimentation (especially on “Natural Harmony” and “Space Odyssey”), the more compelling work is “Sweetheart.”

Turning again to Bob Dylan songs (“You Ain’t Going Nowhere” and “Nothing Was Delivered”) and finding a remarkable new country vision in the writing and singing of Gram Parsons, “Sweetheart” stands as one of the most captivating moments in rock--a blending of unguarded country sentimentality and more contemporary rock ‘n’ roll viewpoint. It was a vision that Parsons would take to even greater heights in the Flying Burrito Brothers and that the Eagles--among numerous other bands--ould at least partially embrace. “Notorious”: *** “Sweetheart”: ****