Hey guys,

For quite some time now, I've been trying to find out what the deal is with the two different Victory pressings and their artwork. It is known that the first pressing there was a white dove on Randy's shoulder and that on later issues it was removed. I've read two versions of the story behind this change, some people say "the dove was removed because the rspca complained that everyone would want a dove which was how popular michael and the jacksons were at the time and epic agreed so removed the dove from the cover and destroyed the covers but a very limited number survived" and the other one is the most known one that "it was planned to release a bunch of doves at all the concerts but the plan was skipped after a few shows (or wasn't executed at all) and so the dove was removed from the cover".

I can't find a specific explaination to all of this, but I think the dove items are not as "rare" as some people claim them to be.

So far, my research has got me the following info:

1) First, when I heard about the dove artwork, I bought this item on eBay:

I didn't pay much attention and thought it was two separate records, but it turned out

it was this "two original series" 2LP thing.

Which I found out is from 1989. The fold out cover inside has the white dove / pigeon cover.

2) Then I finally found a normal copy of the Victory record w/ white dove.

Which also got me thinking, because the record has the grey epic label which was used

in the late 80s, if I'm right. Right? ;p

So it must be a re-issue from the late 80s, it also has a different catalog number (EPC 450450 1).

The catalog numbers from 1984 were EPC 86303 in Europe

and QE 38946 in the US.

But if so, how come they use the "deleted" white dove cover again?

I really couldn't find any specific information on the internet,

and thought maybe here someone knows what's up with these

white dove pressings and if they are anything worth.

What I think, is that if any pressings should have any value,

then it must be the first two with the black/blue epic labeling,

and not the one with the grey one.

Anyone?

[Edited 6/24/12 5:02am]

[Edited 6/24/12 5:02am]

The dove wasn't removed from the picture disc version of the album.

MickyDolenz said:

The dove wasn't removed from the picture disc version of the album.

Yeah, that I know.