Remember 45rpm records?

[Graybeard]

A recent thread showed a pic of a record changer for 45 records. Brought back childhood memories of buying the latest hit song at the 5 & 10 store.

45s were small vinyl records made even smaller by the 1 1/2 in. hole in the center. Just room for one song on each side. The A side was the hit tune and the B side would be by the same artist but not good enough to sell on it's own.

The first one I bought was when I was about 7 yrs old. I saved up from my allowance to get Gene Autry singing, 'Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer.' I felt grown-up buying my own record.
.

[zbdent]

1. I'm 49.75 ...

and I do remember the 78 and 16 settings on the record players ...

[NYC_SKP]

2. I remember 45s being part of cereal boxes and magazine inserts.

Unless it was a dream....

[KoKo]

47. I remember getting one of them..cereal box

I think...but it only played a little bit. I think I didn't tear it off correctly or something. But, I think it's real what you remember.

I felt cheated....

[pinboy3niner]

3. Actually, that thread wasn't about 45s but a commercial 16 2/3 speed Muzak machine

It kinda looked like a 45 changer, but it wasn't...

Ten Points if you can tell me what this is:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018326723

For 45s we'd use a special insert (adaptor) to play them on the phonograph...



And when my older brother went off to the Marine Corps, I got to play all his old Doo Wop and and early rock records to my heart's content. Ring, ring goes the bell!

[talkingmime]

35. It's the insert for a 45 to let you play it on an LP spindle. I just bought some more recently.

I get ten points.

Edit: Wait, I guess I don't get the points. You were asking about the changer for the 45s that apparently run at half LP speed. I got half of that one right in the original thread - didn't know about the half LP speed thing.

[Phentex]

38. A local store makes necklaces and earrings out of these...

and some other gadgets. It's fun to watch young people try and figure out what these were!

[RandiFan1290]

4. Darn you just gave me an earworm

[Thegonagle]

28. Nice!

Haven't heard that in a long time, and I've never seen the video.

[union_maid]

5. 45's provided the soundtrack to my yute.

Pre-Beatles pop abums were the one hit which had been released on 45 and the rest was filler unless they were Greatest Hits or Compilation albums.Speaking of compilation albums of the era, does anyone remember Murray the K's Music for Submarine Races Watchers or whatever those albums were called?

[Thegonagle]

32. Are you saying that the Beatles started the "make the whole album good" thing,

Last edited Sat Mar 9, 2013, 09:15 AM - Edit history (1)

and artists/groups never really tried beyond the first hit before? Or was it because 45's were the majority of sales and 12-inch LP's weren't as popular a medium yet?

Just curious. I turn 38 this year, so cassette tapes, and later CDs, were replacing 12-inches as the medium of choice as I grew up.

[union_maid]

37. I'm sorry, just saw this

I don't think it had much to do with the artists'. It was all what the record companies decided. It was also the way music was marketed. We had top forty radio stations. There were three of them in my market, which was New York. Didn't matter. They all played the same top forty and mostly the top ten, mixed up with some "blasts from the past" all the time. Was OK with us. Most of us didn't know any better. Those that did found obscure stations that played real blues or went to folk clubs or things like that. Most of us just danced to American Bandstand, though.

[Thegonagle]

40. Makes sense. Thanks.

BTW, no apology needed. Your reply is timely enough for me!

[rocktivity]

6. Way back when, I put my father's "old soul singles" on audiocassette

Now I'm digitizing the audiocassettes.


rocktivity

[harmonicon]

7. They still make them, you know.

The first record I put out was a 7", but a 33 1/3 speed 7". That was in 2000 or 2001. I guess we screwed up the whole A-side/B-side thing though, because it didn't sell at all.

[nolabear]

8. Do NOT go there. Do NOT make 45s a sign of being old.

I'm too delicate. I can't face being that old.

[malthaussen]

39. You know you're old when...

... your age exceeds the speed of the last record you played.

-- Mal

[Arkansas Granny]

9. The first records I remember seeing were 78's.

They were about the size of a dinner plate and had a small hole in the center.

[pinboy3niner]

12. I played my 45s AND my parents' old 78s

They had a complete set of Al Jolson on 78s.

As well as 33-1/3 ("long-play&quot Bob Newhart and Bill Cosby comedy albums that were hilarious.

It was all good.

[Arkansas Granny]

33. My Dad had a pretty extensive collection of 78'a, or

so it seemed when I was a kid, and later in, he would buy 33 1/3 albums. His "entertainment center" was a Silvertone radio/phonograph console with gold cloth over the speakers. IIRC, he could even pick up short wave broadcasts.

[DebJ]

20. They would chip, too. My parents had some and we played those

which had not acquired big chips missing out the sides.

[RebelOne]

41. Remember those. I still have some in boxes in my garage. n/t

[ConcernedCanuk]

45. Me too

.
.
.

and if they skipped too bad, we'd put a penny, nickle, or quarter on the end of the arm above the needle!

It worked.

The first record I ever owned, bought by me by choice,

was a 33LP(long play) called "Mozart in Prague" if I remember correctly.

That was back in the early 60's

- you could pick a record in the store you thought you liked,

take it into a sound booth and listen to it before you bought it - -

yeah - long time ago . . . .

and the 45's ?

when they got too scratchy to listen too - we took them outside and flung them through the air like frisbees - -

hmm, thought occurred to me . .

maybe the 45 was a precursor to the invention of the Frisbee?

nope

it was long before that

http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa980218.htm

yup - I hadda check,

maybe I shoulda called myself CuriousCanuk ??

[Arkansas Granny]

46. Them first record I purchased myself was "Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer"

by Nat King Cole and "Monster Mash" by Bobby Boris Pickett.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

10. Man, I think Rudolph might have been my first 45 too

Although Gene Autry recorded it earlier, I think my parents gave it to me for Christmas 1952. I would have been 3 years old. I think my second 45 would have been this one but it was a long time ago.

[triguy46]

11. yep, got some good ones...

Sam and Dave, Crosby Stills and Nash, Booker T and the MGs, etc. That said I was more of an album person. There were "Mono" sections and "Stereo" sections back then.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

13. remember? hell, I still have 'em!

[Generic Brad]

14. They were cooler than the 78 rpms

My grandparents had those old fogey 78s. I am of the hip, young generation with my rad 45s.

[Tabasco_Dave]

15. If you where a Led Zeppelin fan

the only way you could buy the song, Hey Hey What Can I Do, was on a 45 record

[OriginalGeek]

18. I still have mine

Of course, nowadays there are a couple box sets available that include it but I consider that cheating.

I recently bought a new 45rpm...it's an ep from a German death metal band. Turns out there are bazillions of these kinds of records out there and I'm gonna try to get them all. ALL of them! Or at least up the the spending limit set by my wife. Which I fear will be far less than all of them.

But I have decided to buy all my new music on vinyl. I love the sound and the packaging. CDs have no soul.

[burrowowl]

16. My Parents bought me the Burl Ives set

I was in second grade and my teacher asked us to sing our favorite song. I got stopped quickly with: My Father was the keeper of the Eddystone Light, he slept with a mermaid one fine night ....
It was a Catholic school but even in a public school, needless to say I was perplexed she censored the song.

[sakabatou]

17. Yep

My parents have a few.

[cyberswede]

19. My first one was "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"

which I got from my brother for x-mas when I was 10 or 11. All my others were bought with babysitting $ for 99 cents (early 80s stuff, mostly). I still play them once in a while for kicks.

I also collect jazz 78s from the 20s, 30s & 40s. I had to buy and old record player on eBay when I started that collection. I do have a nice Bang & Olufsen turntable, but no 78 rpm setting on that.

I love vinyl, and I make my kids listen once in a while.

[AngryOldDem]

24. Off-topic, but great song.

I had the 45, too.

[Summer Hathaway]

21. When I was in HS

everyone brought their 45s with them when they went to a party. But often no one thought to bring a spindle with them.

There was always 'that guy' at the party who knew how to position a 45 on a turntable perfectly centered, so that it would play without a center spindle.

'That guy" got invited to every party.

[olddots]

22. I tortured my parents with 45s

You could play those yellow kid's 45s that were scratched to hell because the needle tracked so heavy .I would play one called 2 bits of Bach (quess they cost a quarter) till my mom would threaten my life.
My first purchase was Tooti Fruiti by Little Richard and I got the Pat Boone version by mistake-----that's why I hate Pat right wing scum bag Boone even more today .

[Graybeard]

25. Hey olddots. Welcome back to DU !

The 45 that I played over and over 'til it wore out was the theme music from the movie, "The High and The Mighty."

[AngryOldDem]

23. Sure do!

Last edited Sat Mar 9, 2013, 07:21 AM - Edit history (1)

I had boxes and boxes. But, somehow now they're all gone, misplaced between moves.

As a kid, I bought more 45s than LPs, and I can still remember buying my first, back in 1972 or so. Can't remember the song or the group, though (it may come to me later).

Between 45s and K-Tel albums (20 songs to a side) I was all set musically as a preteen.

Anyone remember K-Tel albums?

EDIT: Remembered the song: "Nice To Be With You" by Gallery.

[Archae]

31. They had to cut the songs on the K-Tel records.

Edit them down so they could cram 40 songs on to one LP, and those LP were *THE* cheapest vinyl I ever saw, they wore out fast.

[AngryOldDem]

36. Yeah, but that was part of their "charm".

I think I still have one or two in my collection.

Most of the songs are truly cringe-worthy, but they are fond memories anyway. I just get a kick out all the songs they managed to cram on to one album.

[LeftInTX]

43. I just ordered Hooked on Classics CD - K-Tel

I had the Hooked on Classics tapes, but they're obsolete.

I love Hooked on Classics, classical music set to a disco beat. Go figure.

[RudynJack]

26. Sigh...

I remember 78s.

[OxQQme]

27. Double sigh

I remember cactus needles.

[RudynJack]

30. Triple sigh

I remember when the Vikings used to come and take all our stuff.

I miss my sister.

[Archae]

29. I record to mp3 and CD's, old records.

My biggest job was my sister's and brother-in-law's collection, about 600 33's.

I did one collection of a friend of my Mom's, she had a huge stack of 78's and 45's.

I have a good time recording those old records, even the ones I can't stand.

"I write the songs that make the whole world sing..." BLECH!

[talkingmime]

34. I still have a bunch, and the little yellow inserts so you can play them on a LP spindle.

"B side" is an old term for a song that sucked. I still use it.

[LeftInTX]

42. I had a collection of Golden Kiddie 78s

They were produced in the 50s

[trof]

44. They were easier to shoplift than 78s.

But enough about my misspent youth.


We had a record player with a 3 speed turntable.
33 1/3, 45, and 78.

It was just HILARIOUS to play a 45 at 78 speed.
Everything sounded like Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Or play a 78 at 45 speed and it a-l-l s-l-o-w-e-d d-o-w-n to low bass notes.
If you played a 78 at 33 1/3 it sounded like zombies.

And I do remember the K-Tel records.
Were they the ones who had unheard of performers doing 'not-quite-right' versions of popular hits?