Comebacks we'd like to see: #11 -- 45 rpm vinyls
Filed under: Extracurriculars
This post is part of our series ranking the top 25 bygone products and trends we'd like to see return.
I've always loved the year I was born -- 1970. To me, it was this perfect time when the world was modern and advanced, and yet still with one foot in this quaint and old-fashioned universe. What do I mean? Well, on one hand, we had traveled to the Moon by this time! Yet the country was still using rotary telephones, there were only three television networks, MTV was just letters in alphabet soup, and, yes, we were listening to vinyl albums.
I almost missed that era -- I didn't really start buying music semi-regularly until the early 1980s and 45 rpms, the small version of the big vinyl records, were going out of style, as were the bigger vinyl albums, being replaced by cassette tapes. But vinyl records were still selling in the 1980, and I clearly remember when Bruce Willis, then star of TV's Moonlighting, came out with a single, "Respect Yourself." I probably bicycled over to my local K-mart, or embarked on one of my early drives in the family car, bought the 45 and happily listened to it in my room, taking a brief break from listening to my favorite artists, Huey Lewis and Debbie Gibson.
Ah, good times.
Anyway, the beauty of the 45 was that -- unlike today -- you could buy a song for a buck and you didn't have to purchase the entire album. That's sadly something that kids... er... oh, yeah. Downloadable, often for free if illegal, music.
So you may well wonder, especially if you're under the age of 30, why anyone would want the 45's to come back. I do think I have one good argument.
Sure, it sounds corny, but when you had to make an effort to go get your music, there was something kind of special about it. I used to routinely download music -- always, um, paying for it, of course -- heh-heh, why I would I not pay for downloaded music? -- I mean, it's illegal to do so -- so, anyway, yeah, I've downloaded music, and I've always enjoyed listening to songs I had forgotten about and probably wouldn't have gone out and purchased. But it does lose something when you can just download a song, listen to it, and four minutes later be onto something else in your life.
I also remember shooting the breeze with a cousin of mine, listening to her 45's, some of which, I think were songs her father had sung (he was a respectable musician in his day). Granted, downloading music means you can share it with friends far and wide, but now that they don't have to, I half wonder if kids and teenagers get together in a bedroom and just spend an afternoon listening to CDs. Maybe they do, but I'm guessing they aren't in the same room when they listen to Amy Winehouse's latest song. They're doing it in separate houses, texting each other on their cell phones and blackberries.
It's a great world we live in, but I miss the little things in life, little things like 45's.
Geoff Williams is a business journalist and the author of C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America (Rodale).
What do you remember when you think of your first disc of vinyl?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-16-2008 @ 10:35AM
Mark Smith said...
MY first was a hard shelacked 78 rpm of Pete Johnson, father of "Boogie-Wookie" playing "Let'm Jump". And jump I did, around my bedroom listening to the pre-cursor of Rock, recorded in 1938, played on an all-in one record playback system given to me by a neighbor in 1958, when she bought the first "LP" playback system on our block. I started a "record club" at the age of five based on that, but kids my age were still into "golden records", like disney movie songs. I also loved the "three B's", Bach Brahms and Beethoven, whoes pictures hung above my bed. In 1961 we moved into "stereo", and were given many 45's for Christmas, some of which I still have, including "samplers" with three songs in cut-down form, including "Tom Dooley", which launched me into the world I later worked as a singer songwriter until 1983.
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5-18-2008 @ 9:10AM
dan frazier said...
VINYL RECORDS! Anyone know of someone or place that takes old 45s or 76s and puts them on CDs?
5-16-2008 @ 11:32AM
Kimberley said...
Loved your column. I have bought 45 records since i was 5 and i now sell them in my ebay store!. There are still alot of us vinyl fan addicts in the world. I also make custom clocks out of ones that re no longer playable. And they also have digital turntables now that allow you to downlaod vinyl into your pc. It is very cool. There are alot of records that are not available for download. LONG LIVE THE 45.www.lyricsforthehomeandgarden.com
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5-16-2008 @ 12:41PM
Dennis said...
Great article. I also remember going through the racks at the "record store" looking for a gem. Also, I think the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's logo is the little plastic clip you would put in a 45 to make it work on the 33 center hole set up. At least it looks like that to me.
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5-18-2008 @ 10:44PM
hyarnell said...
The "clips" as you mentioned were little circles that were made to fit into the center of the 45 so it could be played on the players that had changeable speeds...33, 78,45
5-16-2008 @ 1:02PM
Roger said...
I met my wife while buying a 45 at the store where she worked. Hearing song for the first time on the radio and then running down and buying the song on a 45 was one of the thrills of my 1950s teenage years. I don't care what anybody says about the ease of playing CDs, and I know that you don't get hiss, skips, clicks or pops from them, but I still think vinyl records sound better.
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5-16-2008 @ 3:58PM
Pete Pratt said...
There is nothing like listening to a 45. My wife and I have over 650 of them, nearly all from the 50's and 60's. We have two record players and listen to them frequently, especially with friends. Push the furniture back, open the windows and dance the night away. Such memories!
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5-16-2008 @ 1:49PM
Clicktrick said...
MAN, I'm aging myself here, but I used to have one of those "portable, suitcase-looking" 45 players, w/ the
yellow center plastic insert, but I would often lose/loan
them out, so I became an "expert" on placing them w/o
one. AND I remember the backs of cereal boxes having
cardboard cutouts of 45's which I would ask for whether I liked the cereal or not! (Hey, I had 4 older sisters. SOMEONE was gonna eat it!).
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5-16-2008 @ 3:00PM
Rich C. said...
I still have stacks of 45s here. Most are a little beat up, but they are still fun to play. I also still spin my 33s all the time. Most are in mint condition as I used to put them on cassette back then to save the records. Even with the CDs, they don't sound the same as records. Vinyl has a certain "presence" to it that digital just doesn't have.
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5-18-2008 @ 8:10PM
tpbisceglia said...
Luckily there are still places like LawrenceRecordShop.com that still have 1000's of never played 45s....
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5-18-2008 @ 10:23PM
Tom Kerrins said...
Buying the 45's was just the start. Most stores had clubs like buy 10 get 1 free. Also picking up the local radio station top 40 survey each week.
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5-19-2008 @ 2:14AM
George said...
You guys do know they still make 45's,right? Just not in the quanity they used to. Too bad most jukeboxes these days are either CD or Internet Jukeboxes. (In all honesty,I miss seeing the labels spin...like the Apple design. That was perfect for the days of vinyl!)
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5-19-2008 @ 8:06AM
arkz said...
well i love the vinyl records... i am 19, i had gotten a record player as a gift when i was 16, and well i prefer records over tapes and cds and mp3s, and i use all the before mentioned.. but when i have a collection fo old vinyls and prefer to listen to them the scratchyness adds a flavour but its still very clear
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5-19-2008 @ 4:12PM
JANEDOE said...
BEING A LOCAL DRUM AND BASS DJ, I STILL BUY VINYL RECORDS. I CAN ALSO STILL BUY NEW VINYL RECORDS FROM BANDS LIKE BRIGHT EYES, DEATH CAB, AND THE BRAVERY. hOWEVER I WISH ALL MUSIC CAME IN VINYL, IT WOULD MAKE MY LIFE A LOT EASIER. I AM DEFANITELY A VINYL JUNKIE!
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5-19-2008 @ 4:16PM
John H said...
High school, late 70's. The 88 cent singles rack at Sears at the Oakdale Mall in Johnson City, NY. Sears! And you could buy new 45s at Monkey Ward, Sugarman's, Fowler's and a bunch of other places where they sold mostly clothes, shoes and furniture. It was truly a different world.
As for the disc itself, the visceral sensation of dropping the needle on the groove (several times over, if warranted) just beats the hell out of double and right clicking the track title. And you know right where the pops, clicks and scratches are gonna be, too. Even the unlamented cassette single was a more organic experience than what we've got now. The search and the effort is what made it all worthwhile.
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5-19-2008 @ 5:57PM
Johnny Jay said...
I am a lover of old 45 vinyl records. Being a former DJ at clubs & radio I still own a VAST collection of these records. My total exceeds 5,000 45's & 1200 LP albums. I have many if not all the songs you see advertisied on those TV commericals trying to sell you a CD package. My main collection consist of the early 50's, rockabillie, DooWaps, groups & many single artists. The records are still very playable but the real value is the LABEL. Some of the eary labels (SUN, DECCA, HIGH TOP)etc. have all become high priced records. I have some early Elvis on SUN label worth mucho dollars.
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6-09-2008 @ 10:32AM
dj smith said...
Have a website to buy, sell, and reminise?????
8-18-2008 @ 6:43PM
Donald said...
I'm 18 and I bought my first vinyl record when I'd just turned 17 - 'She bangs the drums' by the Stone Roses. The record actually older than me and still plays perfectly, and sounds better than the CD or digital version. Vinyl has numerous extra elements to it which just aren't available with Digital music- it's a tangible music form. When you buy a record, you're buying an experience as well as music. Taking the vinyl out of the sleeve, inspecting the record, reading over and looking at the cover and inlays, and of course listening to it, waiting to spot and imperfections or crackles. Even then, I don't mind crackles and pops in my music.. it makes it seem more natural. Here in the UK vinyl is really kicking off again and bands such as Oasis and others are really helping the mediums credibility amongst people from my generation who don't happen to be DJ'S. No better feeling than putting on my copy of the Stone Roses album, the same age as me, and knowing that I am hearing music as it was intended in its purest, although sometimes dusty form..
Long live vinyl
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