45 Records
For Christmas one year in the early 60’s, my siblings and I got our first record player like pictured here.
The device was very crude, having a mechanical sound arm with a needle that picked up the undulations on the record as it rotated at 45 revolutions per minute. Low level sound could be heard emanating from the circle of small holes in the round head holding the needle, but was further amplified as it traveled through the arm into the base where the sound again was amplified via ever-expanding plastic tubing before emanating through the 4 holes in the front. I was intrigued by the device and recall taking the record player apart to see how it worked, then successfully reassembling it. My sisters weren’t as intrigued as I was, thinking their treasured record player would never work again.
45 RPM records were invented by RCA in 1949 to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Their new record had a large hole so a simple spindle adapter had to be added like shown above. Each 45 held only one song per side, so it meant a lot of flipping and changing records, but they were cool! Plus they were color coded, as shown below:
Speaking of records, ironically, our Christmas gift came with none, so my siblings and I pooled our allowance money of $1.25 per week to buy our first batch of 45 records, since they were much cheaper than a full album. Plus then we could just buy the songs we liked. There was no place in Ft. Loramie that sold records, we headed to Woolworth’s Five & Dime in Sidney with our Mother in our family’s 59’ Chevy like the one pictured below in front of Woolworth’s.
We bought several titles with each of us picking out one record. I recall my choice was by the Beach Boys with Surfin’ Safari on one side and 409 on the flip side. I have no recollections of what my sisters chose.
The Beach Boys were by far my favorite group at the time primarily because their records typically dealt with surfing on one side and cars on the other. Here are more examples:
That original 409 song on the flip side of Surfin’ Safari was about a ’62 Chevy with a V8 engine having a 409 cubic inch displacement. I had written about the car in this previous blogpost. Unlike these examples, most 45 records had a popular hit song on one side and a much less noteworthy song on the other side. But after hundreds of plays with worn needles worsened by my younger sisters frequently sliding the needle across the record, the hit side became so scratchy it was unlistenable. So we’d listen to the flip side until it too became scratchy. So we know by heart the lyrics of some pretty bad songs back from that era!
More on cars, before 8 track and cassette tape players, there were aftermarket record players that could be installed under the dash. They could really only be listened to while stationary since the needle would readily jump across the record tracks pretty easily when hitting a bump.
Juke boxes were another marvel of the time, with stacks and stacks of 45 records just waiting to be played for a quarter. Many places had coin operated devices in each booth to make your selection. The word "jukebox" came into use in 1940, apparently derived from the familiar usage "juke joint", derived from the bayou word "juke" or "joog", meaning disorderly, rowdy, or wicked.
Our collection of 45 records is long gone after all these years, but the memories flourish.
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