45 Going On 60?

Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Can you believe the venerable 45 turned 60 this year? The vinyl 45 rpm single was what I lived for as a teenager in the hippie, trippy 1970's. I vividly remember all the stores in Honolulu where I would shop for the latest hits by artists of the day. Department stores like Sears and Woolworth at Ala Moana usually had the best prices, some as low as 77 cents. Then there were the specialty stores like Records Hawaii on Piikoi St. or The Music Box, literally a tiny 'box' of a store on Union St. Mall behind Kress downtown where you could preview music by asking the owner to play 45s of your choosing over their outdoor speaker system. Their prices were almost always higher than anywhere else, but they also had singles no one else had. This was critical if you wanted to be the first on your block to own a song that had just appeared on the radio, as I always did.

Being a kid from Kalihi Valley, I didn't have a whole lot of money to spend on records but all the money I did have went to buying 45s. I remember buying my first 45, Gilbert O'Sullivan's positively depressing "Alone Again (Naturally)" in 1972. That was the first of what was to become a collection of almost 900 45s over the course of just over a decade. Like the nerd (that I still am), I cataloged a list of my 45s in a three-ring binder.

Naturally, listening to AM radio was all I did back then, too, usually KPOI or KKUA. How else would I know which 45s to buy? Sometimes I'd buy a 45 weeks before it became a hit or even before it got any airplay at all. On the other hand, I had my share of flops in the collection as well. That's just how it went.

In the mid-70's, along with the other kids in our apartment building, I'd listen to KKUA DJ Lou Richards' show between 7 and 10 pm. Every night, Richards had his "Six-Pack" contest where he would play six songs in a row and the first caller to identify all six songs and artists correctly would win the six 45s along with a six-pack of 7-Up. I must have won literally several dozen times. It had even gotten to the point where Richards would ask me to give someone else a break. Whenever he did, though, I would remind him that I wouldn't win so often if he didn't have the habit of throwing in the one obscure song meant to stump his audience. Had all six songs been easy, more listeners would call and I would have had a much harder time getting through to be the first to name all six. Needless to say, I became a familiar face at the station. The only downside? Owning seventeen copies of Bob Dylan's "Knocking on Heaven's Door" and twenty-three copies of Redbone's "Come and Get Your Love." (Most of the freebies were promos issued on CBS labels like Columbia and Epic.)

Other miscellany I fondly remember about 45s?
  • 45s came in two varieties, "thick" and "thin", depending mostly on the recording label. The aforementioned CBS 45s, for example, were almost always of the "thin" variety where the outer edge of the 45 formed a thin, almost razor-sharp edge. Meanwhile the "thick" 45s had a flat edge like that of a nickel where, with some degree of dexterity, you could stand one on its side. I remember too that many of the "thick" 45s had an unusual property in that on the surface of their paper labels there would develop a whitish powder. The powder was most apparent on 45s with dark colored labels like the deep purple Stylistics' label, AVCO. To this day I have no idea what that powder was or how it got there or why I never saw this on the "thin" 45s.
  • Although the typical 45 came in a simple, plain white sleeve with a circular cutout on both sides to see the label, some record labels released 45s with promotional sleeves with no cutouts and photos of the band on the front (and sometimes rear).
  • A select few 45s were released on colored vinyl. Ones I owned included Fever Tree's "San Francisco Girls" on blue vinyl, The Sweet Marie's "Stella's Candy Store" on red vinyl, and Grand Funk's "We're an American Band" on gold vinyl.
  • Some 45s had writing along the inner band on the record, between the end of the groove and the paper label. Wish I could remember which 45s and what they said.
  • The reverse or B-sides of 45s usually stank because labels didn't want to give away songs with future potential or to lower potential album sales. But some B-sides actually became bigger hits than their A-sides. One I distinctly remember was the Doobie Brothers' number one hit, "Black Water", which was the B-side to "Another Park, Another Sunday."
  • Certain 45s in my collection were notable for other reasons. I had a copy of "Seaside Woman" by Suzy and the Red Stripes, a pseudonym for Paul McCartney and Wings. The song was written and sung by Paul's wife, Linda, but only got up to 59 on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1977. Notably, it was released on Epic Records and not McCartney's label, Apple/EMI. (Read more about "Suzy" here.)
Nowadays, whenever I hear the word "45", it's often used in the context of "Lost 45's" or songs that have, for the most part, been forgotten or get little airplay even on radio stations with Oldies formats. Regrettably, I sold my collection of 45s sometime in the mid-80's so for me, the term "Lost 45s" has additional meaning. And although my current collection of remastered and lossless flacs and various mp3s include the vast majority of those 45s I once owned, it just isn't the same.

Even today, I have my own list of "Lost 45s" that I would love to re-acquire in any format, most of them rather obscure songs that never made the usual "Best of"-type reissues and compilations on cd. They include:
  • "Stella's Candy Store" by The Sweet Marie. This was a local hit for a band that played in Hawaii and California in the early 70's. (See Melvin Ah Ching's page on this 45 here.)
  • "Me Japanese Boy, I Love You" written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and performed by Liz Damon and the Orient Express. Another local-only hit for a local band who had a minor national chart hit with "1900 Yesterday."
  • "Caroline this Time" and "Rock and Roll Heaven" by Climax on Rocky Road Records. Most people remember Climax (featuring Sonny Geraci) for their one-hit wonder, "Precious and Few." Others of you might remember 'Heaven' becoming a hit later for the Righteous Brothers.
So here's to the old 45 as we 'wax' nostalgic on its 60th birthday.

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