One of the great presents I have ever received came at my 10th birthday. I had begged for a record player and perhaps even a record or two to put on the spindle. My wishes came true. I unwrapped a small portable record player and a 45 record from Dean Martin – Memories Are Made of This. Soon my collection would include Sixteen Tons by Tennessee Ernie Ford, Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley, The Great Pretender by the Platters and other classics.
A 45 record cost about 95 cents in the mid 50’s, but there were two sides, so I figured my songs only cost 50c each. I always played both sides of every record I ever owned, memorizing every note and word. Occasionally, a B Side would rise higher on the charts than Side A. The Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly and the Crickets were two groups that always cut great songs on both sides of the wax.
The beauty of 45 records was that if you liked a song, you could buy that song and not have to contend with an entire album or a CD to click through. That way, kids could afford to buy the latest hits. If you mowed a lawn and made 5 bucks, that was five records right there, or maybe 4 singles and a little left over for the malt shop.
We had dances every weekend and always pooled our records to have a few slow songs mixed in with the rock and roll.
A downside to 45 records was a dull needle. I remember them costing about a quarter each. They came in packs of three and they were critical in delivering quality sounds and notes. Seems like they never lasted more than a couple weeks. There was also a release mechanism involved, a poorly designed instrument that was supposed to drop 45 records one at a time, but rarely accomplished that task. Boomers will remember 45 adaptors, little plastic discs that were inserted in the center of the larger 45-rpm record holes so they would fit a spindle designed for 78 records. I never got the hang of inserting these ill-fitting discs and broke a number of them along with several valuable records.
Great artists came into our basements, garages and dens on a regular basis, preaching the gospel of rock and roll. The days of 45 records and portable record players were sweet indeed with good friends, sock hops, popcorn and Cherry Cokes.
As Dean Martin said, “Memories are made of this.”