I was reminded in an email from one of my high school classmates that today is the 50th anniversary of the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. The three died when their chartered plane crashed shortly after take off near Clear Lake, Iowa.
While I don't remember their deaths like I do the deaths of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Elvis Presley or the events of 9/11, these three were important to my youth as they and a few others such as Elvis and Bill Haley and the Comets were some of the first musicians I paid any attention to. Theirs were among the first records I ever bought.
Back in the day, going to the record store to buy a 45 was sort of like downloading a song on iTunes today. You could even take it into a little booth and listen to it first to make sure you liked it. And for the price of a 45, you got two songs, an "A" side and a "B" side, although the "B" side normally was not a big hit. In Camden we had two music stores, South Arkansas Music Company, owned by the Sillimans, and Bensberg's Music Store. Mother and Daddy were in bridge club with the Sillimans, so I bought most of my records at South Arkansas.
If you were lucky, you had a record changer that allowed you to stack a whole bunch of 45's on a spindle. One by one they would drop to the turntable, the arm holding the needle would settle in the grooves, and you could listen to your favorite Rock and Roll songs, scratches and all.
If you had a turntable that played both LP's (33 1/3 rpms) and 45's, you would have to use a plastic adapter for the 45's. The 45's came with a large hole in the middle, so by snapping the adapter into this hole, you could fit the 45 onto the small spindle of your LP record player.
While I don't remember their deaths like I do the deaths of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Elvis Presley or the events of 9/11, these three were important to my youth as they and a few others such as Elvis and Bill Haley and the Comets were some of the first musicians I paid any attention to. Theirs were among the first records I ever bought.
Back in the day, going to the record store to buy a 45 was sort of like downloading a song on iTunes today. You could even take it into a little booth and listen to it first to make sure you liked it. And for the price of a 45, you got two songs, an "A" side and a "B" side, although the "B" side normally was not a big hit. In Camden we had two music stores, South Arkansas Music Company, owned by the Sillimans, and Bensberg's Music Store. Mother and Daddy were in bridge club with the Sillimans, so I bought most of my records at South Arkansas.
If you were lucky, you had a record changer that allowed you to stack a whole bunch of 45's on a spindle. One by one they would drop to the turntable, the arm holding the needle would settle in the grooves, and you could listen to your favorite Rock and Roll songs, scratches and all.
If you had a turntable that played both LP's (33 1/3 rpms) and 45's, you would have to use a plastic adapter for the 45's. The 45's came with a large hole in the middle, so by snapping the adapter into this hole, you could fit the 45 onto the small spindle of your LP record player. I'm not sure what happened to all of my 45's. I still have a box full of my albums. For those of you too young to remember, those would be the equivalent of a CD. Now I just need a turntable to play them.
If you click on the video below, and you can hear Buddy Holly sing "That'll Be the Day" while watching the record spin.
7 comments:
In addition to the little plastic adapters, some record players had a large adapter that could be placed over spindle. We had a hi-fi that had a tall spindle and would hold maybe five to eight records. (It's been a long time and I don't remember exactly how many.)
There was a converter that allowed you to play 45s. It was a tube designed to fit on the spindle.
I love my XM radio that plays music from the various decades. I listen to the 50s, 60s and sometimes the 40s. They have been playing music from "The Day the Music Died" today and it has been pretty entertaining.
I think we had one of those tall adapters as well. Mother and Daddy had a stereo. It was actually two rather large cabinets, about 2'x2'x3' tall. One cabinet was a speaker only, and the other not only contained a speaker but also the turntable. I think we had one of those tall adapters for that.
Bring your albums next time you stay at the Duncan Hilton. I still have a turntable that will play them.
Do you still have my 45's too?
I never had your 45s!
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