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78s anyone...?

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    78s anyone...?

    Follow-up to the singles thread. I don't expect anyone here actually bought any (except as a collector.) I sure didn't but I acquired a few.* Not certain where from, possibly the two girls next door who were about six years older than me. I had Bill Haley's inferior version of Shake, Rattle, and Roll. Little Richard's Good Golly Miss Molly, which was wondrous. And Elvis's version of Rip it Up which I gave to my first girlfriend a couple of years later in a vainglorious attempt to persuade her to remove her underwear. Otherwise the only time my turntable was switched to 78 was for Just Like Gene Autry on the second Moby Grape album. So any takers...?

    * I don't include my parents' collection of Bing Crosby, Andrews Sisters, Fats Waller and Spike Jones

    #2
    My parents had a stack of them. The only one I remember by name was Black Denim Trousers by (looks it up) no idea...a few people seem to have covered it right around the same period.

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      #3
      My parents also had a box of them, but I don't recall them ever being played (though we did have turntables with that setting).

      We also had hundreds at the Music Library where I worked in Uni.

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        #4
        My sister and I played our parents 78s all the time as kids. Loved Spike Jones. Still do. We also had our great-grandfathers' music box with a tune selector (there were about twenty selections IIRC. Kind of like an early juke box I guess) Three metal butterflies picked out the high notes by throwing themselves against bells. No idea what happened to it. Shame.

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          #5
          My parents had a small collection of same. As for my sister and me, all we had were a few Nursery Rhymes with Uncle Mack-type 78s - the vinyl revolution kicking in pretty much as soon as I was out of nappies.

          They'd be worth something now, of course, but sadly all consigned to dust and memories.

          The 78s, I mean. Not my nappies.

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            #6
            Originally posted by Jah Womble View Post
            all we had were a few Nursery Rhymes with Uncle Mack-type 78s
            Pretty much this. The Dansette was bought for me but we had these 78s for my little brother. I think they still exist somewhere. Up to then we didn't have a means of playing music, other than the wireless, but my grandparents had a big radiogram which fascinated me and, I think, a few 78s.

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              #7
              78s are very passé. 16 rpm is where it's at.

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                #8
                Not only were there 78s in our house,the only music system we had until I was about 8 or 9 was a gramaphone, music was mainly my mother's Mario Lanza and John Mc Cormack records, when my elder brother and sister got an actual record player for Christmas it was a game changer for sure

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                  #9
                  I remember 2 from my childhood. Mickey Rooney - Could you use me (oh I'm the chappy to make you happy...), and Max Bygraves - Why Does Everybody Call Me Big Head. Unfortunately, I sat on and broke the latter when I must have been about 4. My Dad stoically bit his lip, but my elder sisters made my life hell for about a week afterwards.

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                    #10
                    I cracked one of Dad's Spike Jones 78s, the heavy ceramic records were quite brittle. He had a few Spike Jones which my brother and I loved, and one by Duke Ellington which I don't think we ever played.

                    Seeing Stumpy's mention of 16, I remember all the record players in the 70s had a 16 setting, but I never saw a 16rpm record, or heard of anyone owning one.

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by Sits View Post
                      Seeing Stumpy's mention of 16, I remember all the record players in the 70s had a 16 setting, but I never saw a 16rpm record, or heard of anyone owning one.
                      Me neither, but my dad's turntable had 16/33/45/78 speeds.

                      16 was for spoken-word recordings, I believe.

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                        #12
                        We had some at home when I was a kid. The ubiquitous Spike Jones and also some of my mother's opera and my dad's jazz and big band. Don't know what happened to them.

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                          #13
                          Were all UK 78s shellac?

                          There were a few vinyl examples in the US, but they are far from common.

                          A piece on 16 2/3 rpm discs (Stumpy is right)

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                            #14
                            Some UK 78s started appearing in polyvinyl during the second half of the 50's but by that time the writing was on the wall for the format with pretty much all production stopping by 1960, apart from some educational and kids discs.

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                              #15
                              Originally posted by Stumpy Pepys View Post
                              Me neither, but my dad's turntable had 16/33/45/78 speeds.

                              16 was for spoken-word recordings, I believe.

                              So did my parent's deep, sideboard turntable. With that mechanism whereby you'd clip the rcord at the top of the metal spindle, click the lever and it would descend and the arm would move across into place.

                              Much fun was to be had playing records at different speeds espically 16 and 78.

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                                #16
                                Yes, I loved playing 45s at 78 - the Beatles' harmonies sounded particulary funny .

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                                  #17
                                  In the mid-60s my Dad's practice was doing well, he'd just designed and built his own house, and I think he and my Mum decided they should try to do things that we're in accord with their new status in life. Part of this was listening to "better" music. So my Mum got a fur stole, and about once a month they'd toddle off to Covent Garden. Another important part of their upward mobility was my Dad buying a brand new stereo cabinet from Heals (so it'd match the rest of the furniture.) It was a monster. A six foot long piece of teak that took most of the 'feature wall' in the sitting room. My sister and I got the hand-me-down Phillips portable, which was kinda cool (it had detachable stereo speakers.) But the sound out of my Dad's new system was fucking awesome! Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere. sounded fantastic at full volume, but, sadly, not to my Dad. I was instantly barred from playing "that rubbish!" as it'd contaminate the precious new Garrard deck. His taste, which now ran to Mahler and Wagner apparently — though a month earlier My Fair Lady and Carousel sufficed — was both required and deserved. So he would lie on the new leather sofa, eyes closed, pipe in mouth and commune with the musical spheres. My sister and thought all this was hilarious, and totally bogus. To prove it I moved the turntable speed from 33/1/3 to 45 when he wasn't around. Then waiting until he'd played most of the first side of Das Rheingold casually walked in, paused, and remarked that perhaps he might check the turntable. Then left the room to the sound of my sister howling with laughter from behind the kitchen door.


                                  Edit: Just realised this post isn't about 78s at all!
                                  Last edited by Amor de Cosmos; 30-08-2018, 19:07.

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                                    #18
                                    Eight time zones sounds about right . . .

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                                      #19
                                      Sorry, you lost me. Or I lost you... or something.

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                                        #20
                                        I would consider eight time zones to be a reasonably safe distance had I done that to my old man . . .

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                                          #21
                                          He's replying to something you say later.

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                                            #22
                                            Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                            I would consider eight time zones to be a reasonably safe distance had I done that to my old man . . .
                                            Ah gotcha. Thing is I'm not sure he realised I did it deliberately.

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                                              #23
                                              My father wouldn’t have had the slightest doubt.

                                              Yours sounds like the incarnation of aspirational advertising aimed at one of those social groups you lot define with numbers and letters.

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                                                #24
                                                I'm afraid that's true. My parents we're always socially uneasy. My mother because she'd been "elevated" beyond the confines of her class. My father because he was an only child, had few friends, and was never comfortable in groups of any kind. They almost always did what they thought was expected of them by others. It wasn't until they retired that they felt able to do what they wanted, or at least my father did.
                                                Last edited by Amor de Cosmos; 30-08-2018, 19:52.

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                                                  #25
                                                  I would imagine that the pressures to conform were also much stronger at that time.

                                                  My mother went out of her way to dissuade me from giving a crap about social conventions as much as possible.

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