Sixty and still Single
There was a happy little story on the BBC news this morning - between the depressing weather report and the even more depressing current affairs. Yes, in the gap was a story about seven inches of joy that, after sixty years, is still with us and apparently experiencing something of a revival.
The 7″ single - or the ’seven-single’ as it was called where I grew up - is entering it’s sixtieth decade, having been introduced by RCA in 1949.
Oddly, I can’t remember the first single I bought. I blame my mother. When I was away at university in 1986, she left my box of singles on the window sill afetr “spring-cleaning” my bedroom. Most were warped beyond redemption. This included the oldest single I had - ‘Diamonds’ by Jet Harris and Tony Meehan (which I’d appropriated from her). I recently got a replacement copy on eBay.
Another single I remember owning was Kim Carnes’s ‘Voyeur’. I had no idea what the word meant, but when I found out, I was vaguely embarassed that I’d got my grandmother to buy it for me.
Singles are a lot of fun, and in a world of MP3s and iTunes downloads, it is the closest thing to a physical representation of a song, as far as a ’song’ needs to manifest itself physically. I like picking up the little black disc and saying “this is ‘With Thing’ by The Troggs” or whatever.
And I like the fact that I can still pop into HMV and see “what’s new”. The last single I bought - just a week ago was “Rather Be” by The Verve. Oh, and at the same time the re-issuse of ‘Fairytale of New York’ by the Pogues. My most extravagant splash-out on singles was for the complete set of original Rough Trade issues of The Smiths. The best bargain I’ve got was a Joan Baez EP for 20p.
I’d be very happy to hear from other lovers of the 7″ single. Do you still have them, do you still play them… and do you still buy them?
So, happy birthday to a format which truly has brought an incalculable amount of pleasure to millions of people since 1949.
Comments
| 5 January, 2009, 5:45 pm |
God I hated them. One fucking tune and you had to get up and change them (unless you spent 20 minutes stacking them up on the Dansette only to find it worked for about three then the needle fell off the record.)
The only thing they were good for was frisbeeing out the window to scare the pigeons away. Thank God for CDs!
| 5 January, 2009, 6:17 pm |
“God I hated them. One fucking tune and you had to get up and change them”
Stoner.
| 5 January, 2009, 6:25 pm |
I was racking my brains for the singer of bette davis eyes last night in the pub quiz Brett, you’ve reminded me.
My first single was the fairly credible ‘you’re the one that I want’ by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John… My second a few weeks later was the less impressive Smurf song.
Can’t say I miss vinyl singles anything like as much as LPs though, an LP felt like a proper grown up possession.
| 5 January, 2009, 6:29 pm |
“My first single was the fairly credible ‘you’re the one that I want’ by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John… My second a few weeks later was the less impressive Smurf song.
Can’t say I miss vinyl singles anything like as much as LPs though, an LP felt like a proper grown up possession.”
Funny you should mention that, the Grease album was my first improper grown up ashtray, a decision I came to regret once I’d outgrown my teenage.
| 5 January, 2009, 6:30 pm |
“My second a few weeks later was the less impressive Smurf song.”
My god! Was that the one with Father Abraham? I had the tape!
“Beer, beer, Smurfing beer! You don’t get drunk and it isn’t dear!”
| 5 January, 2009, 6:43 pm |
I loved Kim Carnes voice.
First single “Cum on feel the noize” by Slade (yes you are right I am actually Noel Gallagher.)
| 5 January, 2009, 7:02 pm |
Yeah father abraham, can’t vouch for the lyrics cos I also bought the barron knights spoof version a bit later and their lyrics have supplanted the original smurf ones in my memory. ‘where are you all coming from?’ ‘we’re from broadmoor on the run!’
| 6 January, 2009, 11:29 am |
I don’t tend to fetishize objects but the 7″ single is a thing of absolute beauty - and the only reason for keeping a record player handy. The whole concept is great too: an A side and a B side. Actually, someone should write a book about the greatest ever B sides. I vote for The Beatles’ Rain and The Fall’s City Hobgoblins.
| 6 January, 2009, 1:45 pm |
“Actually, someone should write a book about the greatest ever B sides. I vote for The Beatles’ Rain and The Fall’s City Hobgoblins.”
Both great, as is The Jam’s Butterfly Collector and The Smiffs’ How Soon Is Now. Rebel Without A Pause and Bring The Noise both began life as b-sides, though probably not on a 7″.
| 6 January, 2009, 3:18 pm |
Actually, someone should write a book about the greatest ever B sides.
Front cover…picture showing the B Side of “London Calling”…Back cover.
| 6 January, 2009, 10:10 pm |
My first 7-incher was Elvis’s Jailhouse Rock. I reckon I just about wore it out. You only had to leave the swing-arm up so that the damned thing would play itself to distraction or until the needle wore out. Then I got swindled. I bought a load of jukebox singles going cheep in a coffee bar but when I got them home found they were US format and had plastic gizzmos in the middle instead of holes and so I couldn’t play them all. Only about 3. Happy days!
| 7 January, 2009, 11:23 am |
I loved singles as a child, but veered towards albums as soon as I could, as much for the value-for-money aspect as much as anything. I can’t believe music was so expensive for me as a kid and is now, basically, free! Lovers of the single should check out Elvis Costello’s song, 45. It’s a particularly good lyric, a very warm tribute to singles that covers a lot of ground in a short time. I guess it’s probably up there on YouTube. Oh, and my first single, I think, was Stand and Deliver, by Adam and the Ants.
| 9 January, 2009, 11:37 am |
Surely you reach your sixtieth decade when you turn 590?
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