THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED

Thanks for the do wop memory blast, Marsh. Didn’t know that Waylon was a part of them.

My first exposure and catch of the R&R bug was, digging through my older brother’s collection of .45’s, cueing them up on a ratty little record player, down in our basement.

We had to insert those disc adapters into the 2 inch center hole, downsizing it to 1/4 inch.
The earlest models were metal, and a bitch to dislodge. Then came plastic inserts, and eventually, 1 main disc, about 1/2 inch tall, that went right over the record player spindle.

I remember all the colored lables on the .45’s…yellow and orange paisley swirl from Capitol records had the Beatles early hits. RCA Victor had the white dog, looking into the old style playback unit, with the conical speaker…London records had the 3 shades of blue that looked like fan blades around the hole, and offered Stone’s hits…White Whale records had the blue background, and featured the Turtles.
Some of the faves, back in the late 60’s…(uptempos and harmonies made for hits, IMHO)

-Good Lovin, by the Young Rascals;
-I Fought the Law, by Bobby Fuller Four (John Cougar’s Authority Song gave a nod here)
-Donna, the Prima Donna, and Ruby Baby, by Dion;
-I Wanna Hold Your Hand, I Saw Her Standing There, and Paperback Writer;
-Let Me Be, It Ain’t Me Babe, and You Baby by the Turtles;
-Time Won’t Let Me, by the Outsiders;
-Midnight Confessions by the Grass Roots;
-Satisfaction by the Stones;
-I’ve always liked Buddy Holly’s more obscure “Rave On”
-“Look Through Any Window” and “Bus Stop” & “Long Cool Woman”
by the Hollies, named after Buddy, I think
-Pipeline by the Chantays; “Sleepwalk” by Santo & Johnny; “Walk Don’t Run” by Outsiders;
…all instrumentals;
“One Find Day” by the Chiffons;
-Come On Everybody, by Eddie Cochran;
“Good Golly Miss Molly & others by Little Richard;
-Downtown, by Petula Clark;
-Get Ready, by the Temptations…and all the other Motown greats;

Hell, American Graffiti played at a movie house by me for about 2 years straight. . . a classic.

All that stuff was the gateway into the 70’s, and from 71-74, I remember playing parochial school basketball, and “in” players all knew and sang American Pie.
By the time I was ready for high school, I was well into liking many of the creative bands from the 70’s, where .33 LP’s supplanted .45’s, soon to be followed by cassette tapes, for me.
My older bros were into 8 track tapes for a while, too.
And look at where we are now….mp3 and mp4 digital music files are old tech, with music
streaming software and catalogue libraries available via the pocket smart phone, wireless speakers and ear buds.

It’s been a helluva ride.
For nostalgia’s sake, here’s one from me list of faves mentioned above.