45 Singles You Just Had to Buy

Never bought a 45 RPM.

Jumpin' Jack Flash

How many versions/mixes were there of 'Battle of New Orleans' (always one of my favorites, along with 'Sink the Bismark' and 'North To Alaska')? 

My era, early 60’s, only girls bought 45’s, to play at basement dance/make out parties on small portable changers with a built in single speaker, flip over needle, Penny or Nickle taped on top to stay in the groove.

I inherited a bunch of Jazz 45’s, washed them, play on my main system, some sound darn good. They usually have a few songs each side.

What an interesting thought provoking post. In my nearly 69 years on Earth, I have only purchased one single, America by the Nice (Keith Emerson’s band prior to forming ELP). Wonderful music I can still hear playing in my head, what a great memory from my early teen years.

Walter Egan "Magnet & Steel"

Wikipedia reports that the Johnny Horton version of Battle of New Orleans was the hit, thus the one that put it in our consciousness. I arrest my case.😎

When I was young with no capacity for downloading individual songs, I loved going to the record stores and scoring old 45s of songs I really liked but by artists whose full LPs I had no interest in owning. Used CDs back then were still likely to be more expensive than an old 45, buying a whole CD for 1 song was not my interest, and shopping for old 45s was just…fun. Especially if they came with the original picture sleeve.
So many:

“96 Tears” - ? and the Mysterians
”Alone Again, Naturally” - Gilbert O’Sullivan
”Reminiscing” - Little River Band
“Voices Carry” - ‘Til Tuesday
“Eyes Without a Face” - Billy Idol
“Just the Two of Us” - Grover Washington Jr./Bill Withers

to name a few off the top of my head.

That kind of stuff was my much-more-fun version of plucking select songs from iTunes. I love being able to go and nab these single songs with ease now (so many great artists have several weak albums but each LP has 1 or 2 killer gems on them that aren’t available on comps), but my enjoyment of that process was rich, and my ignorance as to how poor the sound quality was on the majority of those 45s was bliss.

When in 1976 I discovered the record collector magazines (in particular Goldmine) and dozens of fanzines that had been started to cover the explosion of Power Pop and Punk, as well as the great underground music magazines (most notably Bomp!, the product of Rock ’n’ Roll historian and Garage Band fanatic Greg Shaw) in which cult bands and artists were being covered (The Flamin’ Groovies, Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Moon Martin, Dwight Twilley, Marshall Crenshaw, The Nerves, The Plimsouls,The Blasters, etc.), I became aware of the phenomenon of the non-LP 45 RPM B-side. I looked for 45’s containing non-LP songs of music I liked, buying ’em all.

Portland at that time had a bunch of small record shops which sold all the import and Indi 45’s that were being pumped out in the late-70’s, and my 45 collection swelled to about 1,000 titles. Over the years I’ve culled the collection (I had two copies of the Nerves EP, sold one of them for $200 a few years ago. Peter Case, Paul Collins, and Jack Lee were it’s members), keeping about 600 titles.

Hey Joe

Sunshine of your love

Because in the 60s the 33's were too expensive for this kid.

I spun 45’s on an RCA player in my ’65 Comet Cyclone. With the advent of the eight track tape player it was no longer needed nor cool. The eight track had its own inherent problems like track click and tape malfunction but didn’t skip when I hit a bump or pothole. Plus the cassettes were practically free as you could pick up discarded ones on the side of the road that just needed to be spliced or rewound onto the take up reel with a pencil inserted into the center of the cog. Other than that, 45’s were mostly for jukeboxes, girls and slumber parties.

Bob Seger System: A - Ramblin' Gamblin' Man, B - Tales of Lucy Blue

I have lots of 12" 45's purchased in the 80s. They contain remixes and extended club versions of the single or a popular track found on the LP. And they weren't over compressed, just enough to keep the disc from jumping the grooves.

These tracks were recorded very hot and usually had better SQ than the album. Mostly owned by DJs and collectors. 

I'd love to have a jukebox, but I'm sure they're brutal on the records.

What's a 45?

One

Joy to the World

Top of the World

Man in Black

Loves Theme

Popcorn (Hot Butter)

Crocodile Rock

Joy (Apollo 100)

Hollywood Swinging

——

Yeah baby…grooovy!

@lowrider57 my 12” “Cat People” single by Giorgio Moroder/David Bowie sounds ridiculously good.

I’ve got a few picture sleeve 45 singles as well.

Elvis Costello, Live at Hollywood High

Springsteen, Fire

Rolf Harris, Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport

A box set of tunes from the Dinah Shore musical, Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick.

And yeah -- a couple Bowie picture singles including the Cat People one.

I came across a 45 of Cheech and Chongs "Basketball Jones" at a secondhand store and had to have it.

+1 @tylermunns 

The most recent one I recently picked up was the English 12" 45 for "Money for Nothing"; it's the only way I know of to get the complete version of that song on vinyl; oddly enough, the album version on vinyl is a shorter version, and I just had to have that longer into and the increased tension before that great guitar lick kicks in.  And the wider grooves on 12" singles deliver premium sound.

The first 45 I bought was one of two records: "Lovin' Every Minute of It" by Loverboy or "Johnny B. Goode" by Chuck Berry (as a retro single).  I'd love to say it was Chuck, but it was most likely Loverboy, but you'll have to give me a pass: I was probably only 11.

 "Poison Ivy" by the Coasters

I started buying records in 1963: the Beach Boys, Little Peggy March, the Four Seasons, the Ronettes and other Spector girl groups, Lesley Gore, etc. They were all 45s until December, as all I had was an RCA 45 player. That Christmas, my parents bought me a suitcase stereo for Christmas, as well as some albums by the Beach Boys, Lesley Gore, and Skeeter Davis.

I continued buying 45s that weren't included in albums until around 1968, when albums seemed to have become the dominant medium. I bought "Hey, Jude" and "Harper Valley PTA." I don't think I bought another until "Bette Davis Eyes" in 1981. It must not have come out on LP as soon as it was released.

I only bought one 45 that I can remember, Brandy by Looking Glass. It was all albums since then except I downloaded the live version of Jane Says by Jane's Addiction. It is so so much better than the album version.

Do Wah Diddy Diddy Manfred Mann  You Really Got me and All Day and All of the Night by the Kinks.

With the Beatles, DC5 and Stones switched to LPs

Didn't the Beatles and the Stones release singles on 7" and not include them on an album?

I buy 45’s now and then just to get the one song I like, rather than buying the whole album. Just bought the 45 of Player "baby come back".

@lowrider57 technically, yes, but it kinda depended on which version of the albums one purchased.
For UK releases, singles and LPs were very often mutually exclusive.
The US LPs would often include those UK singles at the expense of album tracks, or the US LPs would function as something of a hodgepodge of contemporaneous songs.

Viewing the “true” release chronology, the “true” catalog as being solely the UK one, then, yes, singles/EP releases and LP releases were often mutually  exclusive, song-wise.

@tylermunns  Thanks, great answer. I forgot how screwy song selection was between the UK and US releases. 

It makes me wonder if the band and UK label decided the format for the release. Then the US label and distributor decided what the Yanks should get.

@tylermunns For me at least, the US and UK LP releases always had enough differences in them to warrant buying both. I got to say, too, that the UK releases were almost always the ones I kept when, in a fit of madness, I'd decide it just wasn't "proppah" to have two copies of a single LP. . Much, much better pressings. A more interesting collection of songs. The mixes in the UK releases may not have had quite the punch of the U.S. ones, but in every other respect they were the editions I listened to.

@lowrider57 Yeah, I don’t know the degree to which those transcontinental track listings were decided by the artists, if at all.
“We’ll just decide for the US LP that track 3 is expendable and replace it with a single.”  
“This previously-released EP should be an album. We’ll just tag some other stuff onto it, call it a ‘new album.’” 

12" Purple Rain, by Prince.  I cranked it up the night he died.  Even my wife felt the loss.

@officerat I love my “Let’s Pretend We’re Married” 12”.  
Mainly because it has “Irresistible Bitch” as the B-side

'Offshore Banking Business'    The Members

Ghostbusters theme, on 12 inch.   Played loud.

1st 45 I bought was 'I'm Henry the eighth I am'. I was 11 or 12.  Best value for a kid goes to 'Paperback writer'  because the flip side was 'Rain'.  One Lennon and one McCartney.  Wow for a 13 yr old.

Led Zeppelin ‘Immigrant Song’ just to get the B-side ‘Hey Hey What Can I Do’ which wasn’t available on any of their albums at the time.

@mksun +1

Dick Vivian at Rooky Ricardo’s Records in San Francisco will blow your mind with his knowledge of ‘60s 45s.  
Between his store and his home he’s got over 100,000 of ‘em.  

He has a CD series of custom compilations (28 songs apiece) of these direct 45 rips packed to the brim with uber-rare ‘60s 45s from artists like Dolly and the Fashions, Maureen Grey, Stormie Winters (a few of his personal faves) and innumerable artists no one’s ever heard of (some of my favorite tracks I’ve not even found on YouTube, let alone iTunes or any streaming services)

Those custom CD compilations (again, direct 45 rips and most of the sides sound terrific - again, most of this stuff you’re literally not going to find anywhere else) run for roughly $10, IIRC, and are worth so much more than that.  
One could always just pick up a few 45s outright.  

"Low Rider" by War (at Kahala Music in 1976...I still play it)

I still have approximately 500 7" 45's collected during the 60's. I was a soulboy in those days but Aussie radio (Sydney) rarely played any black music other than occasional Supremes hits. First 45 I bought was Chiffons "He's so fine" and second purchase was Exciters "He's Got the Power". I was still at school in those days and always had an after school job to pay for my purchases

I used to spend many glorious hours searching record sales and 2nd hand record stores. Even today I cannot resist a vinyl or CD rack looking for hidden gems (albums or CD's only today).

Ended up with virually all Motown & Stax releases as well as lotsa stuff on Atlantic, Stateside etc labels. Have lots of rare obscure labels and artists as I learnt more from Music magazines, stuff I'd hear at discos and dance clubs. I have quite a few promo and sample 45's and white labels that must have been DJ copies

I sometimes spend an evening going through my collection and reliving some of  those memories but you need to have a clear plate as it's time consuming cleaning, treating and changing 45's whose tracks are usually only 2 to 3 minutes long. 

20th Century Boy - T.Rex

The non-LP B side of The Dwight Twilley Band's "I'm On Fire" 45 is a smoldering hot Rockabilly song named "Did You See What Happened?" If you want a copy there's one listed on Amazon right now, priced at only $193.00. ;-)

I was never big on singles because back then turntables like my Rega and Linn made playing 45s a real pain so I stopped buying 45s by the mid 1980s.

Lifting the platter on the Rega to swap the belt to the 45rpm pulley was bad enough but far far worse on the LP12. Here you had buy a machined adapter and force it over the existing one.

An execrable experience. One guaranteed to strip away any joy of playing music.

However, before all of that crap I did pick up some 100 singles including the following memorable ones.

Holidays in the Sun / Satellite by the Sex Pistols.

For whatever reason neither of those songs have ever sounded as good in any digital version.

I also bought their Silly Thing / Who Killed Bambi 45.

Don't know why, just had to. A no brainer as they later started saying.

Oliver's Army by Elvis Costello and the Attractions

That was a first dip into their music and led to the later discovery of their brilliant Get Happy!! LP.

Atmosphere / Novelty by Joy Division

This was a 12 inch single and the only way back then to hear either of these great songs. 

Going Underground by the Jam

I wasn't yet a fan but that was a great record.
Later I remember buying The Bitterest Pill by them.

Dancing in the Dark by Springsteen must have been one of the last 45s I ever bought.

It's a sobering thought but I can't now remember whether I gave them all away or kept them boxed up somewhere in the attic.

How did these last 30 years go by so fast?

Fond memories from high school days in the 70’s!

Most 45’s i own turned out to be one hit wonders

Here are a couple with naughty and fun lyrics😄:

• Undercover Angel
• Afternoon Delight

Couple of other ones i can think of

• It never rains in Southern California
• Walk away Renee
• Love grows

I remember buying the 45 of Come Sail Away by Styx.  Later, I got the album and learned that they cut songs down for the radio/singles so I never got another 45 again after that.  Back then, a 45 was $0.99 but an album was about $5 so I didn't want to get cheated out of music.  

The B-side of The Band’s "Ain’t Got No Home" (from their Moondog Matinee album) is the previously-unreleased "Get Up Jake", a cool little song recorded during the sessions for their second album, I believe. That song later showed up on the Band’s live double-album Rock Of Ages.

I have quite a few promo-only 45’s which have the same song on both sides, one in mono the other in stereo.