45 Singles You Just Had to Buy

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.