45 Singles You Just Had to Buy


In the bad old days before the internet & streaming😀, what pieces of music did you have to purchase on a 45rpm single because there was no other genuine way of getting them home? The trouble was that more often than not, an album cut of a rock-and-roll hit would be a different version/take/mix of the one you loved hearing on the radio. Which means you just had to get the 45.

Here's a random handful of mine --

Hanky Panky -- Tommy James & the Shondells

Save the Country -- Laura Nyro

She Don't Care about Time and Change is Now -- The Byrds

Baby Please Don't Go -- Them

Candy Girl -- Four Seasons

The Battle of New Orleans -- Johnny Horton

edcyn

@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.

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.