65 Years Ago This Month, RCA Introduces The 45 RMP
In January of 1949, RCA rolled out the “single”, a 7 inch record that played at 45 rpm. This was in retaliation to the CBS 33 1/3 rpm “long play” albums that were introduced the year before. Prior to these developments in ’48 and ’49, records were played at 78 rpm on thick shellac compound disc and could hold only about five minutes per side. The CBS albums were much better fidelity and held almost thirty minutes per side but with all those songs, cost more. RCA was producing LPs too, but had to pay CBS for the technology, so, they introduced the 45 in hopes that their popularity would force CBS to enter the 45 market and owe RCA. Eventually they just shared the 33 and 45 technology. At the link below is RCA’s first ever 45 release which is an introduction to the library of 45s that would be available soon. There is no “first artist on 45” as the first selections were released at the same time which included several genres of music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebRx7FN6vlc
My parents had one of these changers – it had no speaker, you plugged the audio output into your radio. I understand RCA sold these at cost to get the new format accepted quickly by the public. I still have a couple of hundred 45’s – they were good if you didn’t want to buy somebody’s whole album.
Some bands like The Smiths released some EP’s on 45.
The changer version was my 1st record player and was pretty great. All was well until I received a big shock from the ‘hot chassis’ radio it was plugged into.
I like RCA plugs and jacks.You will not see any analogic domestic sound system without it.
Ungrounded chassis?
Yes, lots of radios of the era lacked a power transformer, and a chassis could become hot if the wall plug became reversed. Just my luck that mine had an inviting RCA jack on it, extending the hazard to anything plugged into it.
And of course, the 45 was perfect for the “single” – one tune with a “B” side. As radio stations moved toward pop music with the rise of rock and roll, the 45 rpm single was at the right place and time in history for millions of teen-agers to take home “their” music from the record store.
Here is a nice little history / tribute I found –
http://historysdumpster.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-history-of-45-rpm-record.html?m=1
I would be surprised if anyone relates a “45” to a record instead of a gun today. even us old geezer probably don’t remember 33 1/3 rpm records
We had one of the little 45RPM players that plugged into our RCA TV circa 1952.
My mother had one of those. Actually, for some reason, she had two of them.
So is tomorrow the anniversary of those little plastic 45 insert doo-dads? Love those!
This may be a dumb question for all you experts, but is there any other component in use today that’s as old and unchanged as RCA cords?
Little known fact – a lot of the first 45s that RCA made were just re-releases of 78s they had at the time. And they came in a variety of colors. I have several Red Seal records that my parents had at the time. My grandparents had one of the first turntables (similar to the one you see in this picture) though by the 80s when I discovered it, it didn’t work anymore.