Since the record and thrift stores are shut down due to the pandemic known as Corvid19 I have managed to revisit the record collection that I have accumulated over the years. There has no been no shortage of music and I have been discovering some of the oldest 45s still in my collection.
It basically started back in 63 when my mother took me up to Woolworth's in Lincoln to see what they had for cheap music. At that time they went 6 for a dollar. I can't recall what the hell I went to the bathroom for but I can remember the songs and 45s of long ago. Starting with Gonna Send You Back To Walker by The Animals, a song that was so great, I played it once and then broke the damn thing. It took me about 30 years onward to find a playable copy. Another was Carol by Tommy Roe and that too got broke but I would eventually get a replacement copy years later.
To be honest, I have been lucky to find replacement copies in the 55 years of record collecting. Had I known how hard it would find some of the titles, I would have taken better care of my 45s. I have yet to find Let's Go Get Stoned/Ray Charles on a decent 45, but missing 45s did come across my path from time to time during visits at Goodwill, Moondog Music and Mad City Music X in Mad City. It wasn't till around 1973 that I finally decided to keep the record sleeve on the 45s that I got.
Records can take a beating but there have been some that have been sleeveless for many years and have a lot of scruffs and fingerprints. If they're cracked, or if they have a creator scratch, or worse a vertical scratch, then any sort of buffing or cleaning won't help the cause. Back then, people played records and they played the crap out of them. In the ole days, we have a big box of records that we threw in without any regard. At my Grandma's house in Lincoln Ill, she had a big batch of old records from the 50s and early 60s. That box became my focus of recreating my own collection of those fabled singles and going after better copies. It's not out of the question to find Elvis Presley's RCA singles, in fact they have been easier to find, especially finding an original RCA of Blue Moon, and then finding the Gold Standard one later on. The kindness of strangers donating their unwanted music has helped my cause, and tho I'm not sure if I'll have the same luck after the Corona Pandemic ends; it will be a brave new world hitting the St Vincent De Paul, if it's still there in Madison.
After all these years, I am still surprised that I do have some of the 45s from 50 plus years ago. These 10 selections have been part of my journey. For better or worse, they have survived being Frisbee around the house with me and my brother, stepped on, played at 78 or 33 RPM (sometimes 16). But for the most part, these are the ones that still play fairly good.
1) I've Been Around-Fats Domino (Imperial X5629) 1959
Be My Guest was the hit single but I loved the B side and the cascading piano from Fats. This record is part of the original Lincoln singles that Grandma finally let us have the rest after Aunt Sarge picked her faves. I have yet to find a decent more playable copy, Be My Guest has some awful scratches on it, however, I cleaned the record grooves on I've Been Around and it plays fairly well. Outside of that, much of the rest of the Lincoln singles have fallen into poor shape. There may be about 10 other 45s I still have (Tallahassee Lassie, Sweet Little Sixteen, The Enchanted Sea) but if I played those, I would need a needle replacement.
2) Desert March-Jorgen Ingman (Atco 45-6305) 1964
This record might have come from a Lincoln liquor store around 64. I recall the batch of 45s that Mom bought was Halleujah Time (Oscar Peterson Trio), I Who Have Nothing (Ben E King) or That Lucky Old Sun from Ray Charles, but this record is the longest surviving in my collection. I have managed to find other singles from Ingmann but not this song. It's in rough shape but does play. This record is also the connection from being part of the formative years and going from Lincoln to the present. Jorgen was part of the Metorion gang (Bent Fabric) that Atco licensed back then.
3) I Know Why-The Spectors Three (3) Trey T-103) 1959
The other side I Really Do was the plug, but I liked I Know Why better. Lee Hazelwood with Lester Sill teamed up with Phil Spector on this number, hard to find and I haven't seen it on any Phil Spector compilation. The Spectors Three was Phil's next project after the Teddy Bears went their separate ways and would issue another single. This copy from a Box set of 10 45s that mom got at some department store in Waterloo and there was plenty of great songs (Let The Water Run Down, Ben E King, Piano Nellie-Bobby Brant, to which, got cracked, however I did find a reissue of that song and the Ben E King's song too later on, so all is good) I'm guessing the year was 1965.
4) Hey Joe-Jimi Hendrix Exp. (Reprise 0572) 1967
Nevada Iowa, Ben Franklin store. They had a bunch of singles for 9 cents a piece and this one had the picture sleeve that I wished that I could have kept. Other 9 cent singles I found was 10-2 Double Plus from Jackie and Tut, Strange Brew by Cream, On Broadway by King Curtis and Katherine by Ben E King, seems to me that anything Ben E King released I bought. This is where I discovered Jimi Hendrix and I liked 51st Anniversary better, I played that one all the time. However with name association, I would continue to seek out Jimi's singles when I saw them. Usually at Arlan's in Fort Dodge.
5) Yesterday-Ray Charles (ABC 11009) 1967
Webster City at Woolworths. Ray Charles was always a trusted artist and I bought and wore out many copies of his earlier stuff, Cincinnati Kid, The Train, That Lucky Old Sun, You Are My Sunshine, Smack Dab In The Middle. Most were found in the three for a dollar bin at Woolworths, the Hastings of the 1960s. But looking at the grooves and seeing how well it plays, I don't think I was that impressed with this version. B side Never Had Enough Of Nothing Yet was much better I think. Somehow, I put this record in my dad's collection of 45s but he was not a Ray Charles fan and while thumbing through the ones I could salvage with, I managed to retrieve this one and put a record sleeve on it and filed it away. The records does play in VG sound despite 50 years without a sleeve.
6) Hurdy Gurdy Man-Donovan (Epic 5-10345) 1969
Another Webster City/Woolworth's record. I ended up getting a few singles from him (Wear Your Love Like Heaven, Jennifer Jupiter) but finding this in the 3 for a dollar bin was like striking gold. This does have a original Epic sleeve but to be honest, this record was sleeveless for a while. The hardest rocking song Donovan ever has done but I'm sure Jimmy Page and John Bonham had something to do with that as well.
7) Right Now-Herbie Mann (Atlantic Jazz 45-5023) #111 1962
Webster City but this time, some hardware store has this for like 50 cents. I think I also bought Johnny Bond's Sadie Was A Lady. Never heard Right Now but since it had a cool blue and silver label, I figure it would rock. Outside of Halleujah Time from Oscar Peterson, my introduction to jazz. It charted at #111 on the bubbling over side. Like most jazz singles, it was a edited version. Still sounds great to me.
8) Soapstone Mountain-It's A Beautiful Day (Columbia 4-45152) 1970
A promo copy that was found at a Waterloo Goodwill for a quarter I think. We used to lived in Waterloo and most of the time, mom bought a lot of scratchy 45s there. In 1965 they were sold for five cents and I used to peal the damn price tag off the label only to have it take half the label off. My introduction to IABD was the Different Strokes sampler that sold for a dollar at Kresge. I have seen a stock copy of this song. Would have been neat to have a stock copy, simply of the B side Good Lovin'.
9) People Got To Be Free-The Rascals (Atlantic 45-2537) 1968
Woolworth's Lincoln. This record beat the odds and in it's yucky shape does play fairly well. Alas, another Woolworth's buy It's Only Love (Tommy James/Shondells) didn't play well either. Some of these records had a yucky film on it, Somebody must have spilled Pepsi on it.
10) Move Over-Steppenwolf (Dunhill/ABC D=4305) 1969
Webster City, tho I think I bought this at the drug store and not Woolworth's. At that time I had plenty of Steppenwolf records, Doors Records etc etc but most didn't survive. One of my all time fave Steppenwolf songs. Fits perfectly in these days and times.
These records are the ones that did survive the first fifty years of my life (expect Soapstone Mountain). I had a trio of Ricky Nelson singles but the worse looking one was the one that played the best, It's Late. Poor Little Fool is from the original Lincoln box but the grooves got mircowaved it seemed and Hello Mary Lou had scratches that wouldn't buff off. The Jive Samba fry Cannonball Adderley has a crack in it. Paint It Black From Jalopy Five was borderline but in the end, I decided it was decent enough to put a sleeve on it. The rejected records were put back in the tins in the closet and probably won't be bothered to play them again.
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