Single And Loving It... I Can Drive 45rpm

As I dusted off my newly-acquired - secondhand - LP records to try out on the new - again secondhand - turntable, I remembered that I had a  stash of 7-inch singles tucked away. Actually, they were stored in plain sight, on a living room shelf, in a neat leather-bound album from decades ago (from my mother). 

There are less than twenty of the little 45rpm records, but there is a story behind nearly every one of them. I know I owned more than these back in the day, but I must have done something stupid with them... like firing them down from the top of the stairs onto the hard basement floor. Just for kicks. Stupid, stupid. I know I had a Beatles single with Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except For Me and My Monkey. At the time, I hated that song. But if I still had that, I'd spin it with pleasure. Such a collectible that would have been! I also had some K.C. and the Sunshine Band and Foreigner and Trooper and others... all gone. Sob.

There are a few Paul McCartney discs, one a single-sided, white label 33rpm demo of Coming Up (Live at Glasgow) from 1980. I have that same tune on a regular 45 as the B-side to the studio version of the song... original picture sleeve... a little crinkled, but intact. There's also Old Siam, Sir from '79, which I recall loving and playing a lot, paired with Arrow Through Me, which I have zero memory of. Good ol' Pauly. 

Speaking of collectible white label demos, I have Everything Works If You Let It, by Cheap Trick. Single-sided, and 1980. A good year. I was a huge Trick fan at the time so everything I could get my hands on... I did.

The only Alice Cooper of any kind that I ever owned is my 45 of Clones (We're All), with Model Citizen on the flip-side. Great songs off a very unusual - techno-punkish, sorta - album, a real departure for the Grand Ghoul of rock'n'roll back in 1980. 

Then there are my first BeeGees purchases: Night Fever/Down the Road on one, and Stayin' Alive/If I Can't Have You on the other. Though I was more about the heavy guitars back then, I still got my jams on when some primo disco like this came along.

I confess I latched onto some pretty sappy pop stuff back then, and I'll admit to liking Captain and Tennille, that odd duo who ruled the airwaves (TV and radio) in the 70's. When I popped open my ancient 45 album, I was surprised I didn't have the enormously popular - and my fave tune - Love Will Keep Us Together. But I do have Lonely Night/Smile For Me One More Time. I'll have spend an evening soon playing all of these singles to refresh my failing memory. 

My first Motown buy was Stevie Wonder's 1976 hit Sir Duke, a funky boppin' tune with He's Misstra Know-It-All on the flip. Sir Duke remains a fave Stevie song of mine.... can't recall the other one, but I'll get it spinning soon. 

Ah, then a very nostalgic movie theme song by Carly Simon... Nobody Does It Better, my favourite James Bond tune, the opening piece from the 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me. I saw that flick in the theatre when it premiered... my first Bond picture on the big screen, and after loving it, I purchased this song to re-enjoy over and over. The B-side is After The Storm.

Now.... the very first vinyl record I ever bought with my own money: Daydream Believer/Goin' Down, by The Monkees. This 45 is so ancient and worn that I almost hesitate to subject my new turntable needle to its crunchy grooves. Maybe I won't play it, and just hang onto it as a nostalgic piece. Still has the plastic 45rpm-adapter in the centre-hole. 

Being a big ol' Rush fan, I bought up a few singles, mainly for the picture sleeves: Vital Signs and New World Man; The Body Electric with Between the Wheels; and 1985's Big Money paired with Red Sector A (Live)... long before that live track became available on any CD. So there was that, too. 

Then there's what could have been a sharp collectible worth a few coins: a limited edition gatefold of Def Leppard's Love Bites with Billy's Got a Gun (Live). That B-side must have been a bit of a rarity back then. This gatefold edition included full lyrics from the entire Hysteria album, from which Love Bites was lifted. Sadly - and mysteriously, I discovered some water damage on the package. No clue how that ever happened, since that disc has been stored safely in a plastic bag since I bought it in '87. Oh well, it's not like I love these songs a whole lot anyway. 

Can't wait to spin these records real soon!