Let’s celebrate a HAPPY 70th BIRTHDAY to the ‘45’.
On March 31, 1949, RCA Victor made their new “45” record format available to the public.
There were several music genre categories and RCA Victor uniquely colored each of them: ‘Popular’ genre 45s were Black with a blue label; the ‘Classical’ genre was released on Red, ‘Popular Classical’ records were on Midnight Blue, Country and Western was Green, International was Sky Blue with a black label, Blues and Rhythm 45s were on Cerise (often called orange) with gray labels, and Children’s records were yellow with a blue label.
Albums were now offered in boxed sets with generally three or four 45s in each set. Individual single records were also offered.
Although many point to Eddy Arnold’s ‘Texarkana Baby’ as the first “45”released, there were a total of 76 albums and 104 singles that were made available to the public on release date. Catalog numbers did not indicate the sequential order of titles being released and it is difficult to find much in the way of verified production dates other than to note the first regular production “45” pressed at the Sherman Avenue plant in Indianapolis was on December 7, 1948 while the RCA Victor plant in New Jersey was idled by a strike. That was a Children’s 45 titled ‘Pee-Wee The Piccolo”, a framed copy being on display at the Indiana State Museum, signed by then plant manager.
Along with the new record format, RCA Victor released players for the new “45”. For as low as $12.95, customers buying a player often received ten 45s for free. Some stores reported customers being confused with the new format which was incompatible with the established common speed of 78 RPM, and in direct competition with Columbia’s Long Play records at 33 1/3 RPM. Needless to say, the “45” format quickly grew popular and was soon the preferred format for many. Including radio stations and jukebox manufactures.
I was a guest on our local public radio station last week, convincing the host that 45's are best. LOL. They let me on the air a few times a year to plug the record store and talk about records. With Record Store Day coming up they always bring me in to talk records. If you want to listen to me babble on about 45's you can listen to it at:
http://www.ironrangecountry.com/kaxersd2019.mp3
Note, I sound a bit off mic because they were installing new software in their main studio and we had to use the back up studio and either she didn't know exactly what she was doing or something was off. In reality I was talking directly into the guest mic. LOL.
TIB
We've got several thousand 45's in the library gathering dust; If we use a handful each year that is a lot. But in their day they were the mainstay in radio.