Season's Greetings At 78 RPM
So far this season I've shared about a million singles on 7" 45 RPM records as well as a handful of 7" records that spin at 33 RPM. But in the long and sordid history of the format wars, there's at least one more speed that I need to share and that's the little records that spin at 78 RPM. I wish I had seventy eight different sides to share with you as I've done with the other speeds, but all I had handy were these three records, two of them on beautiful red shellac. And they're nothing special, though the Capitol greetings from 1948 is kinda nice. I don't know how often you'll want to listen to Adlai H. Rust extol the virtues of State Farm Insurance, but maybe. I've seen a lot of these 7" 78 RPM records in red on eBay and such places for a large variety of different companies. I guess there was a record company out there that made a specialty of pressing them up for people on the cheap. They all seem to be from the late 40's to the mid-50's, right after the introduction of the microgroove records, so I'm guessing they were able to use some of the leftover infrastructure from the manufacturing of the 78s as it slowly became worthless. I know that the 78 format remained popular with kiddie records up into the 60s, possibly for the same reason, they were cheap to make on the old equipment! (For what it's worth, yes, I do have some 7" records that spin at 16-2/3 RPM. It's a set of maybe ten records that tells you all about the different cults so you knew what to look out for in the wide world of religions that might be different that yours. I think there are sides devoted to Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. It was the Sixties and mid-America wasn't big on diversity. They spin really slowly and that's all that matters for this post.)
1. Adlai H. Rust And The State Farm Chorus-1954 Merry Christmas
2. Adlai H. Rust And The State Farm Chorus-Happy New Year 1955
3. Adlai H. Rust And The State Farm Chorus-1955 Merry Christmas
4. Adlai H. Rust And The State Farm Chorus-Happy New Year 1956
5. The Starlighters-Season's Greetings From Capitol 1948-Part 1
6. The Starlighters-Season's Greetings From Capitol 1948-Part 2
MEGA (FLAC)
MEGA (MP3)
Worth it for the labels alone
ReplyDeleteRed vinyl promos? I love it! And the 1954 State Farm labels are outstanding. Excited to hear the Capitol, which also is new to me.
ReplyDeleteThis is Bob from the Song-Poem site. Thanks for the comments and request. I have some weird Christmas records - I'll try to figure out which ones you don't already have or at very least send a list. If I can find the time....
ReplyDeleteThose State Farm labels are real beauts!
ReplyDeleteI have the 1949 "Seasons Greetings From Capitol" 78 where Bugs Bunny roams around the Capitol offices going around the various departments to wish Christmas greetings for the Record dealers; The Starlighters returned to represent the Pop department. With the exception of the Classical department, all of the other genres set their greetings to the tune of "Jingle Bells."
ReplyDeleteLovely scans! And I'm always crazy about corporate promos on vinyl, especially during the Holidays.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ernie!