Buying records of lost hits

[bandit957]

Did anyone else do this?

Growing up in the '80s, I noticed there were a lot of songs that got a few plays on radio or MTV but were never heard again. There were some of them that I only heard when they inched onto 'American Top 40' for a couple weeks. In the mid-'80s, WCLU played almost every record that made the top 40 a little bit, but even WCLU would stop playing a minor hit pretty quickly.

So later, around the end of the '80s, I started buying 45 RPM singles of a lot of these lost hits. There was a record shop in my area that actually sold these records. Remember, CD's weren't big yet. I think I buyed a couple of Simply Reds or maybe a Peter Wolf or two. Maybe even an Elvis Costello or Starpoint or Eddy Grant (who wasn't just a one-hit wonder). Another record shop opened that carried used records, and I got stacks of 45's there. Once in a great while, I was so determined to find a particular lost hit that I buyed the album when I couldn't find the single. Lost hits continued to pile up in the '90s, and sometimes I got the cassette single if I couldn't get the 45.

I still have these records and cassettes, except for a few that I left with a family member with the intent on picking up later. I just hope that the remaining records haven't been tossed in the recycle bin by now.

These days, there's no such thing as a lost hit, because radio just doesn't have any influence to decide which songs to keep playing. Performers' official YouTube channels are full of songs that may have become lost hits otherwise.

[1995hoo]

Only a few that I can think of; the 45 that most readily comes to mind is Cutting Crew's "One for the Mockingbird," the follow-up to their far better-known hit "(I Just) Died in Your Arms," which was the MTV Hip Clip of the Week prior to becoming a hit. I always rather liked "One for the Mockingbird," perhaps because it's less-frequently played.

Playing a 45 is a mild nuisance these days because playing one on my Rega Planar 3 requires removing the platter and adjusting the belt drive; it also doesn't have a spindle adapter. So if I want to play a 45, I'll pull out my other turntable (an older Yamaha direct-drive unit my father gave me when he got his Rega) and connect that. I don't do that very often.

[bandit957]

I also remember a couple times in the early '90s when I went to record conventions. These took place in the convention rooms at some local motels.

One of my big memories of one of these conventions was some guy carrying around a portable record player and testing out each record to see if he wanted to buy it. He bragged that he only cared about collecting records so he could resell them. He said the only thing he collected that he actually liked was comic books.

[bandit957]

Only a few that I can think of; the 45 that most readily comes to mind is Cutting Crew's "One for the Mockingbird,"

I may have actually had this! I don't know what I ever did with it, because I know I don't have it here.

[1995hoo]

Only a few that I can think of; the 45 that most readily comes to mind is Cutting Crew's "One for the Mockingbird,"

I may have actually had this! I don't know what I ever did with it, because I know I don't have it here.

My copy is downstairs; I have some 45s in a rack on top of the phono preamp.

The most recent 45 I bought was sometime within the past 15 years or so–Springsteen's "Hungry Heart," which I found on eBay. I wanted a copy of the B-side, the studio version of the obscure song "Held Up Without a Gun," which at the time had not been released on any of his albums (although the live version from the legendary New Year's Eve 1980 show at the Nassau Coliseum appears on The Essential Bruce Springsteen compilation). The studio version has since made an appearance on the 30th anniversary boxed set of The River.

The most unique 45 I have is probably the Grateful Dead's "Touch of Grey," which (in a nice touch) was pressed on grey vinyl. The B-side of that, "My Brother Esau," is another oddity in that it was a bonus track for the In the Dark album, but the bonus track appeared only on the cassette version, not the CD version as was common in that era (late 1980s). I seldom bought pre-recorded cassettes because they often sounded like crap.

[hbelkins]

I bought a few 45s, like Michael Jackson's "Beat It" (for the EVH guitar solo), the Jackson-Jagger duet, and the two Phils (Bailey and Collins) "Easy Lover." I also bought a Genesis 45 because it had a live version of "Turn It On Again" on the other side, and i was hoping it had the cover medley they used to play at the end of the song in concert (alas, it didn't).

I didn't like buying albums or CDs just for one song, but I know I did on more than one occasion.