>>>I am happy to report that FINALLY somebody is
agreeing with me that you cannot fairly and accurately compare the chart
records today to those from back in the day when you had to physically LEAVE
your house, get into your car and DRIVE to a record store to make a purchase of
the music you wanted. - kk
Drive, Kent? Drive?!
Drive to a record store?!! I didn't even have a Driver's
License when I bought my first records!
On one of my
earliest occasions, I had heard this really unique song on the radio that
I immediately just had to have! I grabbed a dollar's worth of change
from my meager allowance stash and literally ran seven blocks to my
nearest record store, bought it, turned around and ran the seven blocks
back home and put that record right on my record player to listen to over and
over!
It was Harry Belefonte's
"Day-oh (The Banana Boat Song )!" (Yeah, I even later bought
Stan Freberg's parody of that song!)
And there were also my swift
responses to buying The Diamonds' "Little Darlin'," Guy Mitchell's
"Singing the Blues," and Sonny James' "Young Love" among
several others during that "back in the day" time! Admittedly,
a few years later when I did have my driver's license and
"access" to the family car, it was less exhausting to buy a
desired record.
But prior to that, drive to
a record store? I scoff at the thought.
CB (which stood for
"Carless Boy!")
Yeah, I overspoke …
I would spend MY allowance every weekend
when my brother and I would ride our bikes up to a section of town known as “eight
corners.” Each of us would have just enough cash to
buy two comic books, one 45 and a cherry coke before pedaling back home. And man, what a tough choice it was deciding which ONE 45 I was willing to part with my money over.
(I was very analytical even back then … for example, on one such "road trip" I really wanted the new Lesley
Gore record, “Sunshine, Lollipops And Rainbows” … it even came with a picture sleeve!
But when I saw that the song clocked in at under two minutes ... 1:37 in fact!!! ... I used my
hard-earned cash to buy something else instead, inadvertently creating the phrase
“more bang for your buck” in the process without even realizing it!!!)
I finally gave in on my third trip to the record store and
brought Lesley home with me (well, her 45 anyway) … and to this day, I’m SO
glad that I did … because on the other side of that “short” piece of wax I discovered
one of my very favorite, all-time favorite, favorite B-Sides of all-time (did I
drive that point home hard enough … oops, careful, I just used that word “drive”
again!)
It was called “You’ve Come Back” … and I’m happy to share it
with you all again here today!
Once I hit my high school years, I became a real fortunate
son (and yes, I bought THAT 45, too!) because right behind my high school,
separated only by a tall fence (that we all regularly climbed over to take
advantage of the short cut) was Cermak Plaza, which had its own record store (GC
Murphy’s) where I bought a ton of 45’s during the short time I was there. And, if you couldn’t find it at Murphy’s, all
you had to do was cut across the parking lot kitty-corner to Sears and explore
THEIR record department instead. (I normally
stopped at Sears every Friday anyway to pick up the brand new WLS Silver Dollar
Survey!) And as an additional, extra-special
bonus, you could walk one block up from Sears and find the Balkan Music store,
who specialized more in musical instruments (and music lessons) than they did
with records, but they, too, carried the Silver Dollar Survey … and would special-order
anything you wanted from it if they didn’t have it in stock in their rather
meager inventory.
These three places were part of my Friday afternoon ritual
EVERY week I went to high school there … and you’re right, I didn’t need a car
for any of them! A short while later, across the street from
Cermak Plaza they built an EJ Korvettes, who had one of the biggest record
departments I had ever seen. I mean,
they had EVERYTHING! I was blown away
the first time I set eyes on it. And,
they would run specials about once a month where you could get three of the latest
45’s for $5.00, WAY cheaper than the usual $1.98! To this day I can still remember some of the “three
packs” I chose during those trips ... they were that important to me.
Anyway, I guess my REAL point in all of this was that back
then you literally had to get up out of bed and leave your house and make your
way (by whatever means possible) to your favorite record store and then browse
thru the selection and pick out whatever you could afford to bring home. I’m guessing that for MOST of us at that time,
that probably meant 1-3 new 45’s … or maybe one album (back when you could buy a Mono LP
for $3.98!) if you really felt like splurging.
Today’s youth can just continue to lie in bed and from their
phones download as many tracks as they like (or can afford) and BOOM!
Instantly, Presto-Chango, that music will automatically show up on said phone
and you can listen to it immediately. It couldn’t be any easier.
But these kids miss out on the crap shoot as to what song they got
for “free” on the other side!!! Was it
an undiscovered gem … or was it just some filler crap the producer threw on
there to get the record out. You never
knew until you bought it … and THAT was half the fun of buying the record in
the first place.
Along the way, we ALL discovered some new “favorites” hidden
on the other side of the platter. (Today's generation will never know the joy of finding the perfect B-Side.)
We’re in the process of revamping our list of your FAVORITE,
FORGOTTEN B-SIDES … songs you discovered “on the flip side” that did NOT make the
music charts … but still loom large in our childhood memories. It’s true … some of my VERY favorites songs
were tunes I found on the flip side of a record … and soon we’ll explore
those discoveries again together in Forgotten Hits.
Got some favorites YOU want to share or tell us about?
Drop me an email with your choices and we’ll see if we can’t
garner some attention to these lost throw-aways that ALSO hold a key spot on
the personal soundtrack of our lives. (kk)
