For some unknown reason, I was remembering the excitement I felt of bring home a new record. Remember records? I go back to the days of 78's and can still feel them in my hands with the thin brown paper sleeve with the advertising on it. Once in awhile, I'd buy one that was a picture record imbedded in the clear plastic. That was the definition of "neat." 45 rpms were equally exciting to bring home and put on the turntable, although the excitment was tempered a little if I had listened to the record in the listening booths at the music store. Remember listening booths? The excitment started fading when I "graduated" (not by choice) to cassette singles. For some reason they didn't feel quite the same. Now, downloading a single to an ipod has lost all measure of excitement for me. You can't even hold the darned thing in your hand or read the label.

One of the unexpected pleasures of a single was to listen to the flip side. I always hoped that it would be good, but was more often than not disappointed. There are classic examples of the "flip side" becoming the hit. The most famous was Earth Angel by the Penguins being the flip side of Hey, Senorita. Another of my favorite memorable flip sides is the flip side of Mule Skinner Blues by the Fendermen. It's an instrumental titled Torture. It's something that the Ventures would have been proud of.

Most of the music I grew up with was on singles. Many well known groups and individual singers never recorded an album. The Oldies revival led to the release of Greates Hits albums, but they were a hodge podge of everything the group recorded, including records that probably didn't sell a hundred copies as well as alternate takes.

I realize that this is a purified folk music site where pop musci and rock and roll are looked upon with crinkled noses, but I'm sure there are some other Catters who just loved music, and learned to label it much later in life.

Jerry