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| 8th Jan 2013, 10:27 PM | #1 REPORT | |
 | biffbampow Member since Jan 2013 65 Points | I was probably the first person in my school to get a CD player back in 1986 so was very tech savvy and aware! I witnessed how CD's took up small displays in record stores at the back with maybe around 20 CD's then gradually became ever more dominant eventually taking over from vinyl. The late 80's and early 90's were not a fun time to be a vinyl man. I found that most vinyl I bought - 7 or 12 inch - was pressed on cheap stock - I'd play it for the first time and already there'd be crackles and surface noise. It's long been mused this was a deliberate ploy by the record companies to force you over to CD if you wanted better quality. CD singles in 1987 were a real mess... not many of them I recall and worse, mostly in the ill fated 3 inch format necessitating the use of those adaptors. The CD single as we became to know it became more prominent during 1989. I remember EMI regularly released new ones by new artistes for 99 pence. For somebody on low pocket money, this was a boon enabling me to try out some new names. I never liked 12 inch singles, didn't like cassette singles either so as vinyl singles became ever shoddier in quality and lesser in supply, I did buy quite a few CD singles between then and the late 90's though the diabolical state music got into (in my view) between 1991 and 1994 made sure I didn't get many then. Another attraction of the CD single was bonus tracks. They regularly came with 4 tracks until Music Week or the BPI made some ruling that relegated 4 track singles in favour of three trackers. I was a Tori Amos fan and remembered "Cornflake Girl" coming out as 2 different CD singles... the digipak one was the "limited edition" and that became a prized possession since it sold out quickly and became much sought after thanks to it being the only place you could get her extraordinary cover of Jimi Hendrix's "If 6 Was 9"! Some odd thoughts and memories there. How about some of yours? Memories and thoughts on the format as a whole? Edited by biffbampow on 8th Jan 2013, 10:29 PM |
| 8th Jan 2013, 10:50 PM | #2 REPORT | |
 | Carouselambra SUBS Classic Hard Rock Collector Member since Sep 2012 608 Points | I actually went out and bought a CD player back in 1988 because I was browsing at a local record store that managed to have imports and they had some of the Queen 3" CD singles. Having acquired all the Queen albums a year earlier via used record stores, I noticed some songs (B-Sides) that I had never heard. Well, now I just had to go and get me a CD player to buy these things so I could hear these Queen songs, but I couldn't let my first CD purchase be Queen could I? No, I had to go find a copy of Physical Graffiti to be my first CD purchase. After spending $120 on a CD player I headed straight to the local music store to find the greatest album ever on CD. $29.99 was a fair price to hear it without pops and crackles, but the guy at the counter tried to sell me a used copy for much less. No way! I wanted a pristine copy of PG that was still unknown to any CD player. After jamming all night with the headphones to PG, I returned south the next day to go purchase as many of the Queen 3" singles I could at $9.99 each. Within a few weeks I had all 12. Good thing I was an 18 year old with a job at that time as this was at least a couple of weeks pay just to buy the player and discs! |
| 8th Jan 2013, 11:01 PM | #3 REPORT | |
| biffbampow Member since Jan 2013 65 Points | I remember those Queen 3 inchers got a real rough ride over here when Record Collector reviewed each one of them pointing out they'd used wrong mixes and worse were taken from the albums so they'd have bits of the crossfades over the intros or outros. |
| 9th Jan 2013, 10:30 AM | #4 REPORT | |
 | Juke Jules SUBS Tell me he's lazy, tell me he's slow Member since Jan 2011 4138 Points Moderator |
Quote:
and worse, mostly in the ill fated 3 inch format necessitating the use of those adaptors
|
| 9th Jan 2013, 11:47 AM | #5 REPORT | |
 | nboldock Lend me ten pounds and I'll buy you a drink. Member since Feb 2012 7169 Points Moderator | There sure are... [image]1869[/image] |
| 9th Jan 2013, 1:17 PM | #6 REPORT | |
| My Friend Jack SUBS Member since Feb 2009 753 Points Moderator | Ah, yes, the 3" CD single. I have a few - some came in 3" sleeves (I have the Beatles' Can't Buy Me Love, Linda Ronstadt & Aaron Neville's Don't Know Much, the Kinks' Come Dancing), others came in 5" sleeves (Slade's Let's Dance springs to mind). Further to biffbampow's point about bonus tracks, my then-10-year-old daughter's first CD single was Whigfield's Saturday Night which, IIRC, featured seven different versions of the same song! |
| 9th Jan 2013, 2:19 PM | #7 REPORT | |
 | zabadak Caddacack oh da ca-caddacack, shy shy skagellack Member since Jun 2010 4148 Points | Yes, I indulged heavily in CD singles and now have boxes of tracks I have never heard!  |
| 10th Jan 2013, 5:30 PM | #8 REPORT | |
| Juke Jules SUBS Tell me he's lazy, tell me he's slow Member since Jan 2011 4138 Points Moderator | Just the same as 45s, eh Zab  |
| 10th Jan 2013, 6:46 PM | #9 REPORT | |
| zabadak Caddacack oh da ca-caddacack, shy shy skagellack Member since Jun 2010 4148 Points | Yes indeed! I'm gonna need a bigger house!  |
| 18th Jan 2013, 12:26 PM | #10 REPORT | |
 | Jonny Mod Retro Revival | Keeping The Faith! Member since Sep 2012 388 Points | Great thread, nothing like a bit of nostalgia!  I too got my first CD player back in 1988 - for Christmas in fact - together with a copy of Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation album (which I still have) I was soon buying CDs and at that point a weird mix of back catalogue and new material was starting to trickle out. I've always had a thing for CD singles (still have, to be honest, but they're getting virtually impossible to find) Haven't got any of those Queen 3"s, but have others from that period, such as Iggy Pop and Lenny Kravitz, which, like the Queen releases, came in a clear blister pack. I discarded all but one of those - will post a scan. Also have one of the those 3">5" adapters - if I remember rightly shops gave them away free with purchases? Think mine came with Spacemen 3 - Revolution, which is a 3" CD in a 5" slimline case. They soon became fairly obsolete, of course, with most CD players soon coming with a 3" tray embedded. |
| 18th Jan 2013, 2:10 PM | #11 REPORT | |
| nboldock Lend me ten pounds and I'll buy you a drink. Member since Feb 2012 7169 Points Moderator | Funnily enough I was talking about my first CD player just recently. I bought mine from an auction which, weirdly, was held in an erstwhile nightclub. I only had a certain amount I could spend, and it was money I had saved for driving lessons, then opted to splurge on a new stereo instead (I stand by my decision). This would have been around 1992ish, give or take. I was there for hours, various CD player systems kept coming up and I kept getting outbid and then finally, sometime in the afternoon, I got one (a Hitachi job with a turntable on the top), at which the auctioneer announced, "I'm glad he's got one, he's been here all day!" I hadn't given a thought as to how the hell I was going to get it home and ended up struggling on the bus with the thing in a huge box (speakers were a lot bigger in them days an' all!). First CD I bought was Nick Cave's "Straight To You" single which I got at a record fair. Don't know where it went but I no longer have it, which is a shame. Nobody's added it on here yet either, but give it time...! Edited by nboldock on 19th Jan 2013, 3:10 PM |
| 19th Jan 2013, 12:11 PM | #12 REPORT | |
| Jonny Mod Retro Revival | Keeping The Faith! Member since Sep 2012 388 Points |
Paul Vinyl wrote:
I was at work, and we had a Philips Staff shop, my mate bought the first CD Player they had in stock in 1987.
I remember saying it will never catch on and take over vinyl  I had bought quite a few CDs before I had a player but gave in and bought one in 1988. Mine was a Phillips - one of these: Philips CD104 /05 |
| 20th Jan 2013, 4:50 AM | #13 REPORT | |
 | harley Member since Dec 2010 1065 Points | I thought same nothing could ever replace vinyl but CD's did for a while vinyl is still going and CD's are being replaced by the horrible MP3 downloads. |
| 21st Jan 2013, 9:04 AM | #14 REPORT | |
| henry29 Member since Jan 2013 1523 Points | My mate worked for the Local Council. Repairing the Video machines and TV's of day. And In 1981 He had to go the the Olympia In London to try all the new Gadgets for the Schools. Sort of a Schools Gadget Show. He dragged me along with him. It was a great show, It had all the bits and Pieces you would expect. All the Latest Education toys and Gadgets for the coming Year.I noticed a funny looking Machine on a stall. Asking what It was He said It Is a CD Player. It was a Philips CDP-101 This was 1981. so I said to my mate I'll have one of those so we got one. When I got back I went In Search of disc's to Play In It as He would not give me the Demo one he had at the show. It was 8 Months before I got a disc to Play In It. Woolworths Greensleeves Label Reggae Various artists Cd. You could hear the Crackles off the records they had been taken from. I Still have that Disc. Ho how we have come a long way since then. |
| 21st Jan 2013, 9:22 AM | #15 REPORT | |
| Jonny Mod Retro Revival | Keeping The Faith! Member since Sep 2012 388 Points |
henry29 wrote:
My mate worked for the Local Council. Repairing the Video machines and TV's of day. And In 1981 He had to go the the Olympia In London to try all the new Gadgets for the Schools. Sort of a Schools Gadget Show. He dragged me along with him. It was a great show, It had all the bits and Pieces you would expect. All the Latest Education toys and Gadgets for the coming Year.I noticed a funny looking Machine on a stall. Asking what It was He said It Is a CD Player. It was a Philips CDP-101 This was 1981. so I said to my mate I'll have one of those so we got one. When I got back I went In Search of disc's to Play In It as He would not give me the Demo one he had at the show. It was 8 Months before I got a disc to Play In It. Woolworths Greensleeves Label Reggae Various artists Cd. You could hear the Crackles off the records they had been taken from. I Still have that Disc. Ho how we have come a long way since then.
Wow, you really were an early adopter! Great story  |
| 28th Jan 2013, 7:55 PM | #16 REPORT | |
 | LouisSidney Member since May 2012 10620 Points | In France, CD arrived in March 83 (a year after Japan). I got my CD-player in April 83, a very expensive Marantz CD-73. It's still there working erratically but working. My first CD was classical: Previn on Phillips 400090-2. The pop catalog was very poor, dominated by Barclay James Harvest. In June '83, I found my first non-classical CD: Wes Montgomery 810045-2. I forgot to tell you, all the available CDs were Made in Germany. I can't remember a thing about the first CD singles I ever saw. I wasn't interested at that time. Tonight's news on French radio: the CD single is officially dead, replaced by MP3. |
| 8th Mar 2013, 11:32 PM | #17 REPORT | |
| GEMSMFAN Member since Jan 2013 3324 Points | I bought a CD player, after a friend of mine handed me an import CD on Polydor, of ABBA's "Arrival" album. I had taken him to "The City", New York and shown him Tower Records, in Greenwich Village, where he literally went crazy and bought around 20 CD's in one shot! This was about 1986. Record companies in the U.S., didn't really embrace the CD single. Very few current artists ones were released commercially. Rhino and other labels released 3" discs with oldies classics (usually with 3 or 4 tracks each). The 5" disc was mainly used to produce smaller numbers of singles as only promos. Labels sometimes got fancy, creating elaborate packaging for radio stations or for record store playing. These discs would eventually turn up at record/CD shows and be snatched up by collectors, sometimes at hefty prices. Tower Records, Virgin Megastore and HMV, as well as smaller private shops mainly stocked imports here, to fill the void. Edited by GEMSMFAN on 8th Mar 2013, 11:34 PM |
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