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1949 Part One – The 7″ Mix

2024 has been the year of my 45th birthday (yes, still so young, I know) and the number has set me thinking about the importance of the 45RPM 7” single in my life. I’ve been playing them as long as I can remember, receiving packages of remaindered singles in the 1980s, buying a few every week at Magpie Records in Worcester in the mid-90, traveling with me in a big stripy box as I moved around, and now there they sit on my shelves still, though I don’t have a functioning stereo system now. My LPs, undoubtedly worth more, were left in the locked room of a friend in Southampton nearly 20 years ago and never recovered, it’s annoying, but not something I lose sleep about, the singles are much more important. Beside all the memories, there’s something about the format that seems kind of perfect. Small enough to comfortably carry around, each side just containing a few minutes of music, there’s something at once unfussy and potentially extravagant about both form and content. Singles like the one you see in the picture here often have larger holes, indicating their use in a jukebox, this little disc adaptable enough to be used as a replicable part in any number of mass produced machines. And that of course means b-sides, a chance for the act to try out something new without the risk of a negative reaction, and in many cases the disc would be flipped by a dj, and the b-side could be the hit that changed everything.

In short, the 7” vinyl single is one of the most important inventions of the 21st century, and it all started in 1949, when RCA released their new format, replacing the larger, more brittle shellac discs with a new compound – polyvinyl chloride. As when most new formats are introduced, RCA were engaged in a war with a competitor, Columbia’s 12” vinyl LP – only in this case the two formats had very different niches, and could (after a couple of years) be played by the same equipment, so both survived.

The original 7” single wasn’t in exactly the standard form we know today. The larger, jukebox-sized hole in the centre came as standard, as did coloured vinyl. The idea was that each genre would have its own colour, with red for pop music, green for country, yellow for children’s records, and a confusion of other shades for jazz, R&B, classical and so on. As should be clear to anyone listening to this mix, the differences between these genres were particularly muddy in 1949, and the idea was soon dropped.

The change was not, of course, immediate. Most of the music in this mix was still issued on 78RPM shellac discs, and they would continue to be manufactured all the way through the 50s, and in some countries even into the 70s. But the time was certainly ripe for a cheap, portable, harder to shatter format, and even if rock and roll had not already begun in all but name, early 1950s pop music would also suit it well. We are three years away from the introduction of the UK singles chart, and the 7” record’s abilities and limitations would do a great deal to set the parameters of popular music as we know it.

Track list

Intro

(Clip from interview with Johnny St. Cyr)
0:00:03 RCA Victor Orchestra – South Pacific Overture
(Clip from NBC News)
0:00:33 Jnan Prakash Ghose – Tabla Instrumental

January

(Clip from 1949 Year In Review)
(Background from Pierre Schaeffer – Vagotte)
(Clip from Dragnet)
(Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949)
(Clip from You Bet Your Life)
0:04:00 Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five – Saturday Night Fish Fry
0:06:58 Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs – Foggy Mountain Breakdown
(Clip from 1949 The Year in Review Headlines)
0:09:58 Tennessee Ernie Ford – Cry Of The Wild Goose
(Clip from Harry S Truman Inauguration)
0:13:50 Doris Day – Again
(Clips from Harry S Truman Inauguration)
0:16:55 Machito and His Afro-Cuban Salseros – Babarabatiri
(Clip from Harry S Truman Inauguration)
0:20:31 Babs Gonzales – Prelude to a Nightmare
(Clip from interview with Albert Glenny)
0:22:56 Dizzy Gillespie – Jump-Did-Le-Ba
(Clip from You Bet Your Life)
0:25:26 Frank Sinatra & Gene Kelly – New York, New York
(Clip from Frank Sinatra interview)
0:28:39 Charlie Ventura – East Of The Sun
(Clip from So Much For So Little)
0:31:50 Evelyn Knight And The Stardusters – A Little Bird Told Me

February

(Clip from 1949 The Year in Review Headlines)
0:34:36 The Angelic Gospel Singers – Touch Me, Lord Jesus
(Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949)
0:36:39 Ruth Brown – I’ll Get Along Somehow
(Clip from You Bet Your Life)
0:40:11 Fats Domino – The Fat Man
(Clip from Dragnet)
(Clip from So Much For So Little)
0:42:49 Roy Brown – Butcher Pete, Pt. 1
(Clip from The Heiress)
0:44:41 Roy Brown – Butcher Pete, Pt. 2
(Clip from Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts)
0:46:00 Jerry Byrd – Steel Guitar Rag
(Clip from interview with Johnny St. Cyr)
0:48:56 George Lewis & His New Orleans Music – Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula
(Clip from interview with Alphonse Picou and Paul Dominguez, Jr.)
0:51:51 Brew Moore – Gold Rush
0:54:55 Lead Belly – Sugared The Beer
0:55:46 Lead Belly – Salty Dog
(Clip from interview with Johnny St. Cyr)

March

(Clip from NBC TV News)
0:59:11 Hank Williams – I Just Don’t Like This Kind Of Living
(Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949)
1:02:07 Goree Carter – Back Home Blues
(Clip from Jack Benny Show)
(Clip from Fred Allen Show)
1:04:10 Myrta Silva & Sonora Matancera – La Tremenduca
(Clip from Suspense)
(Clip from NBC TV News)
1:07:30 Takamine Hideko – Ginza Kankan Musume
(Clip from You Bet Your Life)
(Clip from Inner Sanctum)
1:09:06 Bill Monroe and The Bluegrass Boys – I’m Going Back to Old Kentucky
1:09:22 Bill Monroe and The Bluegrass Boys – Blue Grass Stomp
(Clip from White Heat)
(Clip from You Bet Your Life)
1:11:17 Professor Longhair – Mardi Gras In New Orleans
(Clip from You Bet Your Life)
1:14:27 Bull Moose Jackson – Why Don’t You Haul Off And Love Me
(Clip from Inner Sanctum)
(Clip from You Bet Your Life)
1:16:17 Betty Hutton – Hamlet
(Clip from Frank Sinatra interview)
(Clip from You Bet Your Life)
(Clip from interview with Johnny St. Cyr)
1:19:27 Noro Morales & His Orchestra – 110th Street And 5th Avenue
(Clip from Jack Benny Show)

April

(Clip from Review of News From The Year 1949)
(Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949)
1:22:36 Firehouse Five Plus Two – Everybody Loves My Baby
(Clip from Review of News From The Year 1949)
1:25:45 A. Rahman & Columbia Orchestra – Oh, Juita Ku
(Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949)
1:27:46 Elton Britt & The Skytoppers – Candy Kisses
(Clip from The Shadow)
1:29:55 Dinah Washington – Baby Get Lost
(Clip from The Jack Benny Show)
(Radio jingle for Lipton Tea)
1:32:54 South Pacific Original Broadway Cast – I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair
1:36:19 South Pacific Original Broadway Cast – Happy Talk
(Clip from Jim & Judy in Teleland)
1:39:49 Todd Duncan and Chorus – A Bird of Passage, Thousands of Miles (Reprise)
(Clip from Jour de feté)
1:41:41 Charles Trenet – Mes jeunes années
(Clip from Frank Sinatra interview)
(Clip from So Much For So Little)
1:43:51 Texas Slim – Devil’s Jump
(Clip from So Much For So Little)
(Clip from You Bet Your Life)
1:45:53 Doris Day – I Don’t Wanna Be Kissed By Anyone But You

May

(Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949)
1:49:02 Marlene Dietrich – Kisses Sweeter Than Wine
(Clips from 1949 The Year in Review Headlines / Reviewing The Year 1949)
1:53:01 Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield) – You’re Gonna Miss Me
(Clips from 1949 The Year in Review Headlines / Reviewing The Year 1949)
1:56:00 Roberto Firpo – Instrumental – De Mi Arrabal
(Clip from 1949 The Year in Review Headlines)
1:58:14 Billie Holiday & Her Orchestra – I Loves You Porgy
(Clip from Review of News for The Year 1949)
2:01:31 Arsenio Rodriguez Y Su Conjunto – Dundunbanza
(Clip from Late Spring)
2:03:19 Sanjou Machiko – Karisome no Koi
(Clips from Late Spring)
2:08:14 Ichi no Maru – Shamisen Boogie Woogie
(Clips from Late Spring)
2:10:25 Jerry Byrd – Steelin’ The Blues (voc. Rex Allen)
(Clip from Frank Sinatra interview)
2:13:26 The Five Scamps – Red Hot
(Clip from White Hot)
2:15:60 TJ Fowler – Tj Boogie
(Clip from interview with Johnny St. Cyr)

June

(Clip from 1949 The Year in Review Headlines)
2:18:29 Nathan Abshire – Pine Grove Blues
(Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949)
2:21:31 Jewel King – 3 x 7 = 21
(Clip from Reviewing The Year 1949)
2:23:33 Big Joe Turner – Jumpin’ at the Jubilee
(Clip from A Warning To Travelers)
2:25:13 Noro Morales – Serenata Ritmica
(Clip from A Warning To Travelers)
2:28:15 Sugar Chile Robinson – Numbers Boogie
(Clip from A Warning To Travelers)
2:30:57 Evelyn Knight – Powder Your Face With Sunshine
(Clip from Frank Sinatra interview)
(Clip from The Shadow)
2:33:25 Frank Floorshow Culley – Central Avenue Breakdown
2:34:37 Carl Stalling – Variations on Johann Strauss
(Clip from So Much For So Little)
2:34:45 Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys – Ida Red Likes the Boogie
(Clip from You Bet Your Life)
(Clip from Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts)
2:37:30 Hank Williams – I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry

Outro

(Clip from Suspense)
(Clip from White Heat)
(Clip from Frank Sinatra interview)
2:41:05 The Robins – If It’s