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45 RPM—the speed of rock ’n’ roll

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In the 1950s and ’60s, those shiny 45-rpm records with the big hole in the middle were the primary delivery system for popular American music, especially rock ’n’ roll. Cheap to manufacture and available to even fly-by-night record operations, the “donut disc” changed the way popular music was written, recorded, promoted and marketed, and it broke—at least for a time—the iron-fisted dominance of the major record corporations.

Employing over 80 illustrations—many in full color—Jim Dawson and Steve Propes trace the 7-inch single’s origins back to the very first record “plates” in the 1880s, and they explain the personality conflicts that led an eccentric, powerful genius to develop the 45 into one of postwar America’s most popular consumer products. They explore how the jukebox, the autonomous disc jockey, and “B-side economics” (often in the form of payola and artist rip-offs) kept the 45 at the forefront of rock ’n’ roll for 20 years, until new record systems, pop music’s growing “seriousness,” and the conglomeration of the recording and radio industries brought the freewheeling 45 era to a close. For collectors and trivia hounds, there are also chapters on the most valuable (and legendary) 45s of all time, as well as the oddities, oddballs, and freak hits that make listening to 45s so much fun. All in all, 45 RPM is a breezy and informative romp through a time when music rocked our world

Jim Dawson has written extensively about early rock ’n’ roll and rhythm & blues. Steve Propes, a record collector with an extensive library of vinyl, hosts a radio program where he plays nothing but 45s. Together they wrote What Was the First Rock ’n’ Roll Record?

[Backbeat Books logo, ISBN 0-87930-757-9, $19.95]