45 RPM: The History, Heroes, and Villains of a Pop Music Revolution

Rating:
Summary: Almost Too Much Information, But Very Compelling!
Review: I never thought that anyone could write an entire book about the 45 record, but these guys have pulled it off. Some of the detail about how RCA got this record format off the ground is almost exhaustive to the point of overkill, and yet there's a narrative drive to it that kept me going. The rock 'n' roll chapters, especially about independent record companies and the economics of B-sides, shed new light on rock history for me, and the chapters about the most valuable 45s of all time and the oddest 45s ever made were great fun to read. These guys seem to know what they're talking about and how to make it interesting. Rock 'n' roll books generally suck, but I'd definitely recommend this one.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as it might have been
Review: Perhaps I was expecting too much here, but as someone who has been collecting 45's for nearly 40 years I found this book to be a bit disappointing. The first half of the book, covering the early history of this format, was somewhat long winded and poorly written. Many of the sentences seemed to just ramble on and on. Things seemed to pick up a bit in the second half of the book, however, and I was able to glean a lot more information from the latter chapters. The book is liberally sprinkled with photos of rare and interesting 45 rpm labels and picture sleeves. As a collector, I saw many items I had never come across before. The authors also provide us with any number of fascinating stories about individual releases and the unscrupulous practices of some of the record companies. For the reader who is too young to remember what all the fuss was about during the heyday of the 45, this book would certainly be a good place to start. For the serious collector, this is not a bad book to add to your library but I would not consider it essential. I did not learn as much from it as I had hoped. At the halfway point in the book, I was prepared to rate the book just 2 stars. But as I stated earlier, the authors seemed to hit their stride later on and thus the three star rating.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as it might have been
Review: Perhaps I was expecting too much here, but as someone who has been collecting 45's for nearly 40 years I found this book to be a bit disappointing. The first half of the book, covering the early history of this format, was somewhat long winded and poorly written. Many of the sentences seemed to just ramble on and on. Things seemed to pick up a bit in the second half of the book, however, and I was able to glean a lot more information from the latter chapters. The book is liberally sprinkled with photos of rare and interesting 45 rpm labels and picture sleeves. As a collector, I saw many items I had never come across before. The authors also provide us with any number of fascinating stories about individual releases and the unscrupulous practices of some of the record companies. For the reader who is too young to remember what all the fuss was about during the heyday of the 45, this book would certainly be a good place to start. For the serious collector, this is not a bad book to add to your library but I would not consider it essential. I did not learn as much from it as I had hoped. At the halfway point in the book, I was prepared to rate the book just 2 stars. But as I stated earlier, the authors seemed to hit their stride later on and thus the three star rating.

Rating:
Summary: For a narrow audience
Review: This book is worth more like 4 stars for record collectors, and two stars for most everyone else.

The title promises something different than the book delivers. It was weak on the subject of the role of the 45 in pop culture or on the evolution of music. It didn't ignore the subject entirely, but the observations were commonplace and lacked in-depth analysis.

What the book does offer is pages and pages of trivia that has little to do with "heroes and villains." You will learn that such and such single was initially pressed with a bad stamper and the corrected version has bolder type on the label, or which hit songs were originally intended to be B-sides. This stuff was of minimal interest to me although I can see that it would be to certain types of collectors.

Another problem -- and this is unforgiveable -- is that information about the development of other media contains preposterous errors. To cite a few examples, the Edison cylinder was a "failed format" that "went extinct in the early 1900s" (it lasted until the Great Depression and the basic technology continued in use into the 40s for office dictation); 78 speed was a standard in 1901 (it was not standardized until decades later); and, the pre-recorded cassette came out in 1975 (came out in the 60s and was widely available, if not a big part of the market, prior to 75).

The book contains many interesting photos of labels and sleeves. There was some interesting information about how the recording industry operated and promoted records during the early days of rock & roll. Recommended for these aspects.

For those less interested in record collecting and more interested in the format itself and the record players, I highly recommend "The Fabulous Victrola 45" by Vourtsis, which is very well researched and has tons of photos of rare 45 players.