The All Time Best “Double Sided 45 rpm Single Hit” Records

A “double sided 45 rpm hit single” probably means nothing to anyone who has grown up in the digital era of music. If this statement speaks to you, think of 45 rpm records as the first personalized “playlist”. Just like you do today, we purchased or shared music that we liked to listen to. Everyone I knew had a stack of them, typically in their bedroom with a small portable record player allowing you to play your music privately. But regardless of your age, music history can be very interesting.

The roughly 40 year history of the 7” 45 revolutions per minute (RPM) vinyl record began in 1949 and is attributed to RCA Victor. The records were 2 sided and designed to play roughly 2–3 minutes of song content per side. By the mid-60’s the song length was extended to over 7 minutes. Record labels assigned the most chart worthy song to the A Side and the second song was on the B Side. Duh!

Fun fact: when they were first introduced each genre of music had its own color. Popular releases were on standard black vinyl. Country releases were on green vinyl, Children’s records were on yellow vinyl, Classical releases were on red vinyl, “Race” (or R&B and Gospel) records were on orange vinyl, Blue vinyl/blue label was used for semi-classical instrumental music and blue vinyl/black label for international recordings. Here’s an example.