SINGLE MEMORIES AT 45 RPM...

I think I've got a pretty good memory for events from my childhood, but I'm continually amazed at how the mind can play tricks with the facts.  For example, back in the '60s, in our house there used to reside a collection of 45 rpm singles.  (I was never quite sure whose they were, my brother's, my dad's, or a weird mish-mash of both.)  One single I recall was DON'T LET THE RAIN COME DOWN by well-known crooner of the day, RONNIE HILTON.  On the B side of the record was A WINDMILL IN OLD AMSTERDAM (which I defy you to listen to and not hum for the rest of the week).

Apparently, Embassy records were only available in Woolworth's 

At least, that's how I remember it, but the reality is different - as I found out recently when I started to re-acquire some of those self-same singles from yesteryear.  (Actually, I have many of the tunes on CD, but I wanted to own again the actual singles from the period.)  The above pair of ditties, which I thought were both sides of the same record, are actually two separate discs.  The same thing happened with BOBBY'S GIRL by SUSAN MAUGHAN.  We used to have the single, which had (JAMES) HOLD THE LADDER STEADY as the B side.  Well, as I discovered, no we didn't.  That particular disc was by KAY BARRY, who did her own versions of those two songs associated with Susan.

Another peculiarity is how a song can summon up memories of a particular time and place - and in fact, even stray beyond its own precise perimeters.  One single which I know was my brother's is TAP TURNS ON THE WATER by CCS, with rather naughty lyrics.  Recalling it today, I find that I tend to associate it with the entire period of nearly 7 years that we resided in that particular house.  However, history records that it wasn't released until 1971, and as we moved from the house halfway through 1972, it represents only about a year of our time there, not the complete span.  In fact, when I think back, it seems that we owned every single at the same time and for the same duration, whereas they'd actually have been acquired at intervals over a period of years.

Of course, I'm aware that, near the end of our tenancy there, we actually did have all those singles at the same time, but looking back, it seems that it was always so - for the complete duration, not just towards the close of our stay.  Funny how the mind sometimes compresses separate moments into almost one big single seamless memory, don't you think?