For The RECORD - Are YOU A SINGLES Man?

Copyright relevant owner

I've spent a pleasant couple of days listening to some of my 45rpm single records collection, most of which are the originals I bought back in the '70s and '80s.  A couple or so are replacements because my brother, to whom I'd given them at some stage, never looked after them properly, resulting in me asking for them back a year or two later.  His ready response in the affirmative tends to suggest he wasn't really into them to begin with (being more of a Heavy Metal fan), and I suspect he gave some to his pals as they mostly weren't really his thing, but there's yet quite a stash of originals I'd purchased back in the day.

I bought them while living in my current home first time around (1972-'83) and it's good to hear them here again as my memories seem more vivid.  Over the years I've also bought replacements for singles my brother owned in our previous house (1965-'72) and they likewise bring memories rushing back.  But let's stick with the music I acquired as a teenager and young adult.  I recall leaving my pal Alan's flat for the final time as we made our way to the YMCA (no, never bought that record) in the Old Village quarter, where he was going to stay for a while before moving to Cornwall to start his training in the Royal Navy.

Another friend was with us (Joe? Stu?) and one had a radio, from which Marvin Hamlisch's Bond '77 was playing, as The Spy Who Loved Me hadn't long been released.  It was a lovely sunny day and I ordered or bought the single from my local Boots The Chemist's record department, either that very day or not long after.  As I listened to the tune again earlier this evening, it brought it all back to me.  If Joe was the other pal on the day, then both of them are now dead, so it's a gateway to an earlier time when I had more friends than I do now.  The fact it's the original single I had then adds to its poignancy.

So what else?  Live And Let Die (Paul McCartney), Mull Of Kintyre (Mr. McCartney again), The Old Rugged Cross (Lena Martell), A Windmill In Old Amsterdam (Ronnie Hilton), Don't Let The Rain Come Down (Ronnie again), Edelweiss (Vince Hill), and various others from the '60s, '70s, and '80s.  I have several cases of singles and I just played them as they came out of the case, regardless of sequence and year of release.  Some of my own original singles I haven't listened to in at least 30 years, so my plan is to go through all my cases until I've heard them all again.  (I don't like ignoring them.)

So, Crivvies, do any of you, in a melancholic moment ever dig out your old singles (if you still have them) and have a 'play-fest', remembering people, places, and times from your youth, amazed at how close they still seem to you (even though they may be long-gone), but never more so than when you're actually listening to them?  Tell all.

******

Honesty compels me to admit the cover at the top of this post isn't mine, as my record came in just a standard white sleeve.  I nicked the above image from the Internet.