Reprint of an older article of mine that I wanted to save on Substack, was very popular with my older friends….:
National Eight Track Tape Day on April 11th recognizes an era that was here and gone in a short few years. It is a day to remember listening to the great music of the sixties and seventies on eight-track tapes.
My wife and I had two 8-Track Players, one in the car and the Home deck pictured below. The sound of the player changing tracks was very distinctive...and loud…and often in the middle of a song. The car players ate tapes which were promptly thrown out the window. Friend Rob reminded me that these were continuous loop players - could play forever without flipping over anything!
Radio, records, reel to reel, 8-Track, Cassettes, iPods, CD's, Streaming....getting too old.…
I need to cruise again with Iron Butterfly playing In a gadda da Vida (1968) on full volume.....
Trivia follows:
In 1956 Chrysler offered an optional automobile record player (Highway HiFi - it played unique records about the size of a 45 rpm but played at 16 2/3 RPM - the unique format, poor reliability, and limited music doomed it. RCA then came out with the AP-1, which could play 14-45 RPM records - played them upside down, as did many jukeboxes. Sears also sold these (Allstate brand).
Remembering 8-Tracks...and car record players
... and before the 8-track therewas the 4-track ...
An audio miracle back in the day. Continuous loop. Ain’t nobody got time to flip over an LP!