Sunday History Photo / Au-USA

Who remembers the old 45rpm records, I had quite a few in the 50’s and 60’s, Of course the 45 began in USA and Australia got them later on in the early 50’s. I find it quite fascinating how the 45 got it’s name and speed.
In October 1953 ARC became a publicly-listed company on the Australian Stock Exchange, under its new name The Australian Record Company Limited, and at this time they also produced their first LP and 45 rpm 7" discs for the local market. Although now virtually forgotten, the Australian Record Company (ARC) was, alongside Festival Records, Astor and EMI, one of the leading recording and distribution companies in the Australian music industry from the 1950s to the 1970s. The company's long history began in the golden era of radio and from its inception in the late 1930s to the present day it played a significant role in many aspects of the local industry, as a recorder of local artists and a major distributor of local and international recordings, as well as being a major producer of radio content from the Forties to the Sixties. In 1960, ARC was taken over by the recording division of the giant US media conglomerate CBS, and in the late 1970s the company was renamed CBS Australia, which itself was taken over by the Japanese media-electronics conglomerate Sony in 1988.
The 45 rpm record officially turned 60 years old this year back on March 31, 2009

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On March 31, 1949, RCA Victor released "Texarkana Baby" with the flip side "Bouquet of Roses" by Eddy Arnold. The first 45 to hit the Billboard charts was "A -- You're Adorable" by Perry Como, listed on the charts on May 7, 1949. The next week, the year's biggest hit appeared on the Billboard charts -- "Riders In The Sky (A Cowboy Legend)” by Vaughn Monroe.
The 45rpm record was initially introduced in 1949 by RCA Records as a smaller, more durable replacement for the heavy 78rpm records of the time. The 45 was created by RCA as a competitive move against one their rival record companies, Columbia, which had just introduced the new microgroove 33 1/3 rpm LP. The number 45 came from taking 78 and subtracting Columbia's new 33 to equal the 45. Record companies and consumers alike faced an uncertain future as to which format would survive the 78rpm or the 45rpm; in what was known as the “War of the Speeds.In 1949 Capitol and Decca started issuing the new LP format and RCA relented and issued its first LP in January 1950. But the 45 rpm was gaining in popularity and Columbia issued its first 45s in February 1951. Soon other record companies saw the mass consumer appeal the new format allowed and by 1954 more than 200 million 45s had been sold.
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