You Spin Me Round...

Well hey there children...remember these things?

(image courtesy of yesteryearremembered.com, "45 Records")

Those of you over the age of 35 at the very least should know what that is.  If not, you must live under a rock or have never experienced the joy of touching a jet black disc of vinyl on it's crisp edge and dropping a needle onto it's lined grooves...

That yellow relic is called a " 45 rpm record adapter" (aka, 'the spider') and you place it in the middle the record so that it will play on a turntable. RPM refers to "revolutions per minute". The smaller records or singles are '45's while the larger ones are 331/3 rpm (the LP, or longplay record).

Here's one from my small collection, Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" (1985):

Back in the 80's, I had a larger 45 rpm adapter that fit over the whole spindle so I could play a stack of 45s instead of having to load them one by one. It was a short black cylinder. I bet it's still at my mom's house somehwere.

Local music enthusiast and fashion blogger Cy of the blog any2ndnow posted on how she made DIY 45 adapter earrings which I thought was cool. I was actually looking for the yellow adapters on amazon.com since I didn't have any on hand. I wanted a pair for myself as well.  Then I saw this necklace, the "45 adapter alloy pendant with 24" alloy ballchain" by mEssentials for $12 ($2 s/h).

When I wore this to work last week, several of my colleagues commented on it.

"Hey, I remember those!", "Ooh, those are those 45 things!" Points to them for recognizing what it was!

I like the look of this silver alloy pendant. I wish they had smaller ones so I could make them into earrings (but I wouldn't wear all three together!).

Outfit deets: black puff sleeve shirt from Banana Republic (6 years old), my 2nd favorite belt, the pewter grommeted men's belt from JUNC (bought last year), and my reddish orange jeans from Ann Taylor Loft (bought on clearance for $9 last summer; I normally don't buy jeans from this place because they fit wierd on me, but these "modern skinnies" were all right). Bracelet on right hand, the liquid silver from Patina in Berkeley.


Here are some 45's I dug up from my record cabinet (yes, I have one!):

LPs underneath: The Rutles soundtrack to the hilarious 1978 mockumentary film, "All You Need is Cash" (a Beatles parody featuring songs written by Neil Innes, the "seventh member" of Monty Python", the soundtrack to "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", Duran Duran's "Rio" (my favorite DD album), and The Scorpions' "Blackout" featuring a screaming straitjacketed man with forks in his eyes. The "Blackout" album cover was recently shown fleetingly in an episode from the Cartoon Network animated series, "The Regular Show".

45's on top: Wham - "Careless Whisper", Bob & Doug Mackenzie with Gedde Lee of Rush - "Take Off" (from the comedy album, "The Great White North"; Canadian humor, eh!), Dead or Alive - "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)", the poster which came with the 45 for Corey Hart's "Never Surrender", A Taste of Honey - "Sukiyaki", the booklet and record for "A Charlie Brown Christmas", The Time - "Ice Cream Castle", Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers -"Change of Heart", Vandenberg - "Friday Night", Weird Al Yankovic - "Fat" and Faster Pussycat - "Bathroom Wall" (I that for a DIME at the now defunct Salvation Army thrift store in National City).

As you can see, I listened to a variety of genres (80's pop, SoCal Rock, new wave, ballads, comedy, rock, and hard rock/metal. There were also no "spiders" were in the 45's. I'll need to get a few so I can play these...