We’ve had vinyl, CD, and cassettes all making a “comeback.” So are 78s the next format we’ll all be hankering after. It feels unlikely simply on the grounds of breakability alone. But 78s refuse to go quietly. In the 1960s the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band built a career on recycling the stranger corners of 1920s and 30s Jazz and Dance Band tunes. In 2015 some of these were compiled in a CD ‘Songs the Bonzo Dog Band Taught Us.’ A quick visit to Bandcamp finds that there have been singles released as 78rpm discs. Digital reissues have to some extent killed the market for the original discs, except amongst serious collectors, but as the best-selling format of the 20th century 78rpm discs are a cultural artefact that are worth exploring.
Especially as ‘Treasures Untold: A Modern 78 RPM Reader’ speaks to the heart of collecting music in all formats. Rosenthal’s opening essay looks at the history of the format. Despite a few factual errors, they started in 1898 and were still in production in India in the 1960s – you can get Beatles 78s – it is a fascinating read. The core of the book though are articles by collectors, ethnomusicologists, dealers, archivists and producers, including an interview with Ian Nagoski and Dick Spottswood, a piece by14 year old collector and DJ Jay Burnett, and Eli Smith of the Brooklyn Folk Festival.
Musician, podcast host, and record collector John Heneghan titles his essay ‘It’s a Sickness’ and he may be right. Eli Smith looks at 110 years of recording from 78s to AI. And as the centenary of electrical recording is 2026 it’s very timely. Before that all recordings were cut direct to disc with the acoustic sounds transferred mechanically onto the record grooves. The origins of the terms “cutting a record” and “mastering”.
Reading these essays does prod you to recognise your own collecting obsessions. I’m sure many of my AUK colleagues and our readers will se themselves in these pages as we sit surrounded by LPs, CDs, books and magazines accumulated painstakingly over years and decades. David Katznelson could be the ultimate example. His piece ‘Confessions Of A Problematic Collector‘ describes his collecting journey including pictures of trailers filled with discs and descriptions of them held in cold storage in his basement.
While I only had an electronic copy to review from, the illustrations, cartoons and design of the book by Barbara Bersche are beautiful I’m sure the 10 x 10″ 155-page hardback book, which is a limited edition of 1000 is gorgeous. It was a Record Store Day release but is still available in some stores at the time of writing,
Packaged along with the book is a CD of ten covers of 78-era songs by a range of AUK-approved artists. Eight of the ten songs were recorded specifically for the project. Muireann Bradley channels Memphis Minnie on ‘When The Levee Breaks.’ Gwenifer Raymond’s ‘The Coo Coo Bird / Cluck Old Hen’ is a Banjo masterclass. With artists like Raymond Kaia Kater, and Allison Russell all taking Old Timey traditions and bringing them to 21st Century audiences this is a great addition to that canon.
The best song here by far though is the recently passed Michael Hurley’s ‘Milwaukee Blues.’ Luther Dickinson and Billy Childish’s contributions were both released as actual 78s by Tompkins Square. Childish’s version of the Mississippi Sheiks’ ‘I Am The Devil’ is another highlight.
The music does not all appear to be available separately from the book, so you will just have to go for the package, which if you have any interest in old timey, American primitive guitar or in the sources of record collecting then this is the book and CD for you. Get it while you can.
One of the songs that is available without the package is ‘When The Levee Breaks‘ from Muireann Bradley who added it to the rerelease of ‘I Kept These Old Blues’ and produced this visualiser for it.
Thanks for the review of the ‘Treasures Untold: A Modern 78 RPM Reader’and CD in which you mention the Beatles releases on 78rpm in India.
The other Beatles connection with 78s is The Sundown Playboy’s cajun 10 incher ‘Saturday Night Special / Valse De Soleil (Sundown Waltz)’ a 78rpm promo for the record as part of Apple’s ‘Back To Mono’ campaign. Billboard refers to it in their issue of 25th November 1972. A great piece of Americana.
Apple pressed 200 – 300 copies of the disc and I well remember the 78rpm being played on Radio One by the likes of John Peel, Rosko and others. It’s a great record. It was issued as a 45rpm. Omega Auctions sold a VG copy of the 78rpm in 2023 for £480, and a copy from Bill Wyman’s collection when auctioned fetched over £380.
This a very confusing sentence: “Despite a few factual errors, they started in 1898 and were still in production in India in the 1960s – you can get Beatles 78s – it is a fascinating read.”
Shouldn’t it be more like: “Despite a few factual errors — the format started in 1898 and were still in production in India in the 1960s (you can get Beatles 78s) — it is a fascinating read.”
Commercial 78rpms were sold not starting in 1898 but in 1895! Berliner label 78’s are etch dated so it’s a needless mistake.
And you can factually say that flat, round, lateral groove records were first made and sold by Emile Berliner in 1894. There are extant published lists of the records he already had for sale in 1894.