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Writer's pictureMaria Harris

Girl Put Your Records On

 I was visiting my parents' house recently and uncovered a hoard of battered 7" singles buried deep in a cupboard...


Apart from being battered they all have one thing in common – each one of them holds a very special place in my heart and in the development of my interest in music, and in records specifically.


Basically what I had uncovered was my first record collection, a motley assortment of children's records and pop tunes of the 60s that had somehow made their way into my possession, none of them purchased by or asked for by myself, they had just somehow magically turned up at around about the same time I acquired my first record player. It was a fabulous portable (therefore battery operated) Sony player that I was given for my 8th (or possibly 9th) Birthday. It looked a bit like this (see pic below) except it wasn't a funky 70s orange, more an early 60s brutalist grey but I loved it, and I wish I still had it.


portable 70s orange record player
My first record player was a bit like this but less orange

So what did I do with this little pile of unearthed treasure I hear you ask? Why, I photographed each one of them of course, planning to post the pics on Instagram (to almost certain universal disinterest) but I just never got around to it. Then as I was racking my brains to think of something to blog about I had a lightbulb moment – I'd bore visitors to my new website with pictures and reminiscences of some my old records instead. Here's the cream of the crop, the ones I loved the most and which left an indelible mark on my psyche.



1) The Consulate Theme - groovy cover, groovy tune, extolling the virtues of smoking yourself to death with Consulate. Used as a marketing freebie, no artist credited but now sells for £10 or £15 on Discogs. “Get away, from the every day switch to Consulate” as the lyrics go – a powerful message for a young and impressionable girl to hear and which may or may not have influenced a smoking habit in later years (one which I grew out of a long time ago I'm pleased to say). You can just see Austin Powers frugging to this one - yeah, baby...








Some of these singles have been autographed - by my Dad.

2) Cliff Richard & The Shadows – “In The Country”. Just about the jolliest song in my collection, this was Haircut 100 way before Haircut 100 was a gleam in Nick Heyward's eye. The “Ba ba ba ba ba, ba ba ba ba” intro would always lifts my spirits when they needed lifting, and the invocation to “hurry, hurry, hurry, for the time is slipping by” would fill me with an urgent need to stop what I was doing immediately in order to join Cliff and his merry band of Shadows out in the country, where the air is good and the day is fine, despite not being that keen on the countryside myself, but for Cliff - anything.





3) Tom Jones “The Green, Green Grass Of Home” - I loved the story telling in this one. I used to wonder just what awful deed Tom had done to get himself banged up for so long, at least I always imagined he was in prison daydreaming but maybe I got it wrong? Poor Mary and her lips of gold and hair like cherries (or was it the other way around?) waiting in vain for Tom on that green old grass, it used to depress me a bit actually now I come to think of it, a definite comedown record after the highs of being in the country with Cliff...




4) Wayne Fontana “Pamela, Pamela” - this was always in my Top Ten, possibly even number 1 for the amount of times I used to play it, often playing it several times in a row such was my obsession with its wistful melody and lyrics harking back to childish things that I was still experiencing at aged 8 or 9 but which this song was already making me feel nostalgic for. It gave me funny feelings which to this day I can't really put into words but which it can still trigger when I hear it...




5) The Seekers “Georgy Girl” - another unrelentingly chirpy song up there with Cliff for mood-enhancing-hip-shaking-lip-synching-with-a-hairbrush-as-microphone exuberance, with the Seekers bossily urging poor Georgy not to be such a dowdy, shrinking violet and get WITH IT! This was the swinging 60s after all, no time for squares and wallflowers. I haven't seen the film for which this was the theme tune but having read the plot synopsis I can totally identify with Georgy and if I'd been her I don't think I'd have taken kindly to the Seekers' unsolicited advice - catchy tune though!




There were some slightly more credible, reputation-enhancing singles in my childhood collection but not many. Those ones were mostly by the Beatles but oddly I don't remember playing them so much. There is also a copy of Happy Jack by the Who, which I did love and did play a lot. The majority though are the kind of singles you see for 10p in charity shops now, unloved and unfashionable but still they mean something to me and as far as I'm concerned they are priceless. Apart from the Val Doonican one - you can have that one.




But if none of these are to your taste you'll be pleased to know we've actually got a much better selection of 7” singles than this lot for sale in the shop, from the 50s to the 2020s, Punk, Metal, Northern Soul, Indie and New Wave. Maybe you'll find a few blasts from your childhood past when you have a dig in our crates....


The 7" Singles Display at Tallbird Record Shop
Tallbird's 7" Singles Section



 




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