the very first commercial 45 rpm disc

Anyone ever considered what was the first 45 on the market? As it was RCA who introduced the format and started by selling 45's in coloured vinyl to suit the music stlye..well it must be an RCA disc.
What about Eddy Arnold on green vinyl RCA 48-0001

http://www.globaldogproductions.com/

RCA Victor did introduce the 45 RPM record in 1948 with a series of colored vinyl discs: green vinyl for Country/Western (also Polka, for some reason), red vinyl for their Red Seal classical label, yellow vinyl for their Bluebird "kiddie" label, blue vinyl for their international music label, and orange for Rhythm & Blues. The first two releases I know of are the aforementioned Eddy Arnold disc and "My Baby Left Me" by Arthur Crudup (RCA Victor 50-0000; orange vinyl) - I'm not sure of anything else released around the same time. I was trying to find the earliest release on their "popular" label (the aquamarine-colored label) which, as far as I know only exists on black vinyl, and I couldn't find anything dated earlier than 1949. Could it be they were "testing the waters" with the other categories before deciding to release any of their "popular" artists on the 45RPM format? The catalog number prefix was "47" for the Popular label and I wasn't able to find a "first" in that series - instead of starting with a "0000" following the prefix, the Popular ones are in the 2500 range. I'd be curious to find out how many releases were made on that day / week / month in 1948 when 45's were first released.

Since I started this thread in 2006 I've come accross info that RCA were actually talking about 45rpm records as far back as 1939!!!
They had been on the drawing board for a Long long time by the time they finally began production in the late 40's
And another bit of info...RCA produced a 45 rpm record to introduce the new 45 rpm record.ie a disc that would be played in record stores to aid sales of this new format. That must have been the very first

ks45 wrote:Since I started this thread in 2006 I've come accross info that RCA were actually talking about 45rpm records as far back as 1939!!!
They had been on the drawing board for a Long long time by the time they finally began production in the late 40's
And another bit of info...RCA produced a 45 rpm record to introduce the new 45 rpm record.ie a disc that would be played in record stores to aid sales of this new format. That must have been the very first

Yeah, but the general consensus is that the "Whirl-Away" disc is considered a promotional record and wasn't really offered to the public for sale. So I guess it all depends on your definition of "first commercial release".

Ok ..that was a demo then.
RCA began their 45 series by reissuing previous stuff that originally came out on a 78.

GREEN Country series
48-0001 Eddy Arnold "Bouquet of roses/Texarkana Baby" March 1949
48-0002 Eddy Arnold "Anytime/What a fool was I" Apr 1949
48-0003 Pee Wee KIng "Rootie Tootie/Tennessee Waltz Apr 1949

ORANGE R&B series
50-0000 Arthur Big Boy Crudup "Thats all right/Crudup after hours" 1949
50-0001 Arthur Big Boy Crudup "Boy friend blues/Katie May" 1949
50-0002 Tampa Red & Big Maceo "If you ever change your ways/Chicago Breakdown 1949

Heres an interesting bit of reading about the first RCA discs

http://www.history-of-rock.com/fortyfive_birth.htm

ks45 wrote:Ok ..that was a demo then.
RCA began their 45 series by reissuing previous stuff that originally came out on a 78.

GREEN Country series
48-0001 Eddy Arnold "Bouquet of roses/Texarkana Baby" March 1949
48-0002 Eddy Arnold "Anytime/What a fool was I" Apr 1949
48-0003 Pee Wee KIng "Rootie Tootie/Tennessee Waltz Apr 1949

ORANGE R&B series
50-0000 Arthur Big Boy Crudup "Thats all right/Crudup after hours" 1949
50-0001 Arthur Big Boy Crudup "Boy friend blues/Katie May" 1949
50-0002 Tampa Red & Big Maceo "If you ever change your ways/Chicago Breakdown 1949

One source I have said they were first released in March of 1948. The price guide I have notes 1948 as release dates for all of the colored vinyl releases.
And you'll see on some RCA Victor 78's that they reference both the 45 RPM and 78RPM catalog numbers. Don't know when they stopped that practice.

That can't be right. I have the original news release of the debut of the 45 rpm record system, dated April 1, 1949.

There were no 45 rpm records in 1948, other than maybe a few test pressings made to test the development of the system.

RCA originally designed the 45 system in 1939, but shelved it, because they couldn't get a cartridge that could play the records without ruining them after about 7 plays. RCA resurrected the 45 system after Columbia solved the problem in 1948 with their original LP pickup.

The whole story about how RCA decided on the 45 rpm speed is odd too.

I have an article that was an autobiography of Les Paul. He tole how he had a machinist develop a recording lathe for his odd-speed and repeating echo recordings. He told the machinist he wanted the standards speeds of 78 and 33 (33 was used for transcriptions and Vitaphone then), and "another speed somewhere in the middle." In the article, he said "Happened to be 45. Luckiest accident I ever had."

But, he also said that Capitol records came and paid him to be allowed to copy his lathe. They made several duplicates of it. And RCA bought one of them.

So Les Paul and that machinist actually decided on the 45 speed for RCA, though they didn't know it.

Well, the source I had was chock full of other mistakes, so I'm inclined to lean toward your 1949 date. I stand corrected.
As for the price guide, what more can you say about a book which carries an otherwise "complete" discography of Conway Twitty's 45's and has failed to overlook the stereo version of "Make Me Know You're Mine" through their sixth edition? Or describes the 45 RPM version of Jackie Brenston's "Rocket 88" as "an exceedingly rare rockabilly 45" (which puts bandleader Ike Turner in the same category as Gene Vincent)? Well, that's why they call those things "guides", as opposed to "The absolute last word in accurate information and values".

This is interesting.I own some old 45

Yes, they had colored-vinyl "albums" of 45's, too - Roy Rogers, Sons Of The Pioneers, entire soundtracks such as your "South Pacific", and box sets of classical works.

Yes I have one classical box and the records are red.
I guess these green,blue and red records are not rare ?

My first post after Google-ing the web.

I helped a friend of my mother, when I was about 18, move to another apartment. She ran the record department in a store that was owned by Macy's. After helping her move a ton records, she gave me a pack of 45rpm
records in a jacket, that she said was given to her in Chicago at a special meeting for all of the dept. heads of all
of the Macy's stores. I believe she told me that happened in March,1949.

The jacket contained all of the colors of the 45's. And, they were never played. I still have them and never played them. A few of the labels got some mildew attack, but I caught it pretty early and only on three.

If you want the complete listing of the colors with artists, let me know. I've never seen a complete listing on
the net, so I think it would be a good thing to make this known, if you want.

JohnnyD

I'd be curious. I was just re-reading a column Jerry Osborne did about the "Whirl-Away" demo disc which accompanied the display for the first 45s and he wrote out a transcript of the narration and song segments included on it. It sort of answered a question I had regarding the first "popular" release on the label, and based on the track included on the "Whirl-Away" record, it may be "Ghost Riders In The Sky" by Vaughn Monroe..........
but that's a HUGE guess on my part.
By the way, the official name of the color of the R&B records was "cerise".