I grew up on 7" singles. 45's. Singles - be they on vinyl, cassette, cd, or a downloadable file - streaming doesn't count in my eyes - are the entry level point for any fan of music. Hearing or even taping songs from the radio gives you a glimpse into that world, but the act of buying a single opens the door: you've paid for it, it now belongs to you. Many a musical artist has said that once they put music out into the world, it belongs to the fans, to the people who buy it. Having to leave the house and make that journey to a record shop, browse the racks, make your choice and pay for it - nothing beats that feeling, even now. During the pandemic such opportunities have been scarce, and whilst you can order online it feels...... incomplete, impersonal. I look forward to those times again.
Anyway, i turn 45 later this year. I've been aware of, enjoying, and actively listening to music for at least 40 of those years. I've been buying music for 33 years (my first records were birthday and Christmas presents, plus the odd single i'd pestered my parents into buying for me), and even after i graduated to albums i still felt the pull of the 45, right through the heyday of the cd single and into the iTunes era. Right into the early noughties i had hundreds of cd singles, which i compiled on minidiscs and flogged at a carboot sale when storage space became an issue. Whenever i hear a new track on the radio, or see the music video on YouTube, i feel a pang of sadness that it won't see a physical release. I realise that this is how things are done now, that it's probably more environmentally friendly to not have pressing plants churning out millions of plastic discs that, whilst recyclable, will largely end up discarded, like the ribbons of magnetic tape that littered the countryside in the 1980's, probably hurled out a car window following a marital argument or by a TWOC'er. The demise of the single (in any meaningful sense) has only increased my nostalgic love of the format, and probably a middle-aged yearning for the simpler days of my youth. So i've decided to mark my 45th year by compiling my 45 favourite.... 45's. I've made - or attempted to make - various lists over the years, compilations of my favourite singles or songs, some in a chart format and some chronologically, and i always struggle to finish them. Because there are just TOO MANY. With that in mind, i'm imposing some rules on myself: 1 - all songs must have been available as a 7" single. 2 - only singles released from the date of my birth 2nd August 1976 onwards will count. 3 - in the interests of keeping it simple, only one track per single: the A-side or AA if it's a double A-side, or lead track if it's an EP. This does mean whole swathes of songs that i love but were released before i was born won't be eligible, as will much released in the last 20 years. But this isn't about songs, it's about that humble 7" piece of vinyl that requires the listener to really engage with it, by the physical acts required to obtain it, and to play it to hear the magic contained within its grooves. I already know some of the songs that will make the list, but the tricky part will be whittling down the rest to just 45. Wish me luck!
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