The Great 78s

They were all Live Performances...

I’ve been collecting 78 RPM recordings since I was a youngster.

My sisters and I would sit in our basement (of course) and on a Victrola, play the 78s that our parents had set aside in a box, in favor of the newly marketed 45s and LPs.

I still have many of those “sides” but now many more that I have accumulated over the years AND I have a terrific broadcast quality turntable, a Numark, on which to play them. There has been a recent technological addition to my audio chain, which has brought me back to these historic recording for a new fresh visit.

Here it is: The Fabulous Technolink TC-778
RIAA Phono Preamp w/ 78rpm Equalization Switch and Input

It looks like this:

Using the “78” setting, it removes the RIAA equalization, and plays the recording as it was supposed to have been heard, prior to the industry wide imposed use of the RIAA standard starting in the early 1950s.

It restores the high frequencies and enables you to hear drumstick on cymbal, and crisp consonants from the singers and so forth. The recordings do not have that muddiness and overly mid-range sound that we thought was the way these sides were intended to sound.

It’s been just plain fun to re-hear these wonderful recordings, which by the way, were all Live Performances…Live To Disc…No Overdubbing!

Here are a few of these sides that grabbed my attention…Hope you enjoy them!

Here is Duke Ellington with “C Jam Blues”

Now Artie Shaw with Helen Forrest and “I Poured My Heart Into A Song”

And a little known Harry James song, a “B” side called “Let Me Up”

Hope you enjoyed…I have a lot more, including several discs that go back to 1918 and Classical sides including an Enrico Caruso recording PLUS a real clean original 78 of Sing Sing Sing…

I’m thinking of starting an on-line radio station using my collection…Any platform suggestions would be greatly appreciated…So Long For Now!