…WITH THEIR PARENT ALBUMS
Having never been an avid collector of 7″ singles—or 12″s, for that matter—it was an odd feeling to have seven or eight hundred of the little blighters take up residence in the cupboard. I had no idea my friend Steven had so many. It was rather daunting, as I’m not a 45RPM guy, so they were shoved to one side. I had bigger fish to fry, namely the LPs.
Reducing the massive LP holding was how I spent much of the past year, a process successful enough that a few weeks ago I began thinking about those little album offspring. It was fun leafing through them, and inevitably I pulled some out for possible transfer to the VC archive.
All record collectors have their quirks. Harmless peccadillos, you might say. Small eccentricities such as a thirst for shaped picture discs or a passion for hair metal. One of several attributable to your correspondent is an interest in album/cover design, an enthusiasm regularly on display in these pages. (See the Cover Art sections.) A sub-category, or perhaps extension, is buying the occasional 7″ single that comes from an album I like. They mostly have picture sleeves, as your standard 45 in a generic paper cover is rather uninspiring.
So I already had a selection of albums with a complimentary/complementary 7″ addition tucked into the plastic cover protecting the LP. Why not add some more? Here is a selection of seven seven inch 45RPM singles with the album from which they were lifted.
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The bonus (feature image, also below) is interesting. Work, Rest and Play is a four-track E.P. leading with the terrific Madness instrumental “Night Boat To Cairo” and including three non-album tracks. Being a 33 ⅓ disc, it doesn’t qualify, strictly speaking, but it’s rather nice, don’t you think?
Over to you, now. Either musically or visually, which are your favourites here?
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vinylconnection.com.au 
Such a fun idea for a post, Bruce! I never was into 45s, and the few ones I bought when I was a young and innocent teen growing up in Germany are mostly embarrassing. Perhaps the worst offender ironically also had the appropriate title: “How Could This Go Wrong” by Exile! 🙂
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Hahaha. Sehr lustig, Christian. Thanks for joining in on this. I thought it was a fun idea too, and wondered if I might be in a group of one!
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In our house aka the house of fun, there will be no debate about the favorite covers here — I’ll pull up my baggy trousers and yell “MADNESS”
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The LP is a classic in every respect, isn’t it Robert? And I rather like the different take on stacking the band on the E.P.!
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That Bowie set – superb
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Led with the ace there, eh? It’s a very nice piece of design, isn’t it?
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Really quite beautiful
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I love the use of the ‘negative’/’reverse’ effect in that Bowie pairing: spectacular! And that Madness LP cover brings me right back to college…such a classic.
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It is! There was some great music coming out of the UK at that time. I’m a huge fan of the debut by UB40. Was that on your playlist in college too?
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I’m actually not familiar with their debut. It looks like it was quite a success, with both critics and the public. I’ll do some sampling on YouTube/Spotify. Labour of Love was the first of theirs that caught my attention.
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The Bowie is a corker, nicht wahr?
I think I’ll do one more 7 x 7″ post. It’s a bit different. As always, thanks for joining in, JDB.
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