You Spin Me Right Round

Speaking of records, when I was eight or so my stepdad was letting his old band practice in our basement on Friday nights. This was around 1971 or so, and they did covers of bands like Rare Earth, The Guess Who, CCR, etc. I eventually got to keep the 45s they used to practice to, and thus is was years before I realize that "Get Ready" was originally a Temptations song, or that Frijid Pink playing "House Of The Rising Sun" on the Parrot label was not the originator, either. But I digress. The point is I loved how those labels looked... the twisted tree, vulture, and dark orange background of the Rare Earth label, and the parrot with the straw hat on the Parrot label, in particular.

I saw some of these labels before I knew how to read, and thus always associated the songs on those labels with those images. They were so much more interesting that the dull bell-on-gray-background that was the label of my "I Think I Love You" b/w "Doesn't Somebody Want To Be Wanted" Partridge Family 45 that I purchased at Korvettes.

Later, when I was about 11, I sold all those old 45 singles to my then 8 year old sister for 10 cents each. The transaction was nullified a few hour later when she went crying to our mom that I'd cheated her out of her hard-earned allowance. After that, I lost track of those records, which is a shame, because I'm betting that they'd be worth a bit more than 10 cents each today.

Of course, this is if they were sold on eBay or something, not at my store.