31 March 2019

American record label RCA Victor Records introduced the 7-inch (= standard diameter)
45 rpm (= play speed) micro-grooved vinylite record, marketed simply as a ‘45‘. The new format had been under development for several years. Cool thing to know: the colored vinyl wasn’t an invention of the punk era. From the start, back in 1949, each genre of music had its own color. Country releases were on green vinyl, children’s records were on yellow, classical releases were on red and popular releases on standard black vinyl. The very first 45 rpm record created was a child song entitled ‘PeeWee the Piccolo‘ and pressed on 7 Dec 1948 and launched months later.

Anyway, on 31 March 1949, a country song called ‘TEXARKANA BABY‘ written by Cottonseed Clark and Fred Rose and performed by EDDY ARNOLD was among the first seven-inch 45 rpm records releases by RCA in the United States and given the credit of being the very first 7″ ever. Here’s that historic 7″…