16 rpm records?

I've noticed that some record players (specifically those of the Califone school-surplus variety) have a speed setting for 16 rpm along with the more obligatory 33 1/3, 45, and 78.

Do 16 rpm records exist? I've never seen any in my life.

 

Yep. Mostly spoken word. (I have a double LP - George Bernard Shaw's "The Changes". Runs for nearly 4 hours.)

 

Alvin & the Chipmunks albums might sound interesting at 16 RPM !

 

My dad has this thing called a Seeburg Background Music System. It plays 16 2/3 RPM records. I remember when he got it, it came with a ton of them. They're about 9" or 10" from what I remember with a center hole a little bigger than that of a 45 RPM record. Each side runs for about 30 minutes, IIRC. It's just cheesy instrumental versions of pop tunes. Elevator music really. Usually it was pretty hard to identify the songs but I clearly remember "Garden Party", a few Beatles, & a couple Monkees tunes. I remember that it had a double-sided cartridge inside so it would play one side of a record and then go play the bottom side of the next record...etc. Here's a photo of one from the web, exactly like the one Dad has...

 

When I was a child in the early 1960s, my grandparents had a hadfull of 16rpm records (I don't remember what they were) and my first record player (given to me by my mother) had the speed on it.

 

I believe the speed was used mostly for talking books for the blind back before tape cassettes provided a more practical audio source for that audience. I've heard that Vox released some classical collections at that speed (I've never seen one), but it's really far too slow for decent music reproduction.

 

Somewhere out there is a clip of a young Jimmy Page saying that he learned to copy solos by playing records at 16 RPM.

 

One of my early turntables had all four speeds, but I never owned a record that played at 16 2/3.

JcS

 

I can think of a couple of records that probably sound equally good played at 16, 33 1/3, 45 or 78.

 

I remember my elementary school had one of these, and a lot of French and Spanish language records to go with it, all were 16 rpm.

 

I think 16rpm was also used for radio transcription discs in the old days. It isn't much good for anything besides spoken-word.

 

For the benefit of younger SH Forumites, back in the later 1950s to mid 1960s there were record players made for use in automobiles. Some of them had 16-2/3 RPM records made specially for use in them.

They were basically "Easy Listening" type records, with artists like Paul Weston and similar musicians.

Chrysler Corporation had the "Highway Hi-Fi" as an option beginning in 1956. It was obviously monaural, and used the amplifier and speaker(s) of the radio.

There were also aftermarket units, found (for instance) in J. C. Whitney-type catalogs until 4-track and 8-track made them superfluous in the mid-1960s.

Now ol' Grandpa will step off his soapbox......

 

I have 1 16RPM'er on the VOX label. Some classical disc of which the title eludes me. Played it once....sounded like the orchestra was performing in the Times Square Subway Station......rumble rumble rumble.........

(Strangely, I never heard the station announcments! )

 

i admit i honestly have never come across one secondhand, i think i MIIIIIGHT of once....does anyone have a picture of the actual record of one--the holes like a 33 hole not a 45 hole, right-- oh ,

and can you play for ex, a PRESTIGE one (yes they did produce a few) on a car record player, or do you need a specific type specifically for the car

 

Does a Jim Reeves 16 rpm album from South Africa count?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOCi2WTCbrk

(If you read the comments below it, there's even mention of 8 1/3 rpm recordings, which I never knew existed.)

 

I see spoken word discs from time to time, one was a magazine while the other was someone reading from the bible I believe.

 

I know that (what's generally now known as) the John Coltrane album Dakar was originally Side 1 of a Pepper Adams/Cecil Payne 16rpm release. Coltrane is the leader of that session to about the same degree that I'm the Prime Minister of Canada.

 

I once saw a 16 rpm album by the Modern Jazz Quartet. Can't imagine it was a stellar listening experience.

My Dad also has a set of French language instruction records that played at 16. I think they were 10"s, FWIW.

 

what is out there to play these thing? both my mid-70s Marantz and mid-80s AR only play 33s and 45s? my parents soundesign turntable/8-track/radio all-in-one was the only one i ever used that played 78s, and honestly i'd never even heard of these 16s.

 

Every 16 RPM record I've ever seen has been a Bible sermon issued on a hole-in-the-wall label.

 

One set I'd used to have was the Complete "Wizard Of Oz" book on 5 16 RPM Discs..I played them only once..I dunno what happened to them after that,tho'...

 

Talking Book phonographs can play 16 RPM discs. Most 1960's and 1970's era changers have 16 RPM speed as an option. They are scarce records. Vox and Prestige issued a few 16 RPM records in the late 1950's. The main music records you had were the Chrysler Highway Hi-Fi selections from Columbia. Highway Hi-Fi was an option on some Chrysler cars in the late 1950's.

 

Thanks! I doubt I'd bother to look for one but it would be a neat curiousity item. I really wish my Marantz or AR played 78s, though. I really have no plans to replace the AR, as there's antire community dedicated to making mods for it.

 

Many of us in our 40s and older remember record players from the 50s and 60s with a speed setting for 16 rpm records. I have never in my life actually seen a record that played at 16, but we had a player with 16 as a setting. It had a dual needle cartridge as I recall, for different speeds.
I recently read that Chrysler offered factory installed record players in cars that played only 16 rpm records around 1956 to 1959, but these did not work well and were not popular.
Please discuss and post pics of anything you have related to this mysterious slow speed setting. It seems to have disappeared without a trace!

 

I have never seen one either. A few decades ago, I remember my father explaining to me that 16 was used for recording of speeches, not music.