I’m eight years too late with this, because (just like James experienced) nobody told me that Flexi-Discs ceased production in 2000. For those who might not remember, Flexi-Discs were records pressed on thin, flexible vinyl. They were cheaper to produce than conventional vinyl discs, and their low weight and flexibility made them easy to include with cereal boxes, magazines, books or,like this particular example: with pants! By the way, did you know that the first ‘records’ ever made (by Thomas Edison) were flexible too?
Some phonograph nostalgia and flash-video manipulation for my loyal visitors. Yes, quality audio & video with the Sorenson h.263 codec, it’s actually possible!
The one you see in this video was a really obscure promotion single with no label or catalog nr. “Inspired by Wrangler® Jeans”. You hear so-called Northern Soul, the vocals are by Joyce Williams, and it’s written by Bob Elgin & Norman Meade (a.k.a. Jerry Ragavoy), alledgedly from 1966, meaning it is already 42 years old and still sounds fine. That is to say, you hear the audio tape used for this song was a bit dirty, but it sounded almost the same at first play. It might even sound better now, since I fixed audio a little.
I won my Wrangler Shake floppy disc participating in a lottery at school when I was about 10 years old. My teacher (Frits van Randeraat) gave old stuff away by playing some game in class. This 45rpm single is so rare, I’ve seen it sold on eBay for $170! So: Thanks Frits, might sell it too As a kid I colored the label all black though, don’t know why. This is what it originally looked like.
In case you wonder what the hell I’m doing during the first 2 minutes of the video; The hole in the center of the disc is a little too big, I had to get it aligned so it wouldn’t jengel so much. En sorry voor ‘t brommetje op de microfoons, kwam van een dimmer..
By the way, for the Dutch readers: Hier een mp3 van de speech van schoolleider Bas Moll op de reünie van de 6e Montessori-school Anne Frank, alwaar ik dus het singeltje uit de video ooit won tijdens een pretmiddag op vrijdag (weet ik nog).