How It's Used

"Whales are intelligent. They do whale song. [Makes best attempt at a whale song.] But we don't know what it means. But I think whales are travelling at 78. They're travelling at 78 speed, if we take them up to 45 speed we'll find they're singing. [Makes another attempt at whale song that slowly speeds up to...] 'I love you baby and if it's quite alright I love you baby, throughout the night, I love you baby, trust in me when I say.'"

—Eddie Izzard, "Eddie Izzard: Circle" (2002).

“Best known as ‘78s,’ these heavy black shellac discs, which spun at 78 rpm on millions of phonograph turntables, were the standard format of commercial recording from around 1900 until the introduction of the vinyl LP in 1948. To a majority of music lovers in the world of CDs and MP3 downloads, 78s and the old phonographs that play them are relics, equivalent to Model Ts and steam locomotives. Embedded in their grooves, however, are many decades of music and music-making—from Heifetz, Rachmaninoff and Caruso to Ellington, Armstrong and Parker…In the heyday of 78s, a full symphony or string quartet normally took up four or five double-faced discs…”

—Barrymore Laurence Scherer, “Ward Marston: Audio Resurrectionist,” The Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2005, p. D8.

“Jack Bradley was only 15 when he first heard Louis Armstrong on a 78-r.p.m. record in his family’s living room, an ordinary introduction to a man who would end up having a profound influence on Mr. Bradley’s life.”

—Niko Koppel, “Collector Shares Mementos and Memories of Jazz Legend,” The New York Times, September 29, 2008.

Also Known As (AKA)

78s, 78-r.p.m.

Links

Related on eAlmanac
33's
45's

Beyond eAlmanac
Wikipedia article on Record Speeds including 78 rpm
Turtle's "78 RPM" Jukebox