The History of Cassette Singles: Short, but Eventful

Cassetts singles appeared in record stores around 1982. I don't remember the first one I saw, but sources credit "Vacation" by the GoGos as the first US chart song issued on cassette single.

The new configuration made possible formats not practical within the limits of a seven-inch vinyl 45. Packaging also changed.

Their life span coincides with the appearance of innovative music that was also fun to listen to. The 80s suggest glitter, the 90s grunge, but in the cracks are some very nice songs that hold up well almost twenty years later.

AN EMOTIONAL FISH - "CELEBRATE"

The first cassette singles came in plastic boxes with insert cards like cassette versions of vinyl albums.

Cassettes like this one, with the hit and four other songs including one non-album track, were at first called "maxi-singles." The format eventually became familiar enough to not need such a designation.

An Emotional Fish are from Dublin, and they do sound like U2, and another late 80s British band I really like; the Charlatans UK.

THE SUNDAYS - "HERE'S WHERE THE STORY ENDS"

The standard packaging for cassette singles became a cardboard slipcase not unlike that of a VHS video tape.

Harriet Wheeler, bless her dreamy, heart-shaped singing voice . . . there was no Internet with its lyrics sites. Until I bought the CD and read the actual words, I used to make up my own, to go along with "the only thing I ever really wanted to say was wrong, was wrong, was
wrong . . . " (Yep. Know exactly whatcha mean.)

"Here's Where The Story Ends" was issued on cassette in the traditional format of vinyl 45s; the hit on one side and a single song on the other.

WHEN IN ROME - "THE PROMISE"

Warning! Guilty pleasure ahead! I like this song and have no idea why, other that this it's pure 80s. Adding to the mystery is its status as one of those songs whose artist I never knew until I searched it out in the record shop, since by then radio deejays stopped giving song titles. Even today, if I hear it on an 80s Flashback Lunch, I have to stop and think . . . oh, yeah, When In Rome . . .