Also a Record Player of that Vintage (1960's/70's) had a System Called "Auto Change" So If You put the Tonearm on the start of this size Record It would just Automatically switch off. Unless You Bought that Dedicated Plastic Turntable or You were Rich or Worked In a Radio Station You would not have a Player like We have today. This could have been the factor these didn't take off with the Public. The most common Player everyone had (Even the Stars) was a Dansette. Nice Video again.
I remember back in the late 80s there were battery operated cars with a speaker and A stylus on the bottom. you turned it on, set the speed, then set it down on the record. As it drove around the record, it played whatever was on the record.
@@chadcastagana9181 yeah. A few months after I posted this, Techmoan coincidentally mentioned a video he did on them in a video he did on novelties. Still haven't found the full video he did yet, but someday! I'll have to use ROKBLOK as a keyword.
Pocket Discs weren't really all that portable anyway. You wouldn't really want to put a record in your pocket...it'd get all scratched up against your keys, wallet, fabric from clothing.
Despite the ridiculous add showing the record literally sticking out of someone's pocket, I wonder if they intended to make small cases that would hold a stack of these records, sort of like the small CD books that accompanied the early days of that format. Not exactly pocket sized, but women could toss it in their purse or kids could just carry that small package to their friends house to take their music with them. I could see this format appealing to a specific demographic, but if there sound quality wasn't there, I understand why most people opted to stick with traditional formats.
When I was a kid I purchased one of these in a vending machine at the neighborhood pharmacy. The song was In a gadda da vida by Iron Butterfly. It came in a light blue cardboard wallet. I just came across it today and it made me decide to do some research on them. Yes they didn't last long and I have no idea what they are worth but had I been a Beatles fan, they seem to fetch a penny or two. It would be interesting to learn the run numbers so collectors can determine rarity. Seems the covers don't survive so I guess having one with the cover is rare within itself. Mine spent many decades put away in the pages of an encyclopedia under the heading of "Records".
BTW, Philco was actually a division of the Ford Motor Company. Not too many people know that Ford also made appliances with the Philco brand (my family had a Philco refrigerator when I was a kid), and also invented the charcoal briquettes used in barbecues today- that's how the Kingsford brand got started. Jarrett, I know you're a bit young to know these things, so here they are!!
As a little kid, I owned a few of these in the late 60s, and had a little Philco-Ford record player/radio to play them on. My favorite two were Light My Fire by The Doos and I Think We're Alone Now by Tommy James & The Shondells. I wish I still had them.
You should make a video o n diamond discs. I recently saw one in a antique store with a cabinet that was redone. It had 60 discs with it for 200. It could be a good deal if the needle was in good shape and it has volume control
I never had any of the Pocket Discs (I've seen them at record stores) but I had several Flexidiscs that were included in magazines or books. The problem with all Flexidics was their high surface noise. They were OK if you played them on a mono phonograph but the rumble is noisy on a good stereo. And somehow all of mine got bent unless they were glued to cardboard.
I had small records like that in a toy telephone. Also, portable records came out about 1900, with 5-6 inch 78 RPM records. I bought some off of eBay. I do have a few flexy disks. Humpback whale sounds (National Geographic or Reader's Digest), McDonald's, and how to play a guitar lessons. I am fascinated by all the different kinds. I wish I took care of the ones I got off of cereal boxes.
The most common turntables the average American had in the 50s-late 70s had been typically part of an all-in-one, a portable, or a console stereo. These were typically record changers made by Birmingham Sound Reproducers (BSR) or Garrard. Some of the better all-in-ones and consoles also used Voice Of Music (VM) and even Dual turntable decks. Magnavox used Collaro changers, and General-Electric used Glasser-Steers changers (later in-house). As these pocket discs were too small, unless you had a standalone manual turntable, the auto-return would trigger, making these pocket discs unplayable. I have a spare record changer which you can play with if I find it. It's a Sony PS-77 with a BSR changer. Forgot what magnetic cartridge it has since I hadn't used it in a few months ever since I switched to using Dual record changers.
I have "Room at the Top" By The Fallen Angels. Little known 60s psychedelic music. It's a good pick up if you like the band as their regular sized albums go into the 100s of dollars. My only problem is that it won't play on any of my turntables, my turntables consider the album to be over once they get within 4 inches of center.
One issue that I think people might have with these are how some record players have this mechanism that automatically returns the needle, to it's resting position, when the record comes to an end. It appears that these records are smaller, beyond that point on a standard record, possibly making it frustrating to try and play one of these, unless you are able to somehow disable or trick that mechanism.
I've got a dozen of the Hip-Pocket records from this period. Nice little novelty records but I've never tried to play one for the reasons you stated. Very impractical.
I saw and played one in 1992, someone left one inside a book my grandmother got borrowed from a friend, had a song supposedly sung by Barbie from Mattel.
Well, 8ban is even smaller Vinyl records, not flexi but a proper vinyl record but only 8 cm. It also sounds better than any flexi disc, but also not very good either. So that's one to keep your eye on... :) Although Techmoan already made a video about them...
I have at least one of them but its a 78 and had Nursery Rhymes on it from memory. I have never played the thing but I would say it would be short and sweet.
Yeah, I still have a few of these that survived. Maybe 6 or so. They were a pain to try and play for all of the reasons talked about. They did fit in your shirt pocket, but they do sound like crap. Not to mention they wouldn't last long. After a few plays they would start sounding worse.
I'm a little disappointed you didn't play a sample of that pocket disc you were holding. I know you can't play the whole thing because of copyright laws, but a 10- or 15-second sample would be perfectly legal, and it would've given us the opportunity to hear the difference in sound-quality between the pocket disc and a regular LP. Nonetheless, a very interesting topic -- I had no idea these discs even existed! Cool find!
This just goes to show how we take modern portability (and quality) of our music for granted. Imagine this being your ONLY option for portable music - one track with poor sound quality. Btw that 50¢ pocket disc in 1968 would cost about $3.63 today. Also, I just subscribed 😁
Very interesting, I'd never heard of the pocket disc. Though I do recall in my Grade 9 music class listening to one of those square-shaped flexi-discs (which, if I recall was a jazz cover of Steely Dan's "Do It Again"), and thought they were the most bizarre things I'd ever seen.
Hey Jarret great video as usual!! It has to suck to talk about records but can’t play them in your videos because of copyright laws?!?! What about bands that send you their music? Can they put a note inside releasing you from copyright laws to play it?
I know right?! Well, basically if a Band, or even a third party label (like CD Baby, iTunes, Universal Music Group, etc..) upload their song to TH-cam’s “Content ID” system, then if I play that song, the video might get copyright strikes, which sucks! It’s a really flawed system that needs to change. So I just avoid the drama and don’t play anything, lol.
you should make a vinyl community discord server, where people can chat about music on vinyl and more. i know other types of TH-camrs have discord servers
Interesting video. I've never seen any of these pocket records here in the UK, I don't know if they even exist here at all, but I have a fully automatic linear tracking turntable so I don't think I would be able to play them at all anyway. Very interesting though.
I´m sure in the U.S. you´ve seen people with pants so large they could easily fit 12" records in their back pockets XD SOTD Kristin Hersh - Me and my charms
Nice! You’re going to LOVE them! Try using the LP120’s built in Preamp first, and switch the Speakers to LINE. It sounded great for me when I had that configuration. Good luck!
Do you remember the caption zoom records same format plastic vinyl records that you have in your hand back in the 70’s & 80’s when I was a kid growing up
More great stuff on the way guys!
Cool
Why don't you do picture disc lps
No way I could ever play this on my semi-auto turntable. The tonearm return would kick in before it even started
You also wouldn't be able to play these at all on any turntable with auto-return.
Song of the day: Robot Rock (Daft Punk)
Also a Record Player of that Vintage (1960's/70's) had a System Called "Auto Change" So If You put the Tonearm on the start of this size Record It would just Automatically switch off. Unless You Bought that Dedicated Plastic Turntable or You were Rich or Worked In a Radio Station You would not have a Player like We have today. This could have been the factor these didn't take off with the Public. The most common Player everyone had (Even the Stars) was a Dansette. Nice Video again.
I remember back in the late 80s there were battery operated cars with a speaker and A stylus on the bottom. you turned it on, set the speed, then set it down on the record. As it drove around the record, it played whatever was on the record.
Made in Japan?
@@chadcastagana9181 probably🤣
@@coolnegative I remember hearing about this on Techjunkie, or Technomoan, or a show with British man explaining novelties
VinylEyes has postdd The ROKBLOK - - looks simaler to what you have described
@@chadcastagana9181 yeah. A few months after I posted this, Techmoan coincidentally mentioned a video he did on them in a video he did on novelties. Still haven't found the full video he did yet, but someday! I'll have to use ROKBLOK as a keyword.
Pocket Discs weren't really all that portable anyway. You wouldn't really want to put a record in your pocket...it'd get all scratched up against your keys, wallet, fabric from clothing.
Despite the ridiculous add showing the record literally sticking out of someone's pocket, I wonder if they intended to make small cases that would hold a stack of these records, sort of like the small CD books that accompanied the early days of that format. Not exactly pocket sized, but women could toss it in their purse or kids could just carry that small package to their friends house to take their music with them. I could see this format appealing to a specific demographic, but if there sound quality wasn't there, I understand why most people opted to stick with traditional formats.
Well you dont listen to them as you walk but at McDonalds or at the Doctors
When I was a kid I purchased one of these in a vending machine at the neighborhood pharmacy. The song was In a gadda da vida by Iron Butterfly. It came in a light blue cardboard wallet. I just came across it today and it made me decide to do some research on them. Yes they didn't last long and I have no idea what they are worth but had I been a Beatles fan, they seem to fetch a penny or two. It would be interesting to learn the run numbers so collectors can determine rarity. Seems the covers don't survive so I guess having one with the cover is rare within itself. Mine spent many decades put away in the pages of an encyclopedia under the heading of "Records".
I love the "Hey Jude" pocketdisc. A 3:25 edit of the song. Lol
Wings - Band On The Run
When I was 14 in 84, the cassette was big, and the 8-track had been obsolete only 2 years prior!
'39 - Queen ❤
Full Beef my favorite queen song
BTW, Philco was actually a division of the Ford Motor Company. Not too many people know that Ford also made appliances with the Philco brand (my family had a Philco refrigerator when I was a kid), and also invented the charcoal briquettes used in barbecues today- that's how the Kingsford brand got started. Jarrett, I know you're a bit young to know these things, so here they are!!
What shall we do now - Pink Floyd
Adrian Flores I see you are cultured. the Pod on your profile picture and also a Pink Floyd song
LJN TOYS LTD Thank you.
As a little kid, I owned a few of these in the late 60s, and had a little Philco-Ford record player/radio to play them on. My favorite two were Light My Fire by The Doos and I Think We're Alone Now by Tommy James & The Shondells. I wish I still had them.
Impossible to use with automatic TTs
You should make a video o n diamond discs. I recently saw one in a antique store with a cabinet that was redone. It had 60 discs with it for 200. It could be a good deal if the needle was in good shape and it has volume control
I never had any of the Pocket Discs (I've seen them at record stores) but I had several Flexidiscs that were included in magazines or books. The problem with all Flexidics was their high surface noise. They were OK if you played them on a mono phonograph but the rumble is noisy on a good stereo. And somehow all of mine got bent unless they were glued to cardboard.
I had small records like that in a toy telephone.
Also, portable records came out about 1900, with 5-6 inch 78 RPM records. I bought some off of eBay.
I do have a few flexy disks. Humpback whale sounds (National Geographic or Reader's Digest), McDonald's, and how to play a guitar lessons. I am fascinated by all the different kinds. I wish I took care of the ones I got off of cereal boxes.
I nvr knew there was something called pocket disc, thanks for the new content man!
The most common turntables the average American had in the 50s-late 70s had been typically part of an all-in-one, a portable, or a console stereo. These were typically record changers made by Birmingham Sound Reproducers (BSR) or Garrard. Some of the better all-in-ones and consoles also used Voice Of Music (VM) and even Dual turntable decks. Magnavox used Collaro changers, and General-Electric used Glasser-Steers changers (later in-house).
As these pocket discs were too small, unless you had a standalone manual turntable, the auto-return would trigger, making these pocket discs unplayable.
I have a spare record changer which you can play with if I find it. It's a Sony PS-77 with a BSR changer. Forgot what magnetic cartridge it has since I hadn't used it in a few months ever since I switched to using Dual record changers.
Summer in the city - the lovin' spoonful
lol when you said, "corners are rounded"... (there are no corners ;)
Lol 😂
Vinyl Eyezz Thank you for the awesome video
Your videos are always cool !!!
SOFD: Over the hills and far away By:Led Zeppelin
Us and them - pink floyd
I started watching your videos like 5 days ago for some tips on vinyl records since i bought Careless Whisper by Wham!
I don't have any pocket discs but I do have a really cool 5 inch picture disc split with The Locust/Jenny Picolo on the Three.One.G label
Hey Jarrett, hope you're having a good day!
Thanks man! Hope you are too!
I have "Room at the Top" By The Fallen Angels. Little known 60s psychedelic music. It's a good pick up if you like the band as their regular sized albums go into the 100s of dollars. My only problem is that it won't play on any of my turntables, my turntables consider the album to be over once they get within 4 inches of center.
A Day in the life by The Beatles
Oh nice, a Beatles song
Bitter Sweet Symphony - The Verve
Dude, didn't they sample an orchestral version of the Rolling Stones' "The Last Time" for it?
Andrie Alinsangao yes but I think the rolling stones also sampled a different song or did a cover of a different song
Logical Song - Supertramp
Strawberry Fields - The Beatles
Tool - Parabol/Parabola
Hey it the McDonald's flexi disc again
One issue that I think people might have with these are how some record players have this mechanism that automatically returns the needle, to it's resting position, when the record comes to an end. It appears that these records are smaller, beyond that point on a standard record, possibly making it frustrating to try and play one of these, unless you are able to somehow disable or trick that mechanism.
True survivor - David Hasselhoff
Like a stone - Audioslave
I have 10" and 12" 78 RPM, 7" 45 RPM vinyl, 10" and 12" 33 1/3 RPM vinyl, as well as cassette audio tapes and CompsctDiscs!
I'm Not Okay- My Chemical Romance.
Wouldn't an automatic turntable have problems with these?
Probably lol. 😂
I did just get my first flaxi disc, a special two song single that came with a Dalek I Love You album I bought.
The way you hold any record that isn't a 12 inch makes me want to slice open my arms with the edge of a flexi disc
I've got a dozen of the Hip-Pocket records from this period. Nice little novelty records but I've never tried to play one for the reasons you stated. Very impractical.
At least we can all agree that it's as small as the CD.
I saw and played one in 1992, someone left one inside a book my grandmother got borrowed from a friend, had a song supposedly sung by Barbie from Mattel.
Well, 8ban is even smaller Vinyl records, not flexi but a proper vinyl record but only 8 cm. It also sounds better than any flexi disc, but also not very good either. So that's one to keep your eye on... :) Although Techmoan already made a video about them...
3:05 The compact cassette dates back to 1960
I have at least one of them but its a 78 and had Nursery Rhymes on it from memory. I have never played the thing but I would say it would be short and sweet.
Yeah, I still have a few of these that survived. Maybe 6 or so. They were a pain to try and play for all of the reasons talked about. They did fit in your shirt pocket, but they do sound like crap. Not to mention they wouldn't last long. After a few plays they would start sounding worse.
This is rather similar to 8ban mini records from Bandai, which techmoan did a video about a while back. Except 8ban were solid and not flexi.
I have a dark translucent purple album from PYE records by Olivia Newton John called OLIVIA.
I'm a little disappointed you didn't play a sample of that pocket disc you were holding. I know you can't play the whole thing because of copyright laws, but a 10- or 15-second sample would be perfectly legal, and it would've given us the opportunity to hear the difference in sound-quality between the pocket disc and a regular LP. Nonetheless, a very interesting topic -- I had no idea these discs even existed! Cool find!
Come Together- The Beatles
I have Monty Python's Small Round Black Thing, a Pocket Disc with an election night sketch that turns into the Lumberjack song.
You Never Knew My Mind - Chris Cornell
mr. brightside - the killers
Have a few “Hip pocket” records. You should do a video about those cereal box records that came out during the ‘60s.
Flaming by the Pink Floyd
Angus Mcfadden nice one!
The Pink Floyd?
Zachary Morin the pink floyd that is what the band name was when syd barrett was there it was not always just piink floyd
This just goes to show how we take modern portability (and quality) of our music for granted. Imagine this being your ONLY option for portable music - one track with poor sound quality. Btw that 50¢ pocket disc in 1968 would cost about $3.63 today. Also, I just subscribed 😁
Karn evil 9 - Emerson, Lake & Palmer
I find most modern players give you the option of turning off automatic stop so this would let the disc play until you stop it.
I just bought as my first record player a rega p1 what do you think about it?
N.I.B-Black sabbath
One of the Best Songs ever
Would the size cause some turntables with automatic tone-arm pickup to lift the needle before the song was even finished?
I'd think the tonearm would pick up shortly after the record starts!
This is very cool to see this . Thanks !!!
:}.!!!!
I really appreciate your work👍🏽 good job 👏🏽
A.M.R Family you first
Cool song-Frank Zappa “Dancin’ Fool”, from the Sheik Yerbouti album. Classic!
Yesssss, finally someone suggests zappa, great track, although i think flakes or yo mama are better track from sheik
Electric Light Orchestra - Daybreaker :)
Song of the day - song: the Welsh Connection
Artist: Man
Everything She Wants - Wham!
Read About It - Midnight Oil
Very interesting, I'd never heard of the pocket disc. Though I do recall in my Grade 9 music class listening to one of those square-shaped flexi-discs (which, if I recall was a jazz cover of Steely Dan's "Do It Again"), and thought they were the most bizarre things I'd ever seen.
Great video vinyl eyezz
Party of special things to do-the white stripes
Hey Jude - The Beatles
In Japan, FLEXI-DISK is called as SONO-SHEET or PHONO-SHEET.
Paranoia - Ghosting
Great video!
Hey Jarret great video as usual!! It has to suck to talk about records but can’t play them in your videos because of copyright laws?!?! What about bands that send you their music? Can they put a note inside releasing you from copyright laws to play it?
I know right?! Well, basically if a Band, or even a third party label (like CD Baby, iTunes, Universal Music Group, etc..) upload their song to TH-cam’s “Content ID” system, then if I play that song, the video might get copyright strikes, which sucks! It’s a really flawed system that needs to change. So I just avoid the drama and don’t play anything, lol.
Oduzimaš mi dah - Colonia (from Croatia)
They need to come up with a pocket disc player :)
equip - the dream begins (outside the gates)
Jarrett what is the first turntable you owned?
cool song - Kyu Sakamoto - CHINA NIGHTS
how cute!!
Just bought Santana's abraxas and Johnny cash Folsom prison LP records...They roll :D and rock
What do you think about the TEAC LP-R500?
Welcome Gn'R ..you the best.saludos desde ARGENTINA
you should make a vinyl community discord server, where people can chat about music on vinyl and more. i know other types of TH-camrs have discord servers
i watched like 80% of your videos the other day
Interesting video. I've never seen any of these pocket records here in the UK, I don't know if they even exist here at all, but I have a fully automatic linear tracking turntable so I don't think I would be able to play them at all anyway. Very interesting though.
Never heard of the format until I saw this video. Right up there with another 1960s portable invention... PLAYTAPE.
I´m sure in the U.S. you´ve seen people with pants so large they could easily fit 12" records in their back pockets XD
SOTD Kristin Hersh - Me and my charms
Yes, those types of people are known as losers.
well, some folks have problems, but those who can hold 5-record-box-sets, I guess u´re right XD
Half MT
Not the good kind of loser I'm guessing
Save Me - Queen
Cool song Mama Tried by Merle Haggard
Hey Jarrett, im buying the Klipsch R-15PM:s soon. Should i use the at lp120 pre amp or the klipsch preamp?
Nice! You’re going to LOVE them! Try using the LP120’s built in Preamp first, and switch the Speakers to LINE. It sounded great for me when I had that configuration. Good luck!
Vinyl Eyezz Thanks a ton Jarrett. Also ordered the ortofon 2m stylus. Your fault! But im so excited!
boogie down got the flava - foundation & rezidue
Chop Suey, I just was playing that song on To :D
Do you remember the caption zoom records same format plastic vinyl records that you have in your hand back in the 70’s & 80’s when I was a kid growing up
The Grudge - Tool
Smooth Santana