MP3:
Unknown - Calibre Auto Recording (1:29)
One day I was browsing through lp's in a small shop not finding much worthwile. I started looking at the lp's & such decorating the walls. "You wouldn't be interested in selling any of those would you?" I asked the owner. "Well, we kind of have them up on the wall to, y'know, show the different kinds of records there are and stuff" was my answer. Five bucks convinced him to part with a tiny little record tacked on to the side of a shelf. When I got it home and put it on, I heard a girl hardly controlling herself from the giggles trying to sing. I am unfamiliar with the song, it would probably help a lot in telling how old the recording is.
- Contributed by: Michel LeGrisbi
Image: Calibre Auto Recording
Media: 45rpm 6" record (single sided)
Label: Calibre Auto Recording
Credits: "CEC" hand-scratched on label, the artist's initials?
The song is To Sir With Love, originally recorded by LuLu in 1967.
Calibre Auto Recordings are homemade acetates, more or less the 50s/60s equivalent of home taping.
It is a good guess that this acetate was made between '67 and '70, when homemade acetates pretty much were replaced by cheaper real to real and later cassette.
Posted by: Scott S | March 12, 2007 at 12:51 AM
Awesome Thanks!
I've also got a fair bit of Recordio Disc Albums I think those are much older.
Posted by: Michel LeGrisbi | March 14, 2007 at 05:18 PM
I own two Calibre auto-recording dated of 1979,recorded at a luna park in Montreal.
Posted by: Andre | March 22, 2007 at 06:03 PM
The song is Lulu's "To Sir With Love", which was a big UK hit in 1967.
Posted by: OrangeTV | April 01, 2007 at 11:23 PM
thank you for the waking nightmare!
Posted by: ashley | August 31, 2007 at 06:58 PM
It would be great if the identity of the girl was discovered some time down the road. I bet that when she recorded this roughly 30 years ago that she never realized some audio collector would find it and immortalize her.
Posted by: Ourtimetoshine | November 27, 2007 at 01:43 PM
Calibre Auto Recordings discs were prduced in seaside amusement arcades. Anyone could enter the booth (rather like the Photo-Me booths) and pay a fee of around 1 shilling for approx. 90 seconds of airtime. The person(s) could then sing, laugh and swear their way to stardom, and have their results cut onto a single 6" disc, which popped out of a hole in the bottom of the machine a few minutes later.
I used one at Scarborough (A UK seaside resort) around 1968. Some enterprising bands crowded into these booths for cut-price demos. If I ever see one in a junk shop I always buy them just out of curiosity. There's no way of knowing who is on the recording - unless they identify themselves on the disc.
Posted by: John Hodgson | March 19, 2008 at 05:50 PM