Time To Get Organized!

Collecting vinyl records, especially 45 rpm singles, has become a passion for me. I can’t resist sorting through crates and boxes of vintage records at flea markets, antique stores and garage sales. Fortunately my wife enjoys going to these places as well, and we go “picking” whenever we can. Her only complaint is how I get lost in these crates and boxes and lose all track of time. I’ll still be looking through the first pile of titles I came across when she has finished browsing the whole store! She spends a lot of time “waiting in the car” while I handle every record looking for titles I need. I am so lucky that she is a patient person and doesn’t begrudge me my obsession.

As time passed and my collection grew, it was becoming obvious to me that my storage space was out of control. Records were everywhere, on shelves, in boxes and milk crates, 45’s were piled in plastic tubs. In short – CHAOS! Not only was it difficult to find any particular record, the way they were being stored was not good for them. LP’s don’t do well being stacked flat on top of each other (they can warp over time). And even though 45’s are very resilient they get dusty and scratched when they are just tossed together in a container without some kind of sleeve to protect them.

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For some reason 45’s always seem to be stored in bulk without any protective sleeves. I don’t know if it is because they were bought by careless teenagers who took the record home threw it on the turntable and tossed the sleeve aside, or if it was because of those cylindrical storage cases that stacked the records on a spindle (can’t fit a square sleeve in a round container!). Even if they are in a sleeve, most times they are mismatched with an Atlantic recording stored in a Columbia sleeve. For shame! Most of the time the only 45’s that remain in their original sleeves are the ones that came with a picture sleeve, but even that isn’t sacrosanct. I’ve found mismatched picture sleeves where the record inside was not the one listed on the sleeve. It was time to make some sense of it all.

And so, I began organizing by doing the easiest thing first:

The LP’s

The best way to store 12″ Long Play vinyl records (LP’s) is to stand them on edge in their original cardboard sleeve. They should be stored loosely together so that they are vertical and not so tight as to make it difficult to remove them. Ideally the entire package should be stored in a plastic outer sleeve to protect the record from dust, moisture and friction. (I must admit that very few of my items are in plastic sleeves, but I eventually hope to accomplish this as well.)

I had several “milk crates” laying around and at first I began keeping my LP’s in them. This is an acceptable way to store LP’s because they can stand on edge. However they don’t stack real well this way and as such take up a lot of floor space. In time I found some stacking cube storage shelves that are 15″ deep and 15″ tall with dividers that work perfectly.

I began to organize the titles alphabetically by artist and album title. This was pretty easy since I do have at least a third grade education and know my ABC’s! I also loosely separated my LP’s into a few genres. The largest division is the Pop/Rock category. I also have a Country category, a Jazz/Big Band category, a Classical category, a Sound Track category, a Christmas/Holiday category and one special section for Gordon Lightfoot albums (Gord’s the Man!). Getting this accomplished only took a few hours time.

Alphabetizing records is pretty easy but does pose a few challenges. One challenge comes in what part of the name or title do you use for alphabetizing? I start with the artist or group name and then the Title of the album. For an individual artist I use the beginning letter of the last name and then the first name. If the name of the artist is a group I use the beginning letter of the group name but do not consider “the” or “a” to be part of the name. For instance I would alphabetize The Beatles under “B” and not “T”.

Sometimes the name of the group contains an individual’s name like Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band. Do I file it under “S” for Seger? Do I file it under “B” for the first letter of the group name? Or do I use “S” for Silver? This is where I have to make a judgement call. Most times I will file it under “S” as in Seger, Bob & the Silver Bullet Band. Sometimes the group’s name sounds like a person’s name, like “Pablo Cruise” or the group is a list of names like “Peter, Paul & Mary” or “Crosby, Stills & Nash”. In most of these cases I use the first letter of the group’s name (not utilizing “the” or “a”). Whatever method you choose, just try to be consistent to make it easier to locate the title you want later.

I currently just use “Post-It Note” squares to mark the alphabet divisions but hope to buy or create some type of dividers for this later. I might even make dividers for certain artists for which I have a lot of titles.

There is one other “category” that I utilize and I call it the “Weird” category. In this category I have albums like “Indianapolis 500” which is simply a recording of the 1963 Indianapolis 500 race. All you hear are the cars going around the track and the announcer over the public address system. Thrilling! I have several “Sound Effect” records that just have random tracks like “Witch Laugh”, “Car Crash/Screaming Tires”, or my favorite “Boings”. I have a record called “The Colonial Keystone – Pennsylvania” narrated by Lorne Green. Strange! I have several records that are “Year in Review” albums that sound like the old “News Reels” detailing the events of a certain year (I currently have 1971, 1972 and 1973.) Anything unusual or different will catch my eye and I find myself needing to have it!

Probably the coolest "weird category" record I have is "American Top 40 with Casey Kasem" - Program #851-1L, Chart Date 3-15-86.  This is one of the actual records sent to a radio station to play the AT-40 show for March 15, 1986.  Back in the day, before digital streaming, AT-40 would produce vinyl albums with the pre-recorded show and deliver them to radio stations to play on their turntables to broadcast the show to their audience!  The entire 4 hour show was recorded on 3 vinyl LP's and included program notes that the DJ would have to follow.  All of the top 40 songs for that week were in order on the LP's along with Casey's commentary in between as well as National Commercials (there were breaks in the record that allowed for the station to play local commercials as well.)  The station attendant or DJ would have to follow the program notes, cue the "breaks",  flip the records at the precise times and insert the local commercials, all within the time allotted for the show.

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And I can't even fathom how the AT-40 production team could compile the masters for the songs featured each week, record Casey's commentary, gather the master recordings for the national commercials, create a master tape to be sent to the production plant to create vinyl stampers and then actually press the vinyl records, package them and ship them to radio stations across the country in time for the stations to air the program each, and every week!  What a colossal undertaking! 

Sorry. I got off on a tangent there! So now I had my LP’s sorted and organized and freed up a lot of floor space! Hopefully some of my ideas may help you with your own organizational challenges. However, I find it’s best to learn from others but stay true to your own style.

Now what to do with all of those 45’s languishing in tubs? This wasn’t going to be as easy . . . I needed to clean them, protect them, organize them and find a storage solution . . . Hoo Boy! Tune in next time when we finally “un-crate” the 45’s.

Until then . . .

Keep It In The Groove!