In regards to the repair of the TEAC A360S that has been a topic of posts for the past few weeks, somebody asked if I had any cassette tapes. Well, yes, I do. In fact, here are three tapes that I recently picked up at a local “Junk In the Trunk” event.
Somebody was giving away a 3-tape set titled State Door Canteen. This set features music of the World War II period. The copyright date is 1987, but the actual publication dates depend on the individual songs. The songs’ original dates range from the very late 1930s to 1945 or so.
If you are familiar with the period you probably will not be surprised to discover that the performers include Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Frank Sinatra, and Tex Beneke among many others. The recording quality is quite good, certainly better than what is on the original 78 rpm records. The inserts note that the tapes were published by RCA Special Projects/Heartland Music.
The statistics indicate that cassette tapes are back. Some folks say they never left. I’d guess that they just went into hibernation. Current artists are releasing new work on tapes and collectors are looking for old ones such as these. As for myself, I just think they are fun. They don’t sound as good as CDs, but they are cooler than streaming.
That works for me.