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Tom Waits to release charity record on a 78

By | Published on Wednesday 13 October 2010

Well, if my dad’s to be believed, buying records has never been quite the same since they phased out good old fashioned 78s. He’s very old. I can only just about remember there being a record player in my house that played such things, and I’m quite old. 

But could those records that play at 78rpm be about to make a comeback? Probably not, but Tom Waits will release a version of his recent collaboration with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band on the format. And, because only nine people now have the technology to play such records, he’s even releasing a special record player with a 78rpm option. 

Waits recently worked with the New Orleans-based jazz band on a benefit album called ‘Preservation’. The whole project was apparently inspired by an old 78rpm recording of Danny Barker’s 1947 Mardi Gras Indian street chant ‘Tootie Ma Is a Big Fine Thing’. And it is a Waits/Preservation Hall cover of that track that will get a limited edition 78 release. 

Only 504 copies of the record will be released and 100 of the new record players will be sold, all in aid of the Preservation Hall Junior Jazz & Heritage Brass Band.



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