I've loads of old cassettes dating right back to 1978. Sadly some of them won't play. What happens is that you put them in the cassette machine press play and they might play for a while, then all of a sudden the tape slows down and stops playing then drops out of play mode. The tape gets that tight it just can't move it.

Some commercial tapes suffer from this problem, but the blank tapes you bought to record on are worse. The brand made by EMI I have found to be the worst offenders.

 

Sadly there's not a lot you can do when the tape goes like that. I understand it's caused by the lubricants used on the tapes. Originally these were whale products. When they switched to man made substitutes they just were not as good. So earlier forms of tape will still work now.

Some people might think it was their cassette deck to blame, if they have only one deck. Because the tape makes a terrible squeaking noise and often has very bad wow and flutter, which sometimes can be caused by the deck. But I have put the tape in other decks with the same response.

To give you a scale of how bad the problem is, so far I have lost between 20 and 30 tapes to this!

That is very sad - especially for someone who has kept their tapes. :(

I believe the first number one not on cassette single (since their chart eligibility in 1989ish) was a Chemical Brothers single. I'm fairly sure the last time I saw cassette singles for sale was the week when Victoria Beckham had that double A side (Let your head go/???) out on tape/CD, at WHsmiths, so that might be amongst the last mainstream release on tape during the cassingle era.

I can say for certain that Victoria didn't release a cassette format for that particular single! The last solo Spice Girl to release a cassette single was Emma with 'Maybe' in October 2003.

 

Strangely Melanie C didn't release cassettes for her 2003 singles 'On The Horizon' and 'Melt'/'Yeh Yeh Yeh' - perhaps Virgin records decided to stop issuing cassette singles much earlier on in 2003 (her last cassette single was 'Here It Comes Again' in Feb '03).

I believe the first number one not on cassette single (since their chart eligibility in 1989ish) was a Chemical Brothers single.

 

That's very possible as I can't find any evidence that 'Block Rockin' Beats' (1997) had one, outside of a promo release and bizarrely a Russian one. Setting Sun definitely did and that's their only two #1s.

 

I think the OCC might have just quietly changed the rules around the autumn of 2003 - possibly just after 'Are You Ready For Love' was released - and stopped any new cassette releases from charting, but they continued to be released for singles until the end of the year. All the ones I've found, and others mentioned here, only go as far as then, so it's very possible that all the remaining labels stopped at the same time. Certainly I've read a report from the first quarter of 2004 (January-March) that lists none as being shipped at all for those three months.

 

Or not, this is just a theory - and it doesn't explain why 'Borders' charted on the format nine years later!

Edited April 12, 201411 yr by BillyH

Ooh that's very interesting.

 

I always though Elton was the final UK number one to be released on cassette, but then I discovered on some very old fansites that Busted's 'Crashed The Wedding' was supposedly released on cassette, though have found no proof/info to back that up. If true, I thought it would make that single the final number one to be released on cassette, but if the OCC did quietly change the rules, then maybe it wouldn't have counted anyway.

Edited April 13, 201411 yr by IggyMcPig

'Block Rockin' Beats' was 2CDs and a 12" - but it was released a few weeks after 'Beetlebum', which was two CDs and a 7" so I suspect that Blur take this honour.

 

As for Busted, I can't imagine them releasing a single format that wasn't chart-eligible, so if somebody can find three other UK formats then that would settle that. I can't see why the OCC would bother making a format ineligible either so I assume that labels were just watching the sales figures and came to the same conclusions at the same time.

I'm gonna have to dig out my collection of cassette singles number ones, as I have almost everything in the period of 1989-2003 and will have to see exactly what I have, as it'll narrow down some possibilities. Crashed The Wedding on cassette rings a feint bell so I'll have to see if I have it, I'm pretty sure there was however a CD1 and CD2 for that release. In terms of when cassettes came to an end, is it possible that retailers made the decision in order to make their shelving neater? I believe that HMV and Woolworths' respectively owned the major suppliers for almost all the physical music market at the time, so if one them ditched cassettes then everyone else they supplied would have gone over to CD only at the same time. If it was a loss of chart eligibility (which seems unlikely as 7" never became ineligible to my knowledge) then it wouldn't necessarily have prevented the Feeder cassette single charting more recently, because a lot of chart eligibility rules and restrictions were removed when the full downloading era came in (since restricting physical formats is largely irrelevant now anyway).

Edited April 14, 201411 yr by DanChartFan

OK I've dug out my old cassette singles, and I do indeed have the cassette single for Crashed The Wedding, so that could very well be the last charttopper on the format. I do recall that the reason I bought my first CD player was because Ozzy and Kelly's Changes wasn't available on cassette, but as I recall I found that fairly unusual for a singles release at the time, so I still think that cassettes were available on at least some releases into early 2004 at the very least, maybe they even phased out by region or something (I'm from Swindon, Wilts so not exactly the trendiest or most affluent place (though not the least either)), so it's possible cassettes stayed a little longer here than in other places (and of course Woolworths had tons of old tapes right up until the last day of their closing down sale).

Also in doing some research about the format, and chart rules generally, I discovered this paragraph on http://musicforstowaways.wordpress.com/201...07/chart-rules/ "In 1987, new rules were introduced to limit the number of formats for the first time to five. Perhaps slightly inexplicably looking back, one of those had to be a cassette. So typically a single would be released on 7″, 12″, limited 12″, CD, and of course, a tape. This was reduced to four formats (with the cassette requirement removed) in June 1991, and singles were now limited to a maximum of four tracks". So is that true that singles releases in the late 80s HAD to include a tape format in order to be chart eligible? Or has the author of that article misunderstood somewhere along the line?

1987-1991 is a bit before my single-buying days but I can't believe that every one of the hundreds of charting singles in those years was available on cassette. Guess it's hard to prove a negative though.

OK I've dug out my old cassette singles, and I do indeed have the cassette single for Crashed The Wedding, so that could very well be the last charttopper on the format. I do recall that the reason I bought my first CD player was because Ozzy and Kelly's Changes wasn't available on cassette, but as I recall I found that fairly unusual for a singles release at the time, so I still think that cassettes were available on at least some releases into early 2004 at the very least, maybe they even phased out by region or something (I'm from Swindon, Wilts so not exactly the trendiest or most affluent place (though not the least either)), so it's possible cassettes stayed a little longer here than in other places (and of course Woolworths had tons of old tapes right up until the last day of their closing down sale).

Also in doing some research about the format, and chart rules generally, I discovered this paragraph on http://musicforstowaways.wordpress.com/201...07/chart-rules/ "In 1987, new rules were introduced to limit the number of formats for the first time to five. Perhaps slightly inexplicably looking back, one of those had to be a cassette. So typically a single would be released on 7″, 12″, limited 12″, CD, and of course, a tape. This was reduced to four formats (with the cassette requirement removed) in June 1991, and singles were now limited to a maximum of four tracks". So is that true that singles releases in the late 80s HAD to include a tape format in order to be chart eligible? Or has the author of that article misunderstood somewhere along the line?

I think the author of that article is getting somewhat confused about format restrictions.

 

It was April 1990 when the first real attempt was made to restrict the amount of variants of a single that were chart eligible. In 1989 a number of records were released on a multitude of formats/ variants with some single reportedly being available in a dozen or more versions. The music industry decided to reduce the amount of eligible formats to 5 in April 1990 but I can't remember the specifics. Further restrictions during the 90s reduced this further to 4 then 3, the latter being in 1998.

 

By the way, cassette singles and albums are still a chart eligible format though so few are released these days that the latest version of the chart rules, published by the OCC in 2013, doesn't even mention the format any more. But up to the previous version of the rules (in 2009) they were still mentioned. Music Week also prints the following each week above the Singles and Albums charts: "The Official UK Singles and Albums Charts are produced by the Official Charts Company, based on a sample of more than 4,000 record outlets. They are compiled from actual sales last Sunday to Saturday, incorporating seven-inch, 12-inch, CDs, LPs, digital bundles, download sales and cassettes". In addition the BPI still include cassettes in their annual roundup of record sales. This information is provided by the OCC.

 

There were a handful of cassette singles released last year but these were mainly due to Cassette Store Day which happened last September. Amongst the releases was a re-release of "Forever EP" by Haim. However as only 100 copies were produced it was never going to trouble the charts...

 

http://www.discogs.com/Haim-Forever/release/4965303

 

I wonder how much cassette singles are worth, I've got loads of them, most of them are by the Pet Shop Boys as I used to collect every format of their single catalogue.

 

Most of my collection are unplayable now as the tape would just break up. I just kept them for sentimental reasons.

Apparently 5 Seconds Of Summer are doing a cassette single for RSD (but giving it away not selling it):

https://twitter.com/5SOS/status/454305602198466561/photo/1

Well I've compiled a list of singles that were released on cassette in 2003 (not complete) and you can definitely see that as the year goes on, less and less releases are made on cassette, I've yet to find a single that was released in 2004 on tape, but I'm happy to be proven wrong.

 

 

As for worth......most are only worth what someone is willing to pay. The vast majority aren't worth much, but there are some gems (it should be known that my interest is from late 90's to 2003, so earlier one's could be worth something).

 

Quite a few 2003 releases are hard to find, purely because few were made, and even fewer sold. I sold a copy of 'Bring Me To Life' by Evanescence for just shy of £100 last year. Evanescence have a lot of worldwide fans, and their debut was the only single to get a cassette release, and only in the UK at that (I think the UK must have been one of the last markets to sell cassette single). Britney's 'Me Against The Music' is also a rarity and can go for good money.

 

Most people disregard the cassette, so I've made my own pointless mission to put as many as I can on Discogs!

So it looks like 'Crashed The Wedding' by Busted was the last number 1 single to be released as a cassette single. I think the first may either have been 'Imagine' or 'Woman' by John Lennon. I did once read that 'Imagine' was released as a cassette single in early 1981 but I can't find any reference to it at a website which has a comprehensive listing of all records released by both the Beatles and solo records by the four members of the group. 'Woman', the record that replaced 'Imagine' at number 1 definitely was released as a cassette single in January 1981.

 

Here is the cassette single for 'Woman', going very cheap (so far!) on ebay for 99p

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/John-Lennon-Cass...s-/111325317139

 

I've tried to think of any number 1 records prior to January 1981 which were released on cassette single but can't think of any. Given that the first ever cassette single was released only two and a half years earlier it's likely that either 'Imagine' or 'Woman' is the first.

I ran each of the UK number ones before John Lennon till the first cassette single, on the Tape database of 45 Worlds and you are right Robbie none of them appeared as a Cassette Single.

So John Lennon is the first cassette single number one.

I ran each of the UK number ones before John Lennon till the first cassette single, on the Tape database of 45 Worlds and you are right Robbie none of them appeared as a Cassette Single.

So John Lennon is the first cassette single number one.

Thanks Graham.

 

Was it 'Woman' that was the first number 1 to be released on cassette or did 'Imagine' get a cassette release too? I'm guessing 'Imagine' probably didn't given that there is no listing for that format for the single at jpgr.co.uk.

 

So, we've ascertained that Busted have the distinction of having the last UK number one on cassette (Thanks DanChartFan!!)

 

So at the moment, it looks like the final mainstream cassette released before Feeder was 'Jump' by Girls Aloud, unless we find a later release.

Thanks Graham.

 

Was it 'Woman' that was the first number 1 to be released on cassette or did 'Imagine' get a cassette release too? I'm guessing 'Imagine' probably didn't given that there is no listing for that format for the single at jpgr.co.uk.

 

Imagine is not listed on 45 worlds. In fact only 3 John Lennon cassette singles are on. Two of them being Woman (the other the euro version). The only other Lennon track being Watching The Wheels all on the Geffen Label and from 1981.

 

If uses haven't been to the site it's well worth a visit.

 

45 Worlds Tape section

 

You can narrow any search down by using the filter option. For example just select cassette single.

I was really impressed with the Reel to Reel tapes. The Beatles albums must be worth a packet :huh:

Good point actually, 'Imagine' and 'Woman' were on different labels in the early 80s so it would be an odd coincidence for them both to release cassette singles by the same act so close together. Perhaps 'Imagine' came out on cassette in 1988 or 1999 and people got confused?

 

Incidentally, with all the Britpop anniversary stuff going on lately I dug up my copy of 'Girls & Boys' by Blur - it's designed to look like a packet of something else. There's a cassette of 'Cigarettes & Alcohol' by Oasis that looks like a fag packet too, but I didn't buy that one.