Hip-Pocket Records!

[@osdelced]

By a stroke of luck I was lucky enough to find one of those records: Light My Fire by The Doors. My little record only has the problem that because it was poorly stored between some old books and papers, it had a fairly high wave, and I must stick it with a few small pieces of scotch tape to the turntable plate so that the stylus does not jump. Greetings from Mexico!.

[@cesardominguez]

I LOVE your Funny Reviews, Record-ology!! My MP3 Audio files are already FAULTING in my Mini SD Cards... Having said so, that these HipPocket Record from the Pre-Cavemen Age can WORK is OUTSTANDING!!

[@timallen2336]

I have about half of the Hip-Pocket discs ever made. I would love to own them all, but a few of them are pretty rare. I have played them on my podcast before to demonstrate them and actually they don't sound all that bad. I have definitely included worse sounding records than these, such as cereal box records. It's great to see them being discussed! take care...

[@danieldaniels7571]

I have several and one of the original players. The ones I have in good shape sound pretty good played on a decent turntable.

[@Creptex]

Does discogs have a database of the cereal box records? Would love to get a collection of them. I already have 8 of the hip pocket records and would love more.

[@Segatari]

A vending machine selling records? That’s so cool! Too bad I was born in the 80s and did not get to see those machines in person. I just really can’t imagine how fun it’d be to take out some of my pocket change and buy Hey Jude on those 4” records.

I'm from Argentina and I just LOVE those failed formats! If I were there I would colect them all. Down here they never got to come, and importing them now is kind of impossible with our dictatorship and the taxes and prohibitions that we got... Just think about it: an Ortofon 2M red costs all my salary. I love your videos! Always watch them! Greetings from Argentina!!!

[@Recordology]

Thank you for watching! Very interesting about the difficulty in importing - so sorry you have to deal with that....

[@jeremy_h]

I would love to see singles be widely released again on records, no matter the format.

[@kevinsvideodump]

Even Percy Sledge doesn't look too impressed by it.

[@Recordology]

lol

[@Perlesni]

Just learned about the existence of these day. I was a child of the 90s/millennium and had plenty of Hit Clips. I knew at the time they were kind of dumb but thought it was a funny little flash in the pan novelty. Love that they has basically the same idea in the 60s. Physical media is so interesting.

[@platterjockey]

I had a few of these when I was six years old, but I had the rock/pop titles.

[@pcallas66]

That was the number one song the day I was born.

[@51gary51]

I was 16 in the year 1967. Buying records was my life, and it had been since I was a little kid. I honestly don't remember these Hip-Pocket records. Where were they advertised -- on TV?

[@Recordology]

Great question - I am not sure!

[@Creptex]

Lookup techmoan hip pocket records on KZbin and he made a nice video on these

[@xaenon]

Philco wasn't really 'out of their league' trying it. Philco was very much involved with audio equipment - everything from transistor radios to full-on stereo consoles and even a lot of appliances (Grams had a Philco refrigerator).. Ford owned them, yes, and Philco did build a lot of Ford's radios. . But as you correctly identified, the market wasn't really ready for yet another record format, and certainly not one that was only providing older tunes that most of the youth market probably already had on 45. And yes, you are also correct that it was a bit too fiddly to be truly accepted. Incidentally, that portable 45-only slot-loader record player you demonstrated a while ago? Its ancestor was already being produced right about this time - another nail in the coffin. . And if this wasn't enough, there was new tape format, basically a scaled-down portable version of the 8-Track, being tossed into the market - the PlayTape - and right around this time as well. It was similarly doomed, because actual portable 8-Tracks were also in the market. . Oh, a bit of trivia as well.... Philips developed the compact cassette, but in America it was marketed by Norelco, whom Philips owned. The reason the Norelco name was used in North America was because they did not want to be confused with Philco.

[@Recordology]

I had heard that about Phillips and Norelco.... and indeed the compact cassette helped kill off hip-pocket as well. When I said out of their league I was referring more in terms of bringing a new format to market unsuccessfully.

[@maximluus]

Another great video!

[@Recordology]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@adrianandkatrinadove203]

another very interesting subject.....had never heard of these either..

[@jimmiesmith5811]

I wonder would it play on a crosley revaluation record player and i noticed when you were showing the other records i saw one the said Brenda and the tabulations but Barbara Mason's picture on there instead i guess its one of those classic mix ups

[@Recordology]

Interesting!

[@kennethbesselman5739]

They had a series of fairy tale records The one Jack in The Beanstalk.actually had a reference to an off color phrase

[@larryshaver3568]

I had some of those many years ago

[@AgdaFingers]

"It seemed like a good idea at the time...." Then as the video kept going, the disadvantages of this format just kept coming.

[@danieldaniels7571]

I have the Philco hip-pocket player you showed the pictures of. It’s actually a great little portable, and does fine at playing LPs and regular 45s. It’s also got a pretty decent AM radio on it. The hip-pocket records actually play well and sound good on a high-end manual turntable too as long as the arm is capable of reaching its end groove. Most manual portables that kids would’ve used in the mid-60s play them without problem. Those were made much better than the modern plastic Chinese junk you played it on.

[@icpizzaboy]

my technics sl-1100 will play them easy and also the 3 inch records as well using a conical stylus never use elliptical the alignment will be way off and damage them possibly

[@danieldaniels7571]

That doesn’t seem possible since as he demonstrated the 3” records have a smaller hole.

[@mrmjb1960]

Made by Ford-Philco,and carried on by Apple.

[@SQDLVR]

Wow those are weird!

[@xaenon]

A lot of weird variations of existing things were introduced in the 1960s. Only a handful of them survived.

[@dominicocon4680]

Trading records...would there be an exodia equivalent?

[@xaenon]

Trading records was actually fairly common, particularly amongst teen girls. When the cassette became more advanced technologically and more prominent in the 1970s, and home recording more prevalent, 'music' trading escalated again. By the 1980s, the recording industry was seriously butthurt by this and tried really hard to put the kibosh on it.

[@danieldaniels7571]

@@xaenon I didn’t know many with cassettes in the 70s. Most people I knew had 8-tracks and records. Trading 45s was pretty popular amongst my friends as kids in the ‘70s.

[@dm95422]

And I thought 8 Tracks were horrible.....

[@kennethpotts5056]

Why would anyone wear a plastic disc as a fashion statement like that add !

[@xaenon]

I think the idea of the ad was to show how small they were. And although the concept of wearing mini-flexi records as fashion is absurd, in the late 1980s, there were the tiny little Pocket Rocker tapes and their special little player. The little tapes had clips and they WERE worn as fashion accessories. But then, the 1980s was an absurd decade.

[@Recordology]

That was actually was an add for earrings to clip on the records! Notice how she has to tilt her head up to keep them from bending on her collar bone - what a terrible product idea.....lol