8-Track Memories

In January of 1978, my friends and I started getting out on weekends to spend time together. We would occasionally go to the movies, go bowling or visit an arcade. Most of the time, we would ride the streets of our little town in search of girls to talk with. During this time, an 8-track tape player standard equipment in any of the cars where we regularly spent time. While my musical tastes were always a bit more eclectic than my friends, there were a handful of mainstream rock albums that I really loved that became our soundtrack for that time in our lives. These were albums that I completely loved but had no desire to own a copy because I got to hear them enough when we were out on the town. As I entered college, I would finally break down and pick up copies of these albums.  By that time, vinyl would become my preferred music format. Some of these would later become staples of my CD collection. All of them are on my iPod right now.
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The following list includes the most important of these recordings. I’ve also included a few notes relating to each title. I have also noted the differences in the song order from the album to the 8-track tape. I’ve also noted where some of the songs were split between two tracks. Only people who listened to music on 8-track can appreciate memories of a song fading out in the middle, the loud ka-chunk of the player and the song fading back in. 

​Boston – The self-titled premiere album. The first time I heard this album was at my cousin’s house.  He had a copy of it on vinyl.  This is possibly the tape that got more play that any of the others.  Not a bad song in the lot. Got a lot of play in the car. Boston is the one group on the list that we got to see in concert. Fortunately only one song split between two tracks.

The Eagles Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) – Growing up in the early1970’s and listening to pop music radio, I heard all of these songs and at the same time, not really paying attention to the name of the group.   This greatest hits album made that connection for kids like me. These were great sing along songs. These were the first songs we learned to play on guitar. It seems like these songs were short enough that it would be hard to split any of them between two tracks. They still have to divide two songs.

The Eagles Hotel California – While the Greatest Hits album sometimes seemed like we were grooving to older kids’ music, Hotel California was all ours. This was the album that The Eagles made for us. I remember hearing for the first time on a portable 8-track tape player in the chemistry lab of our high school.  It also seemed like we had several new kids at school about the time “New Kid in Town” was released as the first single.  I seem to remember listening to the first three tracks of this album more than any others. Since they were all on the first two tracks, we probably just clicked over and listened to the first two tracks over and over again.

Meatloaf – Bat Out Of Hell – Paradise By The Dashboard Light was probably the perfect song for a bunch of hormonal teenage boys on the prowl in the 1970’s. The big arrangements of the songs and clever use of common phrases as hooks made this album appealing beyond the hit song that seemed like something we couldn’t listen to around our parents.  Having a tape with the word “Hell” in the title was scandalous enough.

Animal House Soundtrack – This album was packed with songs that were hits well before our time. I include it on this list because it was one of the albums that we listened to from the beginning. This might not have been our music but it was our movie. It was probably the first R rated movie we managed to get into without the knowledge of our parents. The fact that it included bits of dialogue from the movie made it that more appealing. “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?”

It seems like that period of time in my life would last forever but only spanned a little over two and a half years. I contacted some of my friends about this post before I wrote it. There were a few more albums that I thought were worth noting.

Steve Miller Band Greatest Hits 1974-78 – Steve Miller came into his own as we started getting out. While Fly Like an Eagle and Book of Dreams were hit albums, we didn’t really start listening to him much until his Greatest Hits album was released. Unlike the Eagles Greatest Hits, most of the songs on this set became hits while we were of 8-track buying age and not just AM radio staples

 The Dobbie Brothers Best of the Doobies – Another compilation of really great songs from our AM radio days.

Chicago IX – Another greatest hits set that was in everyone’s 8-track tape case.

Foreigner – Seems like their first album got a lot of play during those days

Queen A Night At The Opera – Named after my all-time favorite movie. We listened to it for Bohemian Rhapsody if nothing else.

KISS  Love Gun – Everyone had a copy of KISS Alive! And Destroyer but we rarely listened to them together. When Love Gun came out, we had to get it as soon as it came out. It was hot for a couple of weeks.