8-track tapes originated in America in the 1960s. They were primarily designed for playing pre-recorded music in cars and trucks, but home and portable players were made, too. There were even some recordable 8-track decks. 8-track was a huge success in the U.S. until the now familiar audio cassette took over in the later half of the '70s. Outside the American "car culture", 8-tracks were less popular. They were made and sold in Britain for several years. In most other countries they never appeared at all.
The advantage of 8-track was simplicity. Just pop the tape into the player and it plays continuously - no turning it over. You can change the song just by pressing a button. The disadvantage was that you cannot rewind an 8-track tape to hear a song again. The tape is in an endless loop inside the cartridge. You just have to wait until the same section of tape comes past again. (Some decks allowed fast forward, but this risks breaking the tape.)
A much more serious problem with 8-tracks is that of reliability. The moving head in an 8-track player gradually goes out of alignment, causing the listener to hear two songs at once. (This can be fixed by adjusting a special screw on the head.) Sometimes the two ends of tape come apart, breaking the loop causing the cartridge to fail. Often the mechanical parts inside the cartridge (the roller and pressure pad) were made of poor quality material. That resulted in the tape jamming or breaking. When low-cost, reliable audio cassettes came on the market, the fate of 8-track was sealed.
Despite 8-track's reputation for breaking down, the tapes in the photo are all more than 20 years old and still play well. The music on them has not dated much, either. A number of songs on these elderly tapes have recently been re-recorded by contemporary artists.
As I mentioned, most 8-track tapes were American but I have collected some from around the World. Click below to see a few of them (Label, year and country of issue in brackets. * = issued under licence from the USA).
Lou Reed - Transformer (RCA, 1972, England*)
Pin-Ball Rock (K-tel International, Canada)
Motown Chartbusters III (EMI, 1969, England*)
Van McCoy and Soul City - Disco Baby (Avco, 1975,
Belgium)
Stardust (Ronco, 1975, UK)
The Harder They Come (Island, 1973, Jamaica*)
Saturday Night Fever (RSO, 1977, England*)
Holst - The Planets (Contour, 1974, England)
CHFI - Candlelight and Wine Album (CBS, 1978,
Canada)
Engelbert Humperdinck - We made it happen (Decca,
1970, Belgium)
George Mpille - Greek title (Aegeon, 1975, Greece)
Super Pak (Oriental 8-track tape)
Metrosound blank cart made for use in 8-track
recorders. It is British made - note the spelling of the word "programme".
8 Track Trading
Are you looking for a cartridge or you want to buy a player? Or do you have some old tapes or equipment that you don't need anymore? If so, e-mail me with the details, especially if you live in the U.K. and maybe we can do a deal.
Some 8-track links:
8-Track Heaven A website with
everything to know about 8 tracks.
8-track tapes
and how to fix them - an excellent site with both words and pictures
on the subject.
In Your Ear U.S. record shop that sells
brand new 8-track tapes. They'll ship them to England, too - but the price
of postage is terrible.
This site is a member of the 8 Track Webring.
