Icy Fingers / Too Old To Cry
Overall (HWD) (sleeve): 7 × 7 1/8 in. (17.78 × 18.098 cm)
This 45 record features songs by two different artists. Side A is “Icy Fingers” by The Playboys, a local Seattle, Washington, band formed by a group of schoolmates. Side B is “Too Old to Cry” by Gary Hodge from Spokane, Washington.
Both The Playboys and Gary Hodge (b. unknown) officially released their songs with Dolton Records in 1959. At the time, Dolton had recently switched to Kearney Barton’s (1931-2012) Northwest Recorders for recording their albums and singles. Barton was also relatively new to the business, having just purchased Northwest Recorders (formerly Electricraft) in 1958, and as can be seen on this 45, was still using Electricraft’s in-house Listen labels with Northwest Recorders printed on later.
Based on the album sleeve, the disc itself is an Audiodisc from Audio Devices, Inc. Audiodiscs were blank, recordable discs to which music could be recorded directly, rather than the much longer process of mixing and then cutting a record. Recording studios would use this type of direct-to-disc recording to quickly create reference discs for their clients.
It’s likely that this 45 was created as a reference disc for Dolton Records, and not intended for distribution.
7” phonograph record with red and white label. A side text reads: “Listen / 45 RPM / Inst. / “Icy Fingers” / Playboys / Northwest Recorders / Electricraft Seattle, Washington” B side text reads: “Listen / 45 RPM / Vocal / “Too Old to Cry” / Gary Hodge / Northwest Recorders / Electricraft Seattle, Washington”
Brown paper album sleeve. Text, printed in red, reads: “audiodiscs / Caution / The thread cut from all professional quality recording discs is highly inflammable! Keep this thread away from sparks or flame! / Audio Devices, Inc. / 444 Madison Avenue New York 22, N.Y. / makers of audiotape” There is a small cartoon of magnetic tape reel, also printed in red. Text and image are identical on both sides.
