Before Vinyl: The Obsessive World of 78 Collecting

A new album/book compilation from Tompkins Square tackles the question: Are 78s having a moment?

By Jim Allen

Before Vinyl: The Obsessive World of 78 Collecting

Treasures Untold A Modern 78 RPM Reader

Various

2025

Folk, World, & Country

CD, Record Store Day, Compilation

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“All you need is a three-millimeter stylus,” says Josh Rosenthal, dangling the golden key to a lost world to the mysterious, magical land of 78s with his recently released album/book Treasures Untold on his Tompkins Square label. You may need the stylus to play 78s, but not to listen in on Rosenthal’s release, celebrating record geekdom’s most arcane format in all its anachronistic glory.

Before LPs took over, 78 RPM records, made from shellac rather than vinyl, were the dominant format from the 1920s through the 1950s. Today, they represent a bygone era that, for some, was a golden age for blues, jazz, country, folk, and more. Tompkins Square, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, has released material sourced from 78s in the past. However, the CD part of the Treasures Untold package, with contemporary artists covering songs from the shellac era, provides a breadcrumb trail back to the past for potential 78 converts.

“I think there have been different flashpoints that have brought people closer to it,” says Rosenthal, “whether it’s [2003 archival gospel box] Goodbye Babylon or Jack White’s Paramount box sets.

“I was kind of hoping that the book would push that a little bit. That’s part of the reason I’m doing the CD too, to bridge that gap. Maybe somebody who is a Gwenifer Raymond fan who hears her doing ‘Coo Coo Bird’ will go, ‘That’s cool, I want some Clarence Ashley 78s.’”

The book, edited by Rosenthal, includes contributions from artists, historians, hotshot collectors, and more. Passionate 78 lovers like music documentarian Joe Lauro, author/musician Kinny Rorrer, guitarist Nathan Salsburg, and producer/music businessman David Katznelson jump into just about every aspect of the 78 experience you could imagine.

A chapter by precocious high schooler Jay Burnett, who hosts a radio show, details the Gen Z route to 78 obsession. “He’s so sophisticated in the way he discusses music, it’s insane,” Rosenthal marvels.

On the other end of the spectrum, British collector, dealer, and former music business leader Bob Bell — appropriately enough, 78 years old at the time of writing — offers firsthand memories of the first American rock ‘n’ roll records invading England in the ‘50s.

There’s nothing like the zeal of the newly converted, and Rosenthal’s leap into the medium is relatively fresh. He’s only a couple of years into his own, already estimable 78 collection, and one of the perks of putting together Treasures Untold was the opportunity to learn from the experts. As a lifelong LP collector, however, his newfound passion for 78s aligns with his long-standing listening habits.

“I have an Audio Technica turntable like everybody else,” he reports. “But I twist the headshell out, I put in my 78 cartridge with the 3mm Ortofon stylus, and I’m good. I do it all day long. I switch back and forth. It takes five seconds.”

Like anything else, 78 collecting offers the potential for swimming out into the deep end of the pool. It’s not so tough to build a quality collection on the cheap. “There’s a stratospheric layer of 78s that I will never obtain,” Rosenthal declares. “I will never buy a 78 for a thousand dollars. Maybe I’ll buy a record for $200 — I’ve only done it once. That was a signed Louis Armstrong ‘West End Blues’ on Okeh from a reputable dude.”

Shellac records with sky-high price tags are as common as they are with vinyl. There’s no shortage of solid material available at budget-friendly prices, though, especially if you’re not out for the esoteric.

It’s The Talk Of The Town / Stuffy

Coleman Hawkins And His Orchestra

1945

Jazz, Swing

Shellac, 10″, 78 RPM

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“There are certain people who never recorded anything bad,” says Rosenthal. “And their records are ubiquitous. Coleman Hawkins [was] incredible, but his 78s are not expensive. Hank Williams, probably the greatest songwriter of the 20th century — most of his [78s] are inexpensive, all the MGM stuff is within reach. Fats Domino, who’s better than that? All his [shellacs] on Imperial are dirt cheap.”

One difference between vinyl and the shellac habit is that with the latter, the connection between condition and playability can be more mysterious. And it’s a Herculean task to find a 78 in mint condition anyway.

“I like condition-challenged records,” says Rosenthal, “because sometimes they sound good. The other day, I found the Louis Armstrong Hot Five, ‘Heebie Jeebies.’ The guy said, ‘Oh, it’s got a little crack,’ or something. I said, ‘I’ll try it for 10 bucks.’ It played like a dream. Sometimes you find a 78 that looks amazing visually, and it looks like no one has ever touched it.”

With 78s, a record can be like a history lesson, or even a piece of history in and of itself. “I was listening to this Jay McShann 78 called ‘Confessing the Blues,’ recalls Rosenthal. “It was quite familiar, I’m like, ‘OK, I know this song, the Rolling Stones did this song.’ Then I learned that it’s been played by various blues musicians, but this is the original version. This record is where the song came from. That’s cool, and it happens all the time. The whole thing about 78s is you get to see the timeline of 20th-century music so much more clearly.”

Despite 78 collectors dealing exclusively with the past, there are still plenty of opportunities for discoveries. For example, Rosenthal recently bought a large collection with obscurities he’d never heard of. He pulls one from the pile. “The Wright Family. You’re like, ‘What the hell is that?’ It’s a gospel record, ‘When I Take My Vacation in Heaven.’ These guys barely recorded. It’s so great. You would never know unless you start collecting 78s.”

And for all the excitement that accompanies hunting for records out in the wild, Rosenthal feels that online tools are critical for today’s 78 collector. “I have my entire collection listed on Discogs. I looked it up, I think at any given moment there are 200,000 78s for sale on Discogs. There’s been a massive movement by a small handful of collectors to [catalog] everything.”

“Sometimes Discogs is great for buying, too,” says Rosenthal. “You can bang into those filters. I can look up ‘Country,’ ‘Shellac,’ and ‘Newly Listed,’ and then I can look at all the country 78s that are newly listed there. That’s a great way to find [records], you can do it for any genre. So let this be that moment where people realize they can buy 78s on Discogs. And cataloging collections is as important as buying 78s. I’m in the wild and I see a Carter Family record. I think, ‘I want it, but do I have this already?’ Boom, I can go right in and see if I have that variant. That’s what tons of people already use Discogs for, but for 78s, that’s super helpful.”

If you’re just starting to kick off a collection, the album included with Treasures Untold could point you in some interesting directions. Each track is a different artist’s interpretation of a song they love from a classic 78 single. Even if the original version is hard to find, it can still guide you toward other great music. You start with something new, then follow the trail back to the original. With 78s, the real joy is not just in what you discover, but in where the music leads you.

Jim Allen has contributed to MOJO, Uncut, Billboard, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Record Collector, Bandcamp Daily, NPR, Rock & Roll Globe, and many more, and written liner notes for reissues on Sundazed Records, Shout! Factory, and others. He’s also a veteran singer/songwriter with several albums to his credit.