8-Track

This was the first practical way to play recorded music in your car and was invented in 1964 by Bill Lear and developed by a diverse consortium, including RCA Victor. the Ford Motor Company and the Lear Jet Company.

While recordings made on magnetic tape dated back to the 1940s with the reel-to-reel tape recorder, the annoying rethreading of reel-to-reels limited its appeal to the general consumer. It was the advent of the endless (or “infinite”) loop tape that was a game-changer.

A 4-track cartridge appeared first and soon found favour at radio stations as jingles and advertisements could be set up on the tape loops, so once they had been played, they were all ready to go the next time. Players were soon developed for cars to take advantage of this new format.

The 8-track tape cartridge represented a significant advancement over the 4-track, which was typically limited to approximately 40 minutes of music.

Although called 8-tracks there were still only 4 “programmes” (presumably they now had the capacity to be in stereo), and at least they now played in sequence without too much button pressing.

Ford included a dashboard-mounted 8-track player option in three of its 1966 models (the Mustang, the Thunderbird, and the Lincoln), while RCA Victor, rolled out a selection of close to 200 new 8-track releases, culling from their library of albums.

Unfortunately, the tracks were too short to hold the album-side length rock compositions that were popular in the 70s prog-rock era. By splitting two-sided LPs into four, a tune would often stop halfway through as the tape moved over to the next track.

Just as you were getting lost in the music, it would fade out and chhkunk! . . . the deck would change tracks before continuing the music.

Certain artists just seemed to suit the 8-track format; people like Bread, Jim Croce and Seals & Crofts.

With their stereophonic sound, portability, and ease of use, 8-tracks were also introduced into the home.

Home 8-track players were sold separately, or in some cases, built into the same stereo component as a record player and AM/FM radio.

The best 8-track player was probably the early 70s Panasonic Dynamite 8 plastic portable player (pictured) in red, yellow or blue and shaped like a dynamite detonator. You had to push down the plunger to change tracks.

By the early 1980s, the 8-track was losing ground to the low-cost, less bulky cassette tape (which had the added advantage of offering superior sound quality).

The 8-track has since been consigned to decay in the back rooms of Salvation Army shops and basements everywhere.