Cardboard Records

[Dan Gould]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/arts/music/cereal-box-records.html?unlocked_article_code=1.mU8.qang.mh-zDPPJe9xT&smid=url-share

 

I have no recollection whatsoever of these recordings but surely some of the slightly older members do?

[Kevin Bresnahan]

They weren't "cardboard" records. They were plastic glued onto the cardboard box, so they were actually very thin vinyl with a cardboard backing.

I seem to remember having a few. The Monkees maybe? They sounded like shit and wore out very quickly.

[Big Beat Steve]

Of course I am not familiar with these particular "cereal box" cardboard records but I do have a few from other sources (in most cases very thin vinyl glued onto a cardboard backing, as Kevin Bresnahan says).

Some that seem to have been relatively frequent here in the later 50s and early 60s are recordings by German pop singers pressed on these promo vinyl-sheet singles, with the cardboard backing of the thin vinyl providing promo messages e.g. for radio or shoe manufacturers. Usually the recordings were not linked to the products but there also were recordings made specifically with promo lyrics relating to the products.
Or sometimes just providing some music as a gimmick, such as a series of promo thin-vinyl 45s by the French branch of the ESSO gas brand (Exxon to the U.S. ) covering the various regions of France, with each  45 containing traditional folk music from the respective region. 

There also were "sound postcards", with the vinyl attached to a square cardboard postcard. Usually with a mixture of music and invitational messages from the place or location promoted on the postcard.
Similar promo sound postcards relating, for example, to car manufacturers are very collectible with car buffs. 

The oddest item I came across is a thin floppy transparent single (no cardboard backing!) titled "Engine Faults" given away with a late 50s issue of the British "Car Mechanics" monthly mag and to be played at 33 rpm. I played it only once, placing it on a real 45 for support (it sounded wobbly and decidedly lo-fi), and unfortunately it got kinked in storage since so it's probably unplayable now.  

 

Edited 6 hours ago by Big Beat Steve

[Royal Oak]

We never got those in the UK as far as I know, certainly not in my lifetime. I well remember "flexi discs" (as described by Big Beat Steve above) which were sometimes given away in music magazines, or for promotional material.

A few years ago I came across a handful of these in a box of records I bought - they were 7 inchers, and contained promotional material aimed at Doctors, for medications for diabetes and depression as I recall. I also remember one for Pontins Holiday Camps (I'm sure the older Brits will recall those) which was a ditty titled "Thumbs Up, Book Early!"