SERIES 9: PHONOGRAPHIC RECORDINGS Boxes 49 - 51
Browse the Phonographic Recordings collection
The Phonographic Recordings Series consists of sixty-two sound recordings on vinyl disks formatted at 45 rpm, 78 rpm, or 33.3 rpm. The recordings date from 1961 to 1983, though most of the materials date from 1962 and 1963. The series includes one 45 rpm record containing a campaign song performed by John Stewart of the Kingston Trio for John Glenn's 1964 senate campaign. All other records in the series pertain to either Glenn's Friendship 7 space flight or to other aspects of NASA's early space programs. The arrangement of the series is first by record format for preservation purposes, then alphabetically by name of the recording artist or record company name.
Among the 33.3 rpm records are recordings of Glenn's Friendship 7 space flight and other Project Mercury space flights commercially produced by such major record labels as Columbia Records, Reprise Records, and the National Broadcasting Company. A typical record may contain sound excerpts from the space flight's air/ground communications, from the flight's media coverage, and from the events following the flight's successful conclusion. Other 33.3 rpm records in the series contain musical tributes to either John Glenn or to the NASA space program in general. Also included is a recording of the Friendship 7 space flight produced by the U.S. Information Agency for use in English language classes. Another record contains an interview of John Glenn, dated April 31, 1963, from the NBC news program "Meet the Press."
Most 45 rpm and 78 rpm recordings in the series contain songs written to commemorate John Glenn and the Friendship 7 space flight. These recordings offer a variety of songs performed by either professional musicians or by amateurs of varying degrees of talent. Typical of the songs represented in the series are such titles as "The Day John Glenn Came Home," "Mighty John Glenn," "Big John Glenn," "Orbit with Me," "I Dreamed I was an Astronaut," "Just a Spaceman," and three different selections of "The Ballad of John Glenn."