[78-L] Unusually long 78RPM sides

[Bryan Wright]

Over the past few years as I've been indexing my collection, I've made  
notes of playing times (when pitched correctly). Ignoring those budget  
label multi-track 78s of the 1950s and ignoring special promotional  
records that might have especially short sides, here are some of the  
extremes I've come across for 10-inch 78s. Of course, this is out of a  
relatively small sampling of approximately 2,000 78s I've catalogued  
so far:

Shortest: Mercury 70318 (Sammy Spear: "Watermelon") - 1:19
Longest (lateral fine-grooved "long play" of the early 1930s): Velvet  
Tone 10506 (Ben Selvin: "Snuggled On Your Shoulder") - 5:07
Longest (lateral 1920s era standard groove): Victor 19874 (Victor  
Salon Trio: "Mother Machree") - 3:49

FWIW,
Bryan W.