Welcome to 16 RPM Music Records
This website shows various 12-inch (30 cm) records made for the 16 RPM setting of record players.
We acknowledge that the format was often used for talking books.
However on this site the focus is on 16 RPM records with MUSIC!!

Many of the records shown below are gifts from my good friend and fellow collector Klaas Jelle Veenstra, (who dared to conquer the mountain).

Record players made in the 1950's and the 1960's often had four speed settings, 78, 45, 33 and 16 rpm (revolutions per minute). The 78 position was for older records from the 20's to the 40's. The 45 and 33 positions were for respectively singles and LP's. The 16 rpm position was not used very often, mainly because it delivered poor sound quality. However it doubled the playing time of the more familiar 12-inch 33 rpm records and was therefore used for spoken-word records like plays and talking books.

A few record companies like Prestige experimented with the format for extra-long-play music records, featuring artists such as Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Quartet.

In South Africa the format almost appears to have been re-invented sometime in the mid 60's with the appearance of a range of party albums and hit collections from various labels. The CBS label (linked to US parent company Columbia) and the Fontana label (linked to Polygram and later Universal) released various albums, as did Pye, Rave, Continental and even UK-Columbia.

And by the way, the exact speed is of course 16 2/3 RPM. It should be noted that this is the same as exactly 100 revolutions in 6 minutes!

Title and artist	Sleeve Front	Sleeve Rear	Label A-Side	Label B-Side
CBS Teen Scene 68 Probably one of the last 16 RPM records to come out of South Africa So far no 16 RPM records have been found from 1969
Liberty The VEntures Dance Party Spectacular LLIB7161
CBS Ken Griffin Souvenir Album KLD 4511
CBS This Is Super LP KLD. 4501 Note picture of Garrard deck with 16 RPM setting
CBS Spectacular Star Sensation KLD 4509
Reprise Trini Lopex Dance Party Spectacular Volume 2 R 117
Dancetime Will Kennedy Enjoy an hour in stereo Magnavox WK-1502-S Part of a series
CBS Spectacular Various Artists CBS KLD.4502 Note that a Garrard deck is shown on the front and rear of the sleeve.
CBS Festival Spectacular Various Artists CBS KLD.4507
Fontana It's Happening Various Artists Fontana 16TL639
Fontana It's Happening Again Various Artists Fontana 16TL648
Reprise Dance Party Spectarular Trini Lopez Reprise R116
CBS Super Spectacular CBS KLD 4512
CBS Dance Spectacular CBS KLD 4506
PYE Dance Party Spectacular (Vol 1) PYE P161
PYE Dance Party Spectacular (Vol 2) PYE P162
PYE Dance Party Spectacular (Vol 3) PYE P163
RCA Victor Jim Reeves Souvenir Album RCA 16.002 Note: several versions have been found, some with 33 rpm label error as shown! A corrected version is also in the collection
RCA Victor Virginia Lee souvenir Album RCA 16.008
Rave Command Performance Vol 4. ERMG 1211 Therefore there must also be vols 1-3
CBS Ray Conniff Souvenir Album KLD 4510
Columbia Ninety Minute Special 16JSX 6001
CBS Dan Hill Dial Dan For Dancing KLD 4505 Notes: includes ad for "This Is Super Long Play" KLD 4501 Check out ad for Garrard decks and the 16 rpm setting
NOT YET FOUND Modern Jazz Quartet and Milt Jackson Quartet Concorde Prestige 1
NOT YET FOUND Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants Prestige 3
NOT YET FOUND Jay Jay Johnson Trombone By Three Prestige 4
NOT YET FOUND John Coltrane and others Modern Jazz Survey Prestige 6
NOT YET FOUND Jim Reeves Souvenier Album volume 2 RCA Victor
NOT YET FOUND Charles Jacobi Souvenier Album CBS
NOT YET FOUND Chubby Checker Discotheque Continental
NOT YET FOUND CBS Party Spectacular CBS KLD 4504 A copy with a red CBS label is in the collection
NOT YET FOUND George Wallington Prestige 5
NOT YET FOUND Billy Taylor Prestige 2