TellZall's object for October is the Eight-track Tape Player

In 1965 the Ford Motor Company introduced two products that became overnight sensations: the Mustang automobile and eight-track audio tape players. The growing youth market rushed to purchase both. In 1966 Ford buyers ordered some 65,000 eight-track players as options in their new automobiles.

Tape recorders were not new in 1965. In the 1920s, German scientists successfully used flexible tape coated with magnetic particles to record sound. After World War II, tape recorders caught on with audio fans, who purchased reel-to-reel recorders to capture radio broadcasts. Recording companies also began to offer prerecorded tapes as alternatives to vinyl records. Most of the interest in these recorders and prerecorded tapes came from devoted audiophiles interested in classical music.

While the reel-to-reel recorder offered quality sound reproduction, it was heavy, cumbersome, and somewhat difficult to operate. The recorders certainly were not portable and were unsuitable for use in automobiles. Inventors worked to overcome these limitations by placing the tape into a compact cartridge that could be inserted into a playback-only machine. The ability to record was not important for such applications.

William Powell Lear (1902–78), a prolific inventor perhaps best known for his LearJet airplane, attacked the problem. He came up with a plastic cartridge that held 1/4-inch magnetic tape that was recorded in eight "tracks," providing four stereo programs in a single cartridge. The tape was placed in a continuous loop that played over and over again without rewinding. By switching tracks, either manually or automatically by the player, listeners had four stereo programs per cartridge.

The idea really caught on when Ford offered it as an option. Chrysler and General Motors followed suit, and soon home players were on the market as well. Recording companies began offer eight-track cartridges in addition to the more traditional vinyl record. And record clubs, like Columbia House, also sold eight-tracks. Everyone, it seemed, was jumping on the eight-track bandwagon.

But the bubble burst. The eight-track technology was tough on recording tape, and the cartridges wore out. Sometimes the tapes jammed. And listeners found it difficult to select a particular song.

In Europe the Norelco and Philips companies had developed the now-familiar audio cassette for use with small, battery-powered recorders that could be used for recordings that did not require quality reproduction. The tape was narrow and the reproduction range limited, but the units were compact, rugged, easy to operate, and did not destroy tape. The companies worked diligently to improve audio quality and were successful.

By the mid-1970s, cassette quality had improved to where the format could compete with eight-track recordings. Rather quickly, the smaller cassette replaced the bulky eight-track. Today, eight-track players are found mainly in restored 1960s automobiles.