The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I thought I would start a new thread on the topic of puzzle records, since there are probably a lot of collectors who have never heard of them or seen one. Being an OCD collector, these things fascinated me from the beginning and I have tried to find as many examples of them as I could.

Basically, a "puzzle record" is a record with concentric grooves that has a varying number of selections on the same side. Unlike a medley record or a record with multiple selections divided by a space in the grooves, puzzle records appear to be a normal recording. The difference is that when you place the tonearm on the record, depending on which groove you hit, you will get a different random selection each time you play it.

Commonly, these records show up as betting records with horse races, boat races and number games on both sides. Because of the random selections, you never know which horse, boat or number will win - there can be as many as six different selections per side. I just obtained a Limerick puzzle record which has two sections of grooves on each side. The first section has 6 limerick beginnings and the second section has 6 different endings which gives a possibility of 36 different completed limericks per side... There are also party records, fortune telling records and others, but because they appear to be normal recordings, they are hard to find. Let me know what titles you have and see if we can come up with some idea of what's out there.

Here is a link to some of my puzzle records... although not a complete list. Click the "play" button to start a slideshow, or just click and drag the pics to display the labels.

http://www.preservemymoney.com/PuzzleRe ... cords.html

Limerick record side one and side two:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3wtYQBT2oQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFlcGWjBShA

In the 30's Columbia offered "Double Track" records on their bargain priced Clarion, Harmony & Velvet Tone labels - you get the same selection twice, as a vocal and an instrumental.

estott wrote:In the 30's Columbia offered "Double Track" records on their bargain priced Clarion, Harmony & Velvet Tone labels - you get the same selection twice, as a vocal and an instrumental.

Kind of like the "Music Minus One" records of a later period.

Henry wrote:

estott wrote:In the 30's Columbia offered "Double Track" records on their bargain priced Clarion, Harmony & Velvet Tone labels - you get the same selection twice, as a vocal and an instrumental.

Kind of like the "Music Minus One" records of a later period.

not exactly- the arrangements are different- on "Sunny Skies" the vocal starts out over piano with the orchestra sneaking in under the chorus. On the instrumental it's full orchestra straight through.

Here is a puzzle record issued by Zonophone in 1911 to commemorate the Coronation of H.M. King George V and Queen Mary :

I have the following, although not of such interest as Epigramophone's nor many in your fine collection Curt:

HMV B 8048 (1934) - Forfeits Old And New, a record for parties (for ladies on one side, for gentlemen on the other)
Decca V 104 (1936) - Magi-trak horse racing game with accessories (fairly common)
Zonophone 5000 (1927) - Black Diamonds Band, 3 tunes per side
5 ⅜" Little Marvel F 241/F 243 (1923-26)
HMV B 3775 (1931) - Puzzle Record, Novelty Orchestra, 3 tunes per side
HMV B 3825 (1931) - Puzzle Record No. 2, Novelty Orchestra, 3 tunes per side (one has Al Bowlly vocal)

Orchorsol,
I love those HMV puzzle records and the Forfeits disc. I have all of those, but I am not sure about the Little Marvel. Can you post a pic of that?

Epigramophone,
Nice record... one of my favorites just for the historical aspect alone. I found mine in England, where did you get yours?

It was given to me by a collector friend, sadly no longer with us, who specialised in records featuring the British Royal Family.

This was one of his duplicates!