A Draft Proposal on the History of Recording Race Car Sounds: Ben Grauer and Riverside Records

Hi folks -- working on a paper for a session at the spring, 2018 Popular Culture Association meeting, to be held in Indianapolis.

Here is a draft abstract:

Bill Grauer and Riverside Records:  A Jazz Label Captures the Sounds of Sports and Race Cars, 1956-1962

John A. Heitmann

University of Dayton

For an automotive enthusiast, car sounds are often important signifiers and of considerable interest. For example, every late October for the past seven years the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart opens its door to the public on “Sound Night” so that distinctive vehicles’ engines can be exhibited live. Screaming Porsches, thundering Ferraris , and even quiet Camrys possess carefully engineered sounds, the result of extensive sound room studies.

To date, automotive historians have only focused on sounds coming from sound systems or radios.  This presentation, however, explores a pioneering and popular series of 24 sports and race car sounds captured on LP records released between 1956 and 1962.  At Riverside Records In NYC, Bill Grauer tapped into rising interests among the white middle classes for both sports cars and jazz. Far better known for a jazz series the included performances from  Thelonious Monk, Cannonball Adderly, Bill Evans and Wes Mongomery, Riverside pioneered the market for non-musical sounds that later included  aids  for meditation and relaxation.

The cover jackets of the “Sports Car Special” series are works of art.  I plan to discuss how radiators, engines, and wire wheels have an inescapable intrinsic beauty. I also will focus on recorded content from these historical sources, reflective of a transitional time in automotive history. By the mid-to-late 1950s sports cars emerged as a niche market for consumers eager to find identity and difference along with excitement and status.