To this day, my most memorable vending machine purchase was a Popeye record that was folded up to fit in the plastic capsule. It was as ridiculous as it sounds; the record was made of clear, thin vinyl – so, when removed from the capsule, you had a creased and unplayable disc. I believe the instructions suggested using glue to secure it to a piece of cardboard and (this is where the memory is foggy) flatten it gently with a warm iron.

Indeed, the thing would play, but the audio was pretty warbly and “muffled” – probably since the grooves didn’t have much definition. From what I remember, it was basically some Popeye character dialogue followed by a short tune sung by Olive Oyl.

I like to think fondly that it was sort of an early imagining of the MP3, as far as being a compact transmission of audio with a small pricetag. That particular Popeye record is long gone from my collection, but as an unusual music product it definitely deserved mention here…especially since I’m not finding any information on them online.