As a young adolescent eager to consume all that the adult world had to offer, I first came across the word "platinum" as it referred to million-selling record albums. This was a novel concept at the time. Using "platinum" to refer to album sales had been around only since 1976, and was instituted because more people were buying records, surpassing the previous "gold record" standard. Because it was new, and records were what teenagers did in the late 1970s, there was nothing cooler than a platinum record. And when you heard that a record by a Peter Frampton or Fleetwood Mac went platinum, well, throw that disc on the turntable and crank it up. Today, I can't tell you if a platinum record means anything. I think there's "diamond" or something that's better than platinum, but I don't know for sure. I'm not even sure how they even classify sales now that everything's digital. So, these days, "platinum" t...
Up all hours talking baseball, cardboard & collecting
