Internet Archive has a collection of Fisher-Price Pocket Rockers songs from the 1980s

Fisher-Price’s Pocket Rockers, a personal stereo brand that was popular among elementary school-aged children in the late 1980s, played a unique type of miniature cassette tape that was exclusive to Fisher-Price. Jason Scott, archivist at Internet Archive, created a collection of Fisher-Price Pocket Rockers songs. He writes:

Pocket Rockers was a brand of personal stereo produced by Fisher-Price in the late 1980s, aimed at elementary school-age children. They played a proprietary variety of miniature cassette (appearing to be a smaller version of the 8-track tape) which was released only by Fisher-Price themselves. Designed to be as much of a fashion accessory as a music player, the devices were enough of a youth craze to even be banned in some schools for a brief period. Housed in a variety of stylish, translucent colors, each tape had two songs in mono which could be clipped to clothing to showcase one’s musical taste. Tapes were available from several pop stars, including Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Tiffany, or Debbie Gibson and even rock stars like Bon Jovi or The Bangles. The commercials featured an original theme song which was a parody of “Down on the Corner” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. In addition to standard blue on black and pink on black color schemes, 3 variations of Pocket Rockers were released utilizing Memphis Milano (a popular and contemporary design style at the time). A collectors set was released featuring one such design, and a deluxe system was also released which included speakers and a display stand with an amplifier. Other official Pocket Rockers branded accessories included bracelets, a bandana, a multitude of tape storage options (cases, frames, and clips), mini tape clip-ons, a carrying case, a purse, and headphones. Following a sharp decline in sales, the Pocket Rockers line was discontinued in 1991 until ultimately being removed from Fisher-Price’s toy catalog in 1992. Today, the player and cassettes are sought after by collectors for their unique novelty and design.

Here’s a Pocket Rockers of musicians trying to sound like The Bangles doing “Walk Like An Egyptian” and “Manic Monday”:

“Some of the Pocket Rockers provided songs recorded by anonymous studio musicians instead of the original artists due to license issues. This is an example of that.”




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