8 to the Bar 8 to the Bar 8 to the Bar is a studio album released by Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons in 1941 on Victor 78rpm set P-69, record numbers 27504 through 27507. It was recorded in two sessions, May 7 and June 17, 1941. It was reissued by RCA Victor in 1952 as a 10-inch LP record as LPT-9. In the United Kingdom, this LP was released by the Gramophone Company as HMV DLP 1011. It was also released as a set of four 45rpm discs, WPT-14. The album peaked at number 2, in 1945, on Billboard's album chart. All titles
Berliner Gramophone competing small-diameter brown wax cylinder records were recorded at about 120 rpm and could play for as long as three minutes, although recordings fully that long were uncommon. At the end of the decade, cylinder record makers began a transition to higher speeds, mainly to produce louder-playing cylinders that could better compete with the considerably louder gramophone – cylinders had usually been heard through individual stethoscope-like listening tubes rather than through a horn that yielded relatively feeble sound. A new standard cylinder speed of 160 rpm was soon established, reducing the maximum playing time to a little over two minutes