We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something
like:

I always thought the compact cassette came out in 73, shortly after 8
tracks in 71.

The CC was definitely out before the 8-track; afair, the usual format
wars were taking place between the manufacturers and the 8-track was
just another format with the usual pros and cons. Philips then trumped
everybody by dropping its licence fee for the production of CCs to near
zero.

Suddenly everybody started making CCs and the rest is history. The CC
wasn't all that great, but it was simple and mostly reliable and the
subsequent decades saw a tremendous improvement on its qualities.
--

Dave