RADIAL-VELOCITIES AND IRON ABUNDANCES OF FIELD RR LYRAES .1.

We present systemic velocities and iron abundances for 56 RR Lyraes, t he majority of which have been observed by the HIPPARCOS satellite. Co mparison between our systemic velocities and previous values identifie s several binary candidates only one of which, TU UMa, was previously suspected of being a binary. However, spectra of the unusual RR Lyrae BB Vir show no evidence of line doubling and hence do not support the recent claims that this star may have a Blue Horizontal Branch compani on. Comparison between our abundances and previous determinations show s reasonable agreement except with the recent work of Layden (1994) wh ere we find systematic differences. Several of the stars included on t he HIPPARCOS observing list as RR Lyraes are shown to be mis-classifie d. Of particular interest are the stars V363 Cas and AT And which, by analogy with XZ Cet, may be anomalous Cepheids(1).