Happy Birthday LP.

Yes it's the 70th birthday of the modern Long-Playing record. Thanks to Peter Goldmark of CBS Laboratories associated with Columbia Records we now have PVC records that replaced the 3 to 4 minute long shellac's of old. Mendelssohn's Concerto in E minor with the NewYork Philharmonic was the first modern 17 minute LP.

 

And apparently the image below is the very first LP album cover.

 

Good thread,thanks for reminding us.
I still remember the old shellac's, drop one and it shattered like glass.
Wonder what a copy of that first LP is worth today,is there even a copy around.

 

I was thinking the same, what would those shellacs be worth now ???

 

Like virtually all other records, it's all about specific titles and, most of all, condition.

 

Happy birthday LP. My first LP was a Scorpions album called Love at First Sting.

 

They'd have been extremely brittle, no? Probably wouldn't have survived and you gotta wonder how many plays they'd endure before wearing out. (I'm thinking along the lines of acetates only worse!)

 

Discogs lists 4 sales in the last 4 years priced between $10 & $100.

 

And what a fine 70 years

 

So...the value of those discs has taken...a shellacking?

 

Let’s not forget the pop series: Columbia 10" Album Discography, Part 1 (CL 6001 to CL 6099) 1948-1950

Lowest number in the first batch of 10-inch popular vinyl Lp’s was CL 6001, The Voice of Frank Sinatra, released June 28, 1948. (This was a reissue of Sinatra’s first 78-rpm four-disc shellac album in 1946.*)



The wording on the generic pink-paper sleeve changed from “Nonbreakable Vinylite” to just “Nonbreakable” in 1949, and a blue cardboard sleeve was introduced in 1950.

*See also:
Sinatra on Columbia (Official/Authorized Releases)* (post #111)
Sinatra on Columbia (Official/Authorized Releases)* (post #220)
Sinatra on Columbia (Official/Authorized Releases)* (post #340)
Sinatra on Columbia (Official/Authorized Releases)* (post #774)

 

No, that is the cover of a 78-rpm 4-record (shellac) album binder, circa 1939. The LP was not introduced until 1948.

More about that cover here: Alex Steinweiss and the World's First Record Cover - Illustration Chronicles

 

You're right of course and I erred. I read that same article and should have remembered the difference. Thanks for pointing it out!

 

This classical issue was indeed the first (lowest number) 12-inch LP, ML 4001, in the Columbia Masterworks series, released one week before the Sinatra 10-inch pop series LP described above.



See also: June 21, 1948: The First LP Is Released

 

I find that hard to believe. The first LP ever, an original 1948 Mendelssohn worth less than $100. ???

And who in there right mind would sell a piece of history for next to nothing ???

 

I think we need to find out .

 

I doubt you'll ever find one.
It would be worth having even if it didn't play.
What a display piece one of those would make,for the audiophile that has everything.

 

Don't forget Cassette Mom!

 

The first 10" Masterworks LP, ML 2001, issued that same day, was this one:

The typeface for the block 'COLUMBIA' (as on the top) in those years seemed reminiscent of the typefaces seen on bus and subway roll signs.

 

One of the first LP's to have a distinct cover design (as opposed to the boilerplate of the earlier ones) was this oldie but goodie . . .

 

I don't have a player anymore, but I still have some great vinyl. Good times.

 

Believe it. These 1948 Columbia LPs aren't worth much at all, but are still interesting to collectors. My record store usually sells them for $5-$10 depending on condition, but it's been about a year since any of them last came in.