When did CDs go from 74 minutes to 80 minutes in length?

I've wondered about this for a while.

A number of CDs in my collection had tracks cut from the release in order to fit them on one disc.

Examples
The Cure - Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me (72:10) missing Hey You!
Fleetwood Mac - Tusk (72:27) Sara edited.

which was always annoying because I ended up not really playing them and instead sticking with the vinyl versions.

Both CDs have been remastered in recent years and have had the original tracklisting restored - and still fit on one disc.

 

About 1990/1.
Early issues being Pet Shop Boys Discography and Queens Greatest Hits 2 on EMI UK.

 

I seem to remember all three discs from the Jethro Tull 20th Anniversary box (1988) being between 76 and 79 minutes in length ...

 

Whenever I was considering buying a CD to replace a vinyl album, if I knew that a track had been dropped or edited from the original vinyl album, I did not buy the CD. I stuck with my vinyl album.

 

Mission of Burma S/T (Rykodisc-1988) had over 80 minutes of great music on it (80:08).

 

my copy of PRINCE's 1999 is missing the track D. M. S. R. but i found it on the risky business soundtrack.

later, chris

 

Wow, never heard of a cd EXCEEDING the 80 min. mark. So this IS possible. And even in a very early stage of the cd era. FWIW, I seem to remember that the Roxy Music comp Street Life - 20 greatest hits was the first cd to pass the 74 minute mark. Not by much, though - my copy reads 74.06. It was released in 1986, so I suppose things changed around that year.

 

Re: CDs exceeding 80 mins.

If I put a 20 track CD with a duration of say 79:30 into my burner and do a straight copy the resulting CDR will be 79:30 long.

However if I 'click and drag' the 20 tracks into a different order (like making a compilation) the programme will add a 2 second gap between each track. End result: when the CDR is finished it is 80:10 long.

 

Not if you burn a gapless CD. Well, it's not really "gapless," but that's a completely different discussion.

 

There's also a Steely Dan compilation that's over 80 minutes long. I can't remember which one, though.

 

Down here, in Oz, the first CD to surpass the 70 minute mark was Joe Cocker Live - clocking in at 73.02 minutes. This was 1990. We recut the stampers for this puppy about 12 or more times before it was right, altering track pitch etc, to make it playable.

BTW, the Redbook spec. for CD playing time simply says "> 60 minutes", very open ended, as are a lot of the redbook specs.

 

I've never seen a CD-burn program that didn't give the user the ability to increase or decrease the gaps between songs. A mandatory 2-second gap would make most live recordings well nigh unlistenable.

The first 80+ minute CD I purchased was a Telarc that combined two earlier CDs, Shostakovich 5th symphony and the Rite of Spring. About 80'30 and I've never had trouble playing it in any of several CD players.

 

Here is another vote for Mission of Burma being one of the first cd's to go to 80 minute mark. If my memory serves me right some cd players at the time had trouble playing the last track because of length of disc.

 

OK, but what changed in the technology that allowed the 74 minute limit to be exceeded?

J. D.

 

I'd be curious to know what the actual "overburn" limit is for the CD.

 

I remember the regular issue of Blonde On Blonde had three different releases is a short time (two or three years). The first release kept it under 72 minutes by fading some songs early, then a second release partially fixed it, and then a third release had all the songs at the correct length. This probably was in the late 80's.

 

the Dickie Goodman compilation from the mid-90's was about 81 minutes...I figured since there was mostly talk instead of music, that might account for the extra time

 

I have 2 CDs from the late 80s that exceed the 74 minute mark - Elvis Costello's 2CD compilation Girls+£/Girls=$+Girls

CD1 is just under 78 minutes, and CD2 is about 75 minutes. I think that was the first time I owned a CD that got close to the 78 minute mark.

As I recall, early CDs rarely exceeded even 70 minutes mainly for economic reasons ... in the early days it was quite difficult to manufacture CDs much beyond the 70 minute mark that didn't have an unacceptable number of errors - this would add to the manufacturing costs.

The original "limit" would have been 74 minutes, 42 seconds.

The increase in time was made possible by employing part of the disc originally reserved for error correction. Approx 14% of the data area of a Red Book disc was reserved for this purpose in the original spec, so in theory up to 84 minutes should be possible, but in reality I suspect some players would have difficulty playing the discs.

The Red Book standard (IEC 908) has been revised a few times but I think the official limit is still only around the 78 minute mark (despite some discs being longer).

 

I got the Queen GH2 here in the USA as an import (EMI UK) when released (1992?) and the CD was pressed at EMI Swindon UK.

The last track (One Vision) often has trouble playing in older players, but fine in newer ones.

 

It was indeed in the early 90s. I remember well when WB announced that they were restoring D.M.S.R. to Prince's 1999.

 

CD audio is Linear PCM, meaning it's always the same bitrate, whether it's talking, music, or anything else, yeah?

 

I think in 1990. I remember like yesterday when I got National Health "Complete" 2Cd with each cd over 79minutes. A must progressive title.

 

I seem to remember Simon & Garfunkle - Concert in the Central Park as one of the earliest 80 minute CDs.
I could be remembering it wrong though.

 

This would be Greatest Hits 1972-78. As far as I know, it was only saw a CD release here in Canada.

 

Altering pitch??? Unacceptable!!! :thumbsdn: