75th Anniversary of the Long Playing Vinyl Album

That was a key point in the development of the way we listen to music today. What Goes Around Comes Around Again: 75 Years of the LP

On June 21, 1948, 40-some reporters gathered at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York for a bombshell announcement: Columbia Records had developed a new disc technology that offered consumers much longer tracks, better sound, and a lower cost than existed then. The new microgroove, vinyl, long-playing (LP) discs spun at 33 1/3 revolutions per minute and held 22 1/2 minutes of recording time per side, compared with the standard 78 rpm disc, which offered just 3 to 5 minutes.

There would still be competing formats, as RCA introduced the 45 in 1949. It was generally limited to 5 minutes of music.

Columbia envisioned that the new format would be mostly for classical music, since pop songs were short. Most of them still are, even today.

But during the 78-rpm era, some jazz musicians had felt stymied by the limited duration of each side. In his memoir of the Jazz Age, Ralph Berton wrote, “The soloist who . . . liked to ‘stretch out’ in eight or more successive choruses was severely hampered by this limitation, which might be likened to having to make love on an escalator, finishing by the time you reach the top.”

The new format transformed jazz, even its very composition. Musicians could unpack their ideas, play longer solos and jams, and compose extended works. Backed by producer George Avakian, Duke Ellington was the first jazz composer-bandleader to take advantage of the LP, on his 1951 Columbia release “Masterpieces by Ellington.”

So much depended on the 22.5 minute format. Pink Floyd produced several songs in the 1960s which either filled an entire album side, or came close. Their songs were long in the 70s, but not that long. "Tubular Bells" by Mike Oldfield is actually 49 minutes long, which was a stretch for an LP. Most people are only familiar with the section used as the theme to The Exorcist.

Click thru for more. Sadly it doesn't include all of the history, such as the introduction of stereo in the 1950s.