Amy Grant - Straight Ahead This one is October 1985. Amy Grant - A Christmas Album There is no early A Christmas Album listed on discogs. The one above appears to be a mastered in USA by Laser Video and pressed in Japan by CTA disc (she has a few like it). She has several early CDs, but none as early as 1983.
Amy Grant's Christmas Album on Pony Canyon in Japan and her Straight Ahead CD are the first to be issued on CD. The former disc is so rare that Discogs doesn't have it listed.
Thanks, Brad -- and here's a link to your thread about the Amy Grant disc. Level 42's Top 3 CD issues of Amy Grant's "A Christmas Album" from 1983 on CD
Straight Ahead is relatively early, but the discogs entry for D25Y3285 A Christmas Album shows a much later CD released in 1988 (the date on the rear insert is R-11-2). Amy Grant - A Christmas Album
This is what makes it confusing. I see a listing on Discogs for the 1983 CD Amy Grant - A Christmas Album But was it really manufactured then or it is just listed as such because that was the year of the album's release? In it's favor the Disc reportedly has Made in Japan on it... Notes Disc "Made in Japan" - Artwork "Printed in USA"
Do you have this disc? Do you have the matrix? This version could be of a similar age as Straight Ahead, making it older than the Japanese release. BTW, older CDs often come with Printed in Japan, not US inserts.
No, I do not own the CD...it is currently listed for sale on E-bay. I have also read that the A&M/Word marketing agreement was not finalized until December of 1984. If that is true then I'm not sure that the 1983 date along with the A&M logo on that disc would make sense. Could have been produced in 1985 and the date of the album's release was used on the disc. All that said, my original mission was in trying to determine the first Christian album produced on CD. This album was intriguing with the 1983 date, but I'm not sure that is valid.
I saw another one on ebay that had it bit of the matrix visible. It was the same dot matrix style that you find on Denon manufactured discs from Japan. This matrix style wasn't used before 1984. I suspect the title was released roughly at the same time as Straight Ahead. And it predates the Japanese Market release mentioned above.
I think you are right. So I doubt it was the first Christian album pressed on CD. I guess the search goes on...
