Who released the first commercial CD??????.......

Actually, it seems to vary depending on which record company you believe . This is PolyGram's version of events as issued on the 20th anniversary of the CD's launch:

"It was on August 17 of that year that PolyGram produced the world's first mass-produced audio CD containing classical music: Claudio Arrau's rendition on the piano of various waltzes by Frederic Chopin. The first pop music CD by the same producer was ABBA's album "The Visitors."

Polygram actually presented copies of the Visitors to the band in September 1982 (if I remember correctly) which had Polydor logo on the CD. Now, I've only encountered, however, Visitors CDs of that era with a Polar logo and a copyright date of 1983, so I really have to question Polygrams claims.

However, if someone on the forum has a 1982 Polydor copy of the Visitors, I will gladly revise my view!

Ken

 

The credits on TUSK actually only state that it was digitally mixed, which suggests they only used digital gear to mix the album but their multitracks would have been analogue.

Ken

 

I have a West German pressing of The Visitors on Polydor with catalog number 810 011-2. The disc has an orange coating with black text, which is Polydor's original design. Perhaps this is the very first version of The Visitors released. I don't know the chronology between the West German Polydor and Polar discs.

By the way, I have a few orange-label Polydor and RSO discs, but they are rather tough to find. I'm thinking that Polydor and RSO switched over to the more common orange and black rings and no color coating pretty quickly.

 

That's the one I was talking about. That was the first version of The Visitors released and the one demonstrated to Bjorn and Benny by Polygram in 1982.

The brief chronology of the Polygram / Polar Abba early CD changes are:

1. Orange Polydor Label (1982 releases -- The Visitors ?? only)
2. Blue Polar Label (light blue coating with royal blue text -- 1983, 1984 releases)
3. No coating Polar label (royal blue text -- from c.1985 ?)
4. Standard Polydor Rings (phased in from about 1987 onwards)

Coated versions are the hardest ones to get and I never knew that the orange Polydor made it beyond prototype stage until today . My copy of The Visitors is type 2.

Ken

 

I remember hearing that Sony CEO/Founder Akio Morita insisted on 78 minutes due to his love of Beethoven. It could have been PR spin of course.
My first memory of CD was hearing Telarc's Firebird recording with the Atlanta Symphony. My friend Bob brought his CD player over and plugged it directly into my Amplifier's line in jacks. For some reason that seemed astounding to me at the time.

So did the sound. We were both blown away. It wasn't until magazines like Stereophile and Absolute Sound began bashing digital that we were able to notice the artifacting.

I believe Von Karajan was quoted after he heard digital for the first time: "Everything else is gaslight".

 

Thanks for the info. I thought that Polydor and RSO disc with the orange and black rings came in before 1987, but I suppose I could be wrong on that one. I have one, maybe two blue-label Polar discs and one Polar disc with no color coating (ABBA Greatest Hits). I don't see Polar discs on eBay with any degree of regularity. Ditto for orange-label Polydor and RSO discs.

 

Yes this seems to make sense. As I said previously, I did not listen to 'Tusk' very much because I found it very fatiguing. The digital mixdown was likely the reason for that.

I'm guessing that this is a similar situation for 'Secret Life of Plants'. I didn't listen to that one too much either, other than the stuff that I had heard in the studio.

 

I recently found the original U.S. CBS/Sony release of Lorin Maazel and the Vienna Philharmonic performing Beethoven's 5th and Schubert Symphony No. 8 in B Minor. The disc was pressed in Japan, and the catalog number is MK 36711. Interestingly, the matrix code is "38DC-1 61A10" where "38DC-1" is the catalog number for the original disc released in Japan. This suggests that this title was the first classical title released in Japan by CBS/Sony. If so, maybe it's due to Morita's interest in Beethoven. I'm guessing that my disc was pressed somewhere between 1982 and '84.

 

The first CD I ever heard was at the AES Convention which I believe was in October 82 at the Anaheim Convention Center, but IIRC it was Japanese stuff that I had never heard before. It was reputed at the time to be the first CD ever. I guess it was not a commercial release. It sounded very hard and brittle to me at that time, but none the less was a marvel. People were looking around to see if there was a hidden source somewhere in the room.

Of course by this time there were plenty of digital recordings. I believe I saw the first digital recorder at the AES show back in 76 or so which was the Soundstream from Thomas Stockham out of Utah.

I had heard about his early digital experiments as early as 1974 when my roomate at the time was doing experiments with PCM. Lou later went on to develop the first battery operated hard drive (made the 1st laptop possible) and the drives for the IPOD's.

 

This is correct... I also took a photo of that. I'll have to dig it up and post it. Also noteworthy is that the first CD that was demonstrated (and actually played) was a BEE GEES CD. I forgot the title. In fact, when Sony made mock ups for the press, they put bands in the CD which were supposed to represent each song on the disc. The mock-up did not play. (i still have one of those too.) The real one was heavy, and may have been made on glass. Madonna's 'Like A Virgin' was the first major release to come out at the same time the LP was released. That was because they held back the release because her previous album was doing so well. As for early releases, Telarc and DMP were the pioneers here in the US. The majors lagged behind them by about a year and moaned and groaned about retooling for the CD. (Kind of like they are doing with SA-CD)

gus...

 

I remember when that Shaw Telarc Firebird came out on vinyl back in the late 70's. I found it extremly hard to listen to and I could not track the cannons very well with my MA-830mp which was a great tracker, unless I increased the tracking weight temporarily.

 

I suspect you're not. The Polydor/Polar ones have so many transitional states to the orange and black rings because Polar was a seperate record company up until 1989. Polygram just manufactured the discs for them. These discs were shipped to all Polar's licencees.

After around 1987, something odd happened. Polar's domestic Swedish releases kept the blue text and Polar logo right up to at least the mid-1990s but the stuff for export (i.e. Abba) appeared with Polydor rings.

You are right about all the various states of Polar disks turning up quite infrequently. I have about four in all: Abba: The Album and The Visitors with the coating and The Singles: The First Ten Years, Greatest Hits Vol 2 and two internal Swedish releases from the 90s with no coating.

Ken

 

Here is a scan of the West German orange-label Polydor CD of ABBA The Visitors. Could this be the same version that was demoed to ABBA in 1982?

 

Here is a scan of the play side of the ABBA The Visitors disc. I show it because it is a bit unusual by virtue of the mirrored outer ring. I've seen this on a number of 5" CD singles from the late '80s, but very rarely on early pressings of CD albums.

 

I'll have to check the book with the pictures of the presentation in it but it certainly looks like it. The Polar version looks the same except it is royal blue on light blue and there is a Polar logo instead of a Polydor one. The Cat No is also different -- it's a Polar number.

I've seen the mirrored outer ring before myself on a few early CDs, namely the two coated Polars I have.

Another neat feature of those early Polydor CDs, which you may already be aware of, is that if you lift up the top right corner of the black plastic on the CD case, the CDs catalogue number is printed on the rear of the back cover. This occurs on coated and early uncoated Polars, so I guess it would be the same for Polydors.

Unfortunately, I don't have my Polars close to hand but I may try and post a scan of a coated Polar CD to the forum if you'd like.

Ken

 

I was under the impression that all very early CDs had stamped matrix numbers rather than laser etched ones as in your photo. If this is true then that would make your discs a later pressing. I could well be completely wrong though.......

 

West German Polygram pressings had "laser-etched" matrix codes from the start. Still, I don't know when my ABBA disc was pressed.

 

If you are able, could you post a scan of the picture of the presentation to ABBA? I'd love to see it.

I have one blue-label Polar disc -- ABBA Super Trouper with catalog number POLCD 322.

 

I'll try and sort one out - but it will be next week before I can post it.

Ken

 

That's fine. I'm (reasonably) patient.

 

If 52nd St. is the first CD, what is the first CD of newly-recorded material? And what is the first CD recording to be released on CD and no vinyl version (not counting cassettes).

 

Wasn't Madonna's Like A Virgin the first CD released day & date with the LP and Cassette?

The first CD I ever bought was at "Record World" and it was The Power Station in 1984. I know, latecomer!

 

IIRC, back then the record companies waited some time (a few month) before the release of an new album on CD. They number of pressed CD's was depending on the number of sales of the LP.

Some trivia:
Dire Straits' "Brothers In Arms" was the first album specially produced for CD (different from the version on LP) and Boston's "Third Stage" was the first CD that has been certified Gold in the U.S. (by selling 500.000 copies)

 

Are you sure about Boston? I recall, circa 1986, big press regarding the fact that Lionel Richie's "Dancing on the Ceiling" being the first CD to sell 500,000 copies...

Kwad

 

Man, CDs have been around for a long time!

JEFF!