Pre-vinyl period Gramophone records had been introduced in the latter portion of the 19th century, with several pioneers involved in sound reproduction development such as
Thomas Edison and
Emilie Berliner. Berliner along with
Eldridge R. Johnson merged their efforts within the industry to form the
Victor Talking Machine Company in
New Jersey, USA and perfected the use of 5 and 7-inch rotating
shellac discs for sound replay from 1889, with 10-inch records appearing in 1901. In 1903 12-inch discs were introduced by Victor, on their Deluxe label, these able to play for up to four minutes, increasing the available length of a song or speech on the smaller formats. These first 12-inch releases were all by the Victor Grand Concert Band, led by
Frederick W. Hager. During the 1910s discs became the standard sound reproduction format, although the speeds used could vary between manufacturers until 78 rpm became the norm from around 1925. An album would consist of several of these single discs packaged together. These brittle shellac discs remained a popular medium through the first attempt to introduce vinyl records in 1931, the subsequent move towards microgroove formats from 1948, and would survive until the early 1960s.
Vinyl and microgroove formats In August 1931,
RCA Victor launched the first commercially available vinyl long-playing record, marketed under their Program Transcription series. These revolutionary discs were designed for playback at 331⁄3 rpm (the speed first used on 16‑inch
Vitaphone soundtrack discs from 1926) and pressed on ten and twelve-inch diameter flexible Victrolac discs, using a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) compound called
vinylite which was licensed from
Union Carbide. It was marketed initially as being more robust than shellac, with a duration of up to twenty minutes playing time per side. The first twelve-inch LP (containing only one track per side), was Beethoven's
Symphony No. 5 In C Minor by the
Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by
Leopold Stokowski. RCA's early introduction of a long-play disc was a commercial failure for several reasons including the lack of affordable, reliable consumer playback equipment and consumer wariness during the
Great Depression. Because of financial hardships that plagued the recording industry during that period (and RCA's own parched revenues), Victor's long-playing records were discontinued for public sale by early 1933. However, vinyl continued to be used, notably with broadcasters, on larger 16‑inch radio transcription discs, and later with the
V-Disc program that sent records overseas to US troops during
World War II to help boost morale. Vinyl as a material for records sold to the public was reintroduced after World War II, first for 78s in 1945 (the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra and Chorus's
Prince Igor a 12‑inch 5-record set from
Asch Recordings catalog number M-800), with 12‑inch 331⁄3 rpm LPs (with a narrower "microgroove")) and 7‑inch 45 rpm singles being marketed by
Columbia Records and
RCA Victor respectively in 1948 and 1949. Intriguingly, although there is a scientific basis behind 45 rpm being an ideal speed for sound quality which was touted by RCA, conveniently the 45 rpm number can also be derived by subtracting 33 from 78. 12-inch records would be reported in the press from the 1940s demonstrating usage not just for music but commercial and other reasons such as interviews, along with general manufacturing and public use reports and even children's records using the format. Longer tracks could be accommodated on each side of the 12‑inch disc, or shorter but more numerous tracks per side. Indeed, the first 12‑inch vinyl album in 1948,
''Mendelssohn's Concerto in E Minor, featured only three tracks (the 11-minute first
movement on side one, and the second and third movements on side two, together adding another 14 minutes) and was
extended play (EP) in appearance, rather than a typical album with multiple tracks each being on average 2–4 minutes such as the first 10‑inch vinyl album, a reissue of
The Voice of Frank Sinatra''. While one to two short playing songs being sold to the public were more suited for the seven‑inch 45 rpm record, the LP could be anything from 1 track per side, and if in that simplistic configuration it technically could be classed as a twelve‑inch single. Over the ensuing years some works, particularly in the classical and jazz genres, and the relatively few tracks on an occasional album could blur the boundaries of what would become considered a twelve‑inch single, an EP and an album, with the price, catalogue number, any stylistic aims of the performing artist, marketing by the record label, as well as record industry sales charts rules regulating the differences between formats.
Jamaican roots The gramophone records cut especially for dance-floor DJs came into existence with the advent of recorded Jamaican
mento music in the 1950s. By at least 1956 it was already standard practice by Jamaican
sound systems owners to give their "selecter" DJs acetate or flexi disc dubs of exclusive mento and Jamaican
rhythm and blues recordings before they were issued commercially.
1970s format resurgence In March 1970, Cycle/
Ampex Records test-marketed a twelve-inch single by jazz-pop guitarist Buddy Fite, featuring "Glad Rag Doll" backed with "For Once in My Life", both from his self-titled debut album issued in 1969. Subtitled 'The world's first 12-inch single!', the experiment aimed to energize the struggling singles market, offering a new option for consumers who had stopped buying traditional singles. The record was pressed at 33 rpm, with identical run times to the seven-inch 45 rpm pressing of the single and album, but with a large runoff area. Several hundred copies were made available for sale for 98 cents each at two
Tower Records stores in California. Ampex also serviced a promo for Canadian act
Young titled "Goin' In The Country" during 1971, the accompanying promotional note proclaiming the record as 'the biggest Canadian single ever.'.
Shelter Records evidently liked the format enough to use it a few times to promote artists in the US and Australia - they serviced a test pressing of
Leon Russell's "It's A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" backed with "Me And Baby Jane" to radio stations in July 1971, the first track from his
Leon Russell and the Shelter People album, with the flip side from his
Carney album. Shelter later issued another promotional single "Lowdown in Lodi"/"Me and My Guitar" by
Freddie King in 1972 with the tracks taken from his
Texas Cannonball LP. Another early twelve-inch single was released in 1973 by soul/R&B musician/songwriter/producer Jerry Williams, Jr. a.k.a.
Swamp Dogg. Twelve-inch promotional copies of "Straight From My Heart" were released on his own Swamp Dogg Presents label (Swamp Dogg Presents #501/SDP-SD01, 33+1⁄3 r.p.m.), with distribution by
Jamie/Guyden Distribution Corporation. It was manufactured by Jamie Record Co. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The B-side of the record is blank.
Disco era The disco twelve-inch record came into being from several key developments: • using the instrumental or backing track with the vocal version to create an extended version, and later on combining outtakes, adlibs and other unused material; • creating a segued mix of different tracks, the length of which was less suited to a 7-inch record; • using a physically larger format which allows greater
bandwidth and
dynamic range resulting in audibly "hotter" records; • progressively increasing the awareness and availability of the format through trade publications, record shops and DJ
record pools; Notably,
Tom Moulton, and
Scepter Records along with its production chief
Mel Cheren (later co-founder of dance label
West End Records) were involved in several of these pioneering steps due to their artists and heavy bass-range and strong uptempo song material, forward-thinking company executives and innovative remixing. Scepter, from this single onward began to regularly add a non-vocal side, helping to make it an industry standard practice, with several other labels following suit particularly for dance records, and DJs embracing these as a useful tool during their sets.
First extended edit While not his first production work (his first mixing effort was the
northern soul track by
the Carstairs "
It Really Hurts Me Girl" in 1973), in early 1974, during his quest to adapt songs beyond the radio-friendly three-minute mark for his
mixtapes, soon-to-be famed disco mixer Tom Moulton went to record labels for material. At Scepter Records, Cheren recalls playing Tom a previously released Scepter single by singer Don Downing called "Dream World". He had an extra copy of the master tape and let Moulton take it home to experiment. When Moulton brought it back a few days later, Cheren writes, "We were amazed: a so-so record was suddenly snappy, upbeat, and ten times better". But the biggest surprise, Cheren continues, was something "so radical I could hardly believe my ears". Moulton had stretched the original track, not even three minutes long, to almost double its time, and in the process debuted what would become known as the disco break. This innovation would eventually be issued on the song's re-release on a 7-inch 45 in July 1974, and earn Scepter a
Billboard Trendsetter of the Year award in December 1974 for 'being the first label to make specialized mixes for discotheques'.
First segued mixes The first genre-themed set was created by
Spring Records, as a commercial compilation of various artists licensed from a number of labels called
Disco Par-r-r-ty, released in October 1974. Tom Moulton created one for the A side of the
Gloria Gaynor Never Can Say Goodbye album, in January 1975 on
MGM Records. As a development from his mixtapes, three songs (Honey Bee/
Never Can Say Goodbye/
Reach Out, I'll Be There) were not presented as separate pieces of music, but as an uninterrupted, 18-minute-plus, side-long composition optimised for dancing. There were previous albums that had side-long tracks or suites, and
medleys which were usually cover versions or re-recordings, but here was a new piece of music composed out of already recorded pieces of music (albeit containing two
cover songs), making it the first "DJ mix" committed to vinyl, with Moulton admitting it was conceived as a tool for dancefloors. A followup was the Motown compilation
Disc-O-Tech series released mid May 1975, which put together some of the label's most danceable hits onto a number of albums.
Disc-O-Tech #2 however, specifically focused on blending a number of their disco releases into a non-stop medley.
Early acetates 10-inch and 12-inch The first large-format single made specifically for discotheque DJs was a ten-inch acetate used by a
mix engineer (José Rodríguez) in need of a Friday-night test copy for a remix created by Tom Moulton in 1974. The song was "
I'll Be Holding On" by
Al Downing, brother of Don Downing. As no 7-inch (18 cm) acetates could be found, a 10-inch (25 cm) blank was used. Further 10-inch acetates featuring the extended versions would be created by Moulton and Rodriguez from late 1974 such as Moment of Truth's "Your Love" on
Roulette in October "I'll be Holding On" would eventually be cut onto a twelve-inch acetate, as chronicled by its usage on the music compilation album
A Tom Moulton Mix. An acetate twelve-inch test pressing single hailed as being a first by Moulton was
South Shore Commission "
Free Man". Again, it was a disco mix prepared by Moulton, pressed by Rodríguez, with only a handful (around 10) cut and handed out to local DJs. Moulton's effort was eventually issued for commercial release by Scepter in June 1975, but on seven-inch vinyl as a 5:35 min mix. Another record remixed by Moulton was the Philly Devotions "I Just Can't Make It Without You" on
Columbia. Mentioned in his Billboard column in mid April as being 'out soon', a known 10-inch acetate had a date of 8 May 1975, with twelve-inch acetates and promos also appearing at some stage. It eventually was issued commercially in August on seven-inch 45 only. A sometimes mentioned candidate among these first acetates is Moment of Truth "So Much For Love", but this effort was commercially released a year later, the band having been signed to
Salsoul Records in June 1976, and the song only appearing in disco charts at the end of July of that year.
Promotion through media and DJs Many of the above disco era timelines were driven by the DJ necessity to give a better nightclub dancefloor experience to patrons, and as the scene grew, it began to be chronicled in trade press publications such as
Billboard and
Record World. Tom Moulton began to write for the former from 26 October 1974 in the
Disco Action column (which changed name as time went on), while
Vince Aletti wrote
Disco File in the latter from November 1974. The DJs would increasingly be expected to report back, much like with radio, with what songs worked on their dancefloors to the record company and mixers such as Moulton and others so that a strategic decision would be made whether to further fine tune or remix the music to enhance the reaction, typically a new edit would be repeatedly created, pressed on acetates and supplied until a good response was had from nightclubs, so creating a buzz which would drive the eventual commercial sales. To better feed those reactions back record pools were established, the first in New York in June 1975 for better distribution of pre-release records to bona fide DJs as record labels began to appreciate their role in breaking and selling records. A further development began to see the labels tailor the records specifically towards DJs as a result, with for example Scepter Records publicly announcing via both publications that they were to start servicing '12-inch 45s' to DJs in pools and their national promotional mailouts from June 1975. promoting the format earlier in distributor roadshows they hosted in late May, citing a key benefit of high volume levels being maintained with lengthier tracks. Billboard magazine reported that Atlantic Records were the first major label to issue 12-inch 33 rpm vinyl promos to DJs in July, under the watchful eye of a DJ as their promotions director Doug Riddick, who took up the post in May 1975.
Early vinyl test pressings 12-inch An early test pressing was Bobby Moore "(Call Me Your) Anything Man", on Scepter. Twelve-inch acetates for this single were pressed in April 1975, and was subsequently produced as twelve-inch vinyl promotional singles with typed labels in June. Moulton, now a regular in-house remixer for the label, was again given label credit for the remix. This was released commercially on 7-inch in May 1975.
First wide scale promotional 12-inch A very early disco prototype vinyl 12-inch pressing was a
Midland International promo distributed by RCA - this was a
Carol Douglas one sided EP with 4 tracks from
The Carol Douglas Album. This was issued in mid February 1975 and was subtitled 'Specially Prepared For Disco Use', but it held same length versions of the selected album tracks. The first wide-scale record company promotional twelve-inch single according to Moulton (considering his then position with Billboard at the time as disco product reviewer, and that most of the very limited 12-inch records up to this point involved his own remixes), was
Frankie Valli "
Swearin' To God", issued by
Private Stock Records in June 1975 with a 10:32 min running time.
Bob Crewe, co-writer and producer, personally presented 10-inch test pressings to DJs in April 1975 after high pre-release demand. It was then issued commercially as a 7-inch at the end of April/start of May 1975.
Barrabas "Mellow Blow" became the first 33 rpm Atlantic promo to be released in July, but eventually commercially only on an 7" in September.
Warner-Spector's Calhoon "(Do You Wanna) Dance, Dance, Dance" had a 10-inch acetate from May, given out as a one sided 10-inch vinyl promo in the same month, and as a 12-inch promo in July 1975. At first, these special remixed or extended versions were only available as promotional copies to DJs, either given directly to them or issued by record pools who obtained these from record companies'
A&R departments. Examples of these promos, released from spring/summer 1975, include:
First 12-inch retail singles Motivation for public sale As time went on, a growing number of record labels became aware of the 12-inch format as a useful promotional tool, the benefits it gave for sound fidelity, and started to issue product in response. However, into early 1976 none considered them at first as suitable for sale to the general public. Companies came to appreciate the place of the nightclub and how they helped to break a record, but still considered an extended remix to ultimately facilitate sales of the original 7-inch single version or the artist's album, and not as a sale item in its own right. This was due to the label co-owner Ken Cayre's decision to release the
Walter Gibbons remix for dancers who would hear that version in nightclubs but not be satisfied with the shorter versions sold on the 7-inch vinyl or the album. The seven-inch edit had been released a month earlier but sales of this were slow. With renewed interest and high sales weeks after the release, Salsoul were presented with Billboard awards at the 1976 Disco Forum event for disco disk sales to consumers and best record label as a result of the push into the marketplace with the new format. The issue did not contain the 3 min 5 secs 7-inch edit or the 6 mins 51 mins album version; the A side contained the Gibbons 9 min 43 secs remix, while Cayre himself created an extended 7 min 31 secs mix for the B side. The second twelve-inch release was the double artist single
Jesse Green "
Nice And Slow" / Sweet Music "I Get Lifted" on Scepter/Wand in mid June 1976. Third was a disc containing two
George Benson sides "
Summertime 2001" / "
Theme From Good King Bad" in late June 1976 on
CTI Records. Salsoul's second 12-inch record for retail was by Moment of Truth "So Much For Love" / "Helplessly" released in early July 1976.
Amherst Records released a double headed single by the Chicago Gangsters "Gangster Love" / "Feel Like Making Love" in early July 1976 on their Gold Plate subsidiary. A clutch of releases including Jakki "Sun... Sun... Sun" and Four Below Zero "My Baby's Got E.S.P.", amongst others on Pyramid/
Roulette Records was sold from mid July 1976.
Canada In 1971 Ampex of Canada released a single, Goin' To The Country / Grape Farm by Young on 12 inch 45prpm format. these included pop releases such as Paul McCartney's first ever extended single internationally, credited as Wings "Let 'Em In"
Jamaican discomixes Although as previously mentioned regarding the Jamaican dub influence on the use of 10-inch acetates, the 12-inch single was only born once imports of US disco singles were established from 1976 onwards. The issued twelve-inch-single trend spread to Jamaica quickly, where hundreds of
reggae singles were pressed in this format, and commercially issued as "
discomixes" to catch on the disco hype. An early 12-inch pressing, reputedly the first was by the Jayes "Truly" in 1977 on the Channel One label, which was run by the Hoo Kim brothers from their
Channel One Studios.
United Kingdom The Jamaican reggae and US disco trend also hit London, reggae being popular along with uptempo forms of music such as Motown and northern soul, the seven-inch record being the primary medium in the early 1970s for this material, with the UK following up a little later than the US with 12-inch singles. The reasons were different, the UK jocks did not have the same need to extend records like the US pioneers who wanted longer records for the dancefloor. Although the use of larger temporary singles (primarily 10-inch) started from the Jamaican influence and before (such as the pre-
Beatles band
the Quarrymen with the one-off "
In Spite of All the Danger" in 1958), acetates were also used by the record labels to quality control the eventual product, and not for servicing single songs or exclusive remixes, and then not in the 12-inch format. The usage of the 12-inch vinyl as a medium followed the US promos introduction but was initially seen as a marketing tool to help promote an artist more uniquely. Another emphasis with the new format was the louder sound and better audio quality afforded to the release. It therefore was not exclusively used for disco songs but included pop artists, however it eventually came into its own in the later 1970s with the lengthened versions of US disco songs being promoted in the UK.
Promo UK 12-inch releases Atlantic Records was an early front runner with two 12-inch promo singles:
Ben E. King "
Supernatural Thing" backed with Osiris "Warsaw Concerto", along with
Herbie Mann "
Hijack" b/w
Jimmy Castor Bunch "
The Bertha Butt Boogie", both at 33 rpm and issued in approximately June 1975 (based on the catalogue numbers used), but rumoured to be as late as October.
Robert Palmer "Which of Us Is the Fool" was released by
Island Records also in October 1975.
Virgin started a line of 12-inch promos in November 1975, with the first being Ruan O'Lochlainn "Another Street Gang". Disco singles started to appear in earnest months later, Brass Construction "Changin'" was promoted around March 1976 by United Artists. A later 12-inch promo issue was a double sider
the Moments "Nine Times" /
the Rimshots "Do What You Feel" on
All Platinum Records via
Phonogram in the middle of April 1976, however both were released commercially and individually on seven-inch 45s only, in April 1976.
Candi Staton followed with "
Young Hearts Run Free" in the middle of May from
Warner Bros. These early issues usually contained the original 7-inch edit, and It took a little later for lengthened versions to begin appearing, with 1970s UK club DJ
Greg Wilson recalling promotional 12-inch product being mailed out from August 1976,
Lalo Schifrin "Jaws" being his first one, which was in extended form. This was followed by disco acts such as James Wells,
the Originals, Ultrafunk,
Mass Production,
Deodato and
the Undisputed Truth, however some of these were not UK pressed vinyl but US promos sent over to the UK and distributed through club promotions businesses and record company A&R departments.
First UK 12-inch retail singles The first commercially released twelve-inch vinyl was Ernie Bush "Breakaway" /
Banzaii "Chinese Kung Fu" both as Tom Moulton mixes, along with another disc containing the Armada Orchestra "For the Love of Money" / Ultrafunk "Sting Your Jaws (Part 1)". Bush and the latter two acts had
Gerry Shury production involvement, and these two releases were issued by
John Abbey's Contempo Records from 8 October 1976, these songs having been previously released in either 7-inch format or as album tracks. Abbey likely had the nod from Scepter Records about the use of the twelve-inch single format, as both had released all these titles on their labels and Contempo had cross-licensed the tracks with Moulton mixes. This was closely followed with a single containing re-issues of
the Who's "
Substitute" with "
I'm A Boy" / "
Pictures of Lily" on the flip, all originally from 1966 and 1967 by
Polydor Records on 22 October 1976. ==Later developments==