What is the earliest "Stereo" record, LP or 45 you own?

Antal Dorati, 1812 Overture, Mercury Label (Mercury Living Presence), 1958. A three mic rerecording of the mono recording made in 1954. I have both.

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Soundtrack of South Pacific, RCA Living Stereo, 1958. I have four variations of this album.

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What are we talking about exactly?

If looking for the first press, than it's - TRI 33330/31/32

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It's "electrically transferred to stereo" but the record has stereo grooving, and was pressed on 1956

Earliest recording in my collection is - VICS-1404

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It was pressed only in 1966, but is a genuine stereo recording from 1956.

The earliest "official" stereo recording, in my collection is - S35445 from 1957

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That is an excellent record. I love it too. I don't think the 45 is stereophonic, though, is it? :idea:

I just realized the significance of your question. I didn't even catch the word "stereo" in the thread title. If that 45 wasn't stereo, (I think it was), then my first would have been Jimi Hendrix - Axis Bold as Love LP.
 
The oldest I have is A Journey Into Stereo Sound, London PS 100 from 1958
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The oldest by any artist is Come Dance With Me, by Frank Sinatra Capitol SW 1069 recorded December 1958, and Released January 1959
There may be something older in the stacks, but Sinatra seemed a logical choice. They typically didn't sit on Sinatra records before releasing.

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I have an early west coast pressing of that Sinatra LP, and it sounds spooky-real. Frank and the orchestra are right there in the room with you, alive and vibrant.

Early Capitol LPs were pretty spectacular, although it's been observed that around '62 they started "dumbing down" LP mastering through aggressive compression and shaving off the frequencies at both ends. The belief is they were probably getting too many returns at the retail level because the average phonographs of the era were not able to track the dynamics, and the distributors were complaining. That's one of several reasons why '60s US Beatles and Beach Boys LPs sound so lousy. But those glorious '50s LPs by Sinatra, Nat, etc. sound amazing!

Incidentally, the pressings with lacquers cut at the Tower are the ones to get; they have an "H" ("Hollywood") in the deadwax. The ones with "W" in the deadwax had the lacquers cut in NYC from a tape copy, and are one generation higher than the Hollywood cuts.
 
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I have an early west coast pressing of that Sinatra LP, and it sounds spooky-real. Frank and the orchestra are right there in the room with you, alive and vibrant.

Early Capitol LPs were pretty spectacular, although it's been observed that around '62 they started "dumbing down" LP mastering through aggressive compression and shaving off the frequencies at both ends. The belief is they were probably getting too many returns at the retail level because the average phonographs of the era were not able to track the dynamics, and the distributors were complaining. That's one of several reasons why '60s US Beatles and Beach Boys LPs sound so lousy. But those glorious '50s LPs by Sinatra, Nat, etc. sound amazing!

Incidentally, the pressings with lacquers cut at the Tower are the ones to get; they have an "H" ("Hollywood") in the deadwax. The ones with "W" in the deadwax had the lacquers cut in NYC from a tape copy, and are one generation higher than the Hollywood cuts.

Good information. Now I'll have to look at a few dozen records for that "H" or "W". I agree with you on those early Capitol records. Wonderful!
 
Speaking of Beatles records, does anyone remember the early Beatles records, (on the Columbia label, IIRC), that were mixed vocals on one channel, and instruments on the other. They were truly awful. Even as a teenager.
 
I picked up this interesting pressing yesterday. The original soundtrack was released in mono in 1954 then this stereo pressing was released in 1956. What also makes it interesting is it contains 2 extra tracks, both by Louis Armstrong.

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