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Extended Play records, known as EPs, were introduced as 7-inch, vinyl 45s in the early 1950s by RCA. At the time, RCA was in a format war with Columbia, whose 12-inch LPs could hold a full album’s worth of music (hence their name) and were played...
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Extended Play records, known as EPs, were introduced as 7-inch, vinyl 45s in the early 1950s by RCA. At the time, RCA was in a format war with Columbia, whose 12-inch LPs could hold a full album’s worth of music (hence their name) and were played at 33 1/3 rpm. RCA already had 7-inch singles, which spun at 45 rpm and were designed to replace 78s, so EPs were a natural progression in the RCA product line. Like RCAs 7-inch singles, its EPs were also played at 45 rpm, which meant consumers with 45-rpm phonographs could play EPs on their existing equipment. EPs were less expensive than Columbia’s LPs, and whereas RCA’s 7-inch singles only supported around 4 minutes of music per side, its EPs could hold about 7 1/2 minutes per side, thanks in large part to their thinner grooves, which is one reason why old EPs are more likely to be worn out from play than old 45s from the same era. In the 1950s and ’60s, the first heydays of the EP in the United States and United Kingdom, EPs were generally not treated as vehicles for new singles or even as mini-albums of new material. Instead, EPs were packaged to give fans a taste of an artist’s repertoire, with two songs on each side, usually taken from a current album—kind of a greatest-hits compilation at the height of an artist’s career instead of at the end. It was only later, in the 1970s and ’80s, when punk labels rediscovered the EP, that the format was treated as a primary delivery medium for new music. As with most record formats of the 1950s, Elvis Presley was king. From 1956 through 1959, RCA released some two dozen Presley EPs, cherry-picking hits from the singer’s albums, singles, and soundtracks, with the occasional new number tossed in to keep diehard fans happy. But for serious collectors of Elvis EPs, “two dozen” barely scratches the surface. Take “Elvis Presley” first released in March of 1956 and known as EPA-747 (the “A” designates stereo). There are 20 versions of that EP’s disc and cover alone,...
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