LP's a Jolly Good Fellow!

I notice that today happens to be the 66th anniversary of the 12" 33¹⁄₃  rpm Long Playing Vinyl Record - that would be the LP or album to you and me, so I think we should at least doff our hats and acknowledge the huge role that this pioneering technology has played in all our lives. When I think about it, I've probably spent as much time listening to LPs (and, ok, their digital derivatives too) as I've spent reading books or maybe even watching TV so it's only right that I pay a tribute. According to the compewthar, the first 12" LP ever released was the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor played by the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of New York which came out some time round about 1948/49 - but I can't say that for certain. What I can say for certain is that the first album I ever bought was Steely Dan's Greatest Hits, which I shelled out four notes for in Harmony Records on O'Connell Street in June of 1978. I'll never forget the utter joy of spending the entire bus journey home with my head stuck in the gate-fold but when I got home and gave it a spin ...well! It was the first purchase of many hundreds of albums that I've made since and which have enriched and influenced my life in unimagined and unimaginable ways. When I think of it, LPs, like books and whatever else yer having, have contributed in no small part and, for good and for bad, to the chap I am today. So for the day that's in it I think I'll dust down the record deck and yank out a random record from the vitamin D deficient pile in the back of the press next to my desk here. Put in my hand ... feel among the square shapes... select one ... pull it out ... adjust the eyes ... and see that it happens to be ... Searching for the Young Soul Rebels. Well, would you believe! Happy Birthday LP.

An' here's one I prepared earlier!