LP 'Cliff Richard and the Shadows', 1962

LP 'Cliff Richard and the Shadows', 1962. Soundtrack from Cliff Richards' first film musical The Young Ones, distributed by Columbia (EMI) Records. Album cover artwork and printing sold many long-playing (LP) recordings. Peter Goldmark of Columbia launched the first successful microgroove vinyl LPs in 1948. Ten years later true stereo recordings were available. Earlier LPs were made of other plastics such as Bakelite and shellac. The advantages of vinyl records over those made from these earlier materials were that they were lighter, less brittle, and were cheap and easy to produce, making mass production possible. Problems of sound quality, ease of damage by scratching and the warping of records when exposed to heat were prominent factors in the decline of vinyl from the 1980s onwards, and its replacement by polycarbonate compact discs (CDs). ©SSPL/Science Museum