It was conceived and founded in 1948 by the Grammy Award-winning children's music producer, Arthur Shimkin, then a new recruit in the S&S business department.

[clarification needed] However, they were not the first instance of a published series which combined books and records.

The music included classic nursery rhymes, fairy tales, Christmas tunes & other holiday jingles, nature, Bible stories and an extensive collection of educational songs.

Golden Records featured children's recordings by Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye, Kay Lande, Alfred Hitchcock, Johnny Cash, Captain Kangaroo, Art Carney, and many more.

[citation needed] Golden Records also issued educational records, such as A Golden Treasury of Poetry, a collection of classic poems read by Alexander Scourby, with commentary written by Louis Untermeyer.