Double album
As they were costly to make and sell, double albums and multi-record releases were largely limited to long works such as classical music and, later, to live recordings and compilations.
One of the first examples consisting of new studio recordings is 1956's Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book.
Notable examples include Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland from October 1968, The Beatles' eponymous 1968 album, Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road from 1973, and Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti from 1975.
Additionally, the rise of progressive rock at the time, which often involves complex and long tracks akin to classical music, and concept albums often made a second disc necessary.
[5] In the latter half of the 1970s, as technology advanced, the Philips corporation's compact cassette tape began to supersede LPs as the dominant pre-recorded music format.
Artists could put far more on one unit, rarely exceeding the runtime available on a cassette tape or CD, and double albums became uncommon.
After a company decided on manual or automatic sequence, production of that title generally stayed in the same configuration indefinitely.
by Peter Frampton, Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder, Tommy and Quadrophenia by The Who, and Bad Girls by Donna Summer.
In 1982, Todd Rundgren and his band released the self-titled album Utopia featuring one full LP of 10 songs, and a second 12-inch disc with five bonus tracks, the same lineup on each side.
The Monty Python album Matching Tie and Handkerchief was originally issued with two concentric grooves with different programs on the second side, but this was done for comedic rather than practical reasons.
The Stranglers, Elvis Costello and The Clash (amongst other 1970s/80s acts) would sometimes release early pressings of their albums with extra material on a 45 RPM single.
The vinyl reissues of two albums by The Tragically Hip, Trouble at the Henhouse and Music @ Work, are on two discs, but the fourth side is blank.
In the 2010s and 2020s, as more digital era albums from the 1990s and 2000s were issued on vinyl, often for the first time, blank sides became more common and often included etchings into the fourth side, such as the reissues of Earthling by David Bowie (previously released on 1LP in 1997), Alice by Tom Waits and soundtrack albums such as The Crow and School of Rock.
A triple album may be live, such as The Band's The Last Waltz (1978) and Led Zeppelin's How the West Was Won (2003); or a compilation of an artist's work, such as Stevie Wonder's retrospective anthology Looking Back.
The first triple hip-hop album was American Hunger by New York City rap artist MF Grimm which was released in 2006.
The Knife's 2013 album Shaking the Habitual is spread across three LPs and two CDs, being an hour and forty minutes in length.
Swallow the Sun's 2015 album Songs from the North I, II & III is divided into Gloom, Beauty and Despair.
Normally, albums consisting of four or more discs are compilations or live recordings, such as In a Word: Yes (1969–) and Chicago at Carnegie Hall, respectively.
