Double album
A double album (or double record) is an audio album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically either records or compact disc. A double album is usually, though not always, released as such because the recording is longer than the capacity of the medium. Recording artists often think of double albums as being a single piece artistically; however, there are exceptions such as John Lennon's "Some Time in New York City" (which consisted of one studio record and one live album packaged together) and OutKast's "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below  (effectively two solo albums, one by each member of the duo). Since the advent of the compact disc, albums are sometimes released with a bonus disc featuring additional material as a supplement to the main album, with live tracks, studio out-takes, cut songs, or older unreleased material. One innovation was the inclusion of DVD of related material with a compact disc, such as video related to the album or DVD-Audio versions of the same recordings. Some such discs were also released on a two-sided format called DualDisc. Depending on the media used, some releases were double albums 	Double album
25916499	in one format and single albums in another. For example, a gramophone record (vinyl LP) consisting of two discs of less than 80 minutes in total could be fit onto a single standard-length compact disc (CD). Other times, track order could vary between two different media by rearranging the tracks in one media, or a more efficient use of space could be used; for example, reducing a double album in LP format to a single cassette tape. The same principles apply to the triple album, which comprises three units. Packages with more units than three are often referred to 	Double album
25916500	as a box set. History. 1948 to the early 1970s: long-play records. The introduction of the long-play or LP record in 1948 allowed longer tracks or a greater number of tracks per record, with approximately 22 minutes of music per side, for a total of 44 minutes. Despite this, recordings of entire classical or operatic pieces were often too long for one LP disc, thus albums of two or more discs were made. 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	Double album
25916501	, later, to live recordings and compilations. One of the first live double albums, and one of the earliest double albums featuring non-classical music, was The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert" by Benny Goodman, a concert recording released in 1950 on Columbia Records. Studio recordings of operas have been released as double, triple, quadruple and quintuple albums since the 1950s. As record costs reduced over time and greater thought was given to the album as an artistic piece, double albums became more common. One of the first examples consisting of new studio recordings is 1956's "Ella Fitzgerald Sings  the Cole Porter Song Book". Bob Dylan's" Blonde on Blonde", released on June 20, 1966, is widely considered to be one of the first double albums in popular music with complete original recordings by the artist. It was followed just a week later by the Mothers of Invention's debut album "Freak Out!", which was released on June 27, 1966. In the years following, original double albums from pop and rock artists became more common, and were often released at the height of the artists' careers. Notable examples include 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. The best-selling double album of all time is Pink Floyd's "The Wall", from 1979 with over 30 million copies (60 million units) sold worldwide. Late 1970s–1990s: compact cassette tapes and CDs. 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. The tapes allowed for a much longer 30 to 45 minutes per side, for a total of 60 to 90 minutes total, doubling the length available for music storage. In 1982, Philips introduced the compact disc, with a continuous length of 74 minutes (later developed to have 80 minutes). Artists could put far more on one unit, rarely exceeding the runtime available on a cassette tape or CD, and double albums became uncommon. The extra space also allowed many earlier double albums to be reissued on a single disc: "Blonde on Blonde", for instance, was reissued on a  single cassette and a single CD. Despite the greater length, there were some issues with the length and track order of albums, both reissues and new releases. "The Beatles", originally released as a double LP, remained split across two units for both its cassette and CD reissues, with the tracks in a different order on the pair of cassettes to ensure equal tape length. Meanwhile, 1988's "He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper" by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince was released on both vinyl and cassette. At 85 minutes, the vinyl record was released as a double  album, making it the first ever double vinyl LP release by hip hop artists, while its single CD release was truncated by 13 minutes. Other albums originally issued as double LPs, such as Mike Oldfield's "Incantations" (1978), Chick Corea's "My Spanish Heart" (1976), and The Minutemen’s "Double Nickels on the Dime" (1984) were likewise shortened for their 74-minute CD release, though both were later reissued in their entirety when 80-minute CDs were available. While not as common since the advent of these formats, particularly for studio albums, double albums continued to be released, particularly for  live recordings, classical music, soundtracks, and compilations, and a number of popular studio albums were released as double albums on these formats at this time, such as the Smashing Pumpkins' "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" (1995) and Michael Jackson's "" (1995) which sold over 20 million copies (40 million units) worldwide. The following year, Tupac Shakur became the first rapper to sell a double album globally with "All Eyez on Me", becoming his best selling album by the time he died in 1996. Sequencing. With regard to records, most double album sets are organized by manual sequencing, where the  order of sides played are laid much as they are on a single LP; Side one and two are organized back-to-back on the first disc, as are three and four on the second disc and so on. However, some releases up to the 1970s are optimized for automatic sequencing. On a double album, this would have had sides one and four on one disc and sides two and three on the other. This sequencing, used previously in multi-disc albums in the 78rpm era, let the listener play through the entire double album and only need to flip  over the records once, compared to manual sequencing where the listener would have to change the side or record three times. The use of automatic sequencing gradually declined during the 1970s as automatic record changers fell out of favor. High quality manual turntables became more affordable and are often preferred because they cause less record wear. After a company decided on manual or automatic sequence, production of that title generally stayed in the same configuration indefinitely. Notable examples of albums using automatic sequence include the 1968 Reprise Records release, "Electric Ladyland", by The Jimi Hendrix Experience which was still sold  in automatic sequence well into the late 1980s. Other common examples include "Frampton Comes Alive!" by Peter Frampton, "Songs in the Key of Life" by Stevie Wonder, "Quadrophenia" by The Who, and "Bad Girls" by Donna Summer. Sesquialbum. There are only a few examples of a sesquialbum (i.e. one and a half records). Johnny Winter released what would be the first three-sided rock album, "Second Winter", on two 12-inch discs, with the flip side of the second disc being blank. A 1976 live concert recording by Keith Jarrett and his quartet, released as "Eyes of the Heart" by  ECM Records in 1979, Joe Jackson's 1986 release "Big World", and Pavement's "Wowee Zowee" are other examples of this. In 1975, jazz artist Rahsaan Roland Kirk released "The Case of the 3 Sided Dream in Audio Color" which apparently had only three sides, but on closer inspection, there were a small number of grooves pressed on side four with a few short "hidden" conversation snippets; the CD reissue includes all of them. 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 2019 vinyl issue of "Monty Python Sings (again)" comprises two discs, with the flip side of the second disc featuring exclusive Monty Python 50th Anniversary artwork. 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 Sunlandic Twins" by  Of Montreal features a third side officially called a "bonus EP", essentially offering an alternate definition of an EP, a single 33 1/3 RPM side instead of a two-sided 45 RPM record. The 1992 Julian Cope album "Jehovahkill" contained three sides, or "phases", with a laser-etched fourth side which was unplayable, which also occurred with Norwegian band Motorpsycho's vinyl releases of "Motorpsycho presents The International Tussler Society" and "Heavy Metal Fruit", and Excepter's 2014 album Familiar (the third side, with only one track, being shorter). Seattle band Alice in Chains released their first two EPs, "Jar  of Flies", and "Sap" on two vinyl discs in 1994, with three sides on vinyl, while the fourth side contained a laser etching of the Alice in Chains logo. The vinyl pressing of the My Chemical Romance album "The Black Parade" also has three sides worth of content, with side four being a laser etching of a portion of the limited edition album art. Genesis' "Three Sides Live", Kiss' "Alive II", Donna Summer's "Live and More", and the Moody Blues' "Caught Live Plus 5" are examples of double albums with three sides of live recordings (i.e. one and a  half albums) and one side of studio recordings. 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. Triple album. Among the first successful triple albums (or triple records) were "", released August 15, 1970, and George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass", released November 27, 1970. 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". Yes's live album "Yessongs" was made a triple album owing to its inclusion of many of the band's longer compositions. With the longer time available on compact disc, many albums that spanned three vinyl discs are able to fit on two compact discs (an example being Nine Inch Nails' "The Fragile"). Triple albums are released across genres, including punk with The Clash's "Sandinista!"; alternative rock with Pearl Jam's "11/6/00 – Seattle, Washington"; and mainstream pop with Prince's "Emancipation". Frank Sinatra's "" was originally released as a three LP set in 1980 . Compact disc pressings of the album combine the triple vinyl set onto two CDs, with "Past" and "Present" taking up the first disc. The first triple hip-hop album was "American Hunger" by New York City rap artist MF Grimm which was released in 2006. It contains 20 songs on each disc. American hip hop artist Lupe Fiasco's canceled third studio album release "LupEND" would have been a triple album, composed of discs titled "Everywhere", "Nowhere", and "Down Here". Joanna Newsom's 2010 album "Have One on Me" is a triple album; due to the unusual length of the  songs, there are only six tracks on each disc. "Escalator over the Hill", Carla Bley's jazz opera (lyrics by Paul Haines), was originally released in 1971 as a triple album in a box which also contained a booklet with lyrics, photos and profiles of the musicians. "The Great Concert of Charles Mingus" by Charles Mingus was recorded in 1964 and released in 1971. The Weeknd's compilation album "Trilogy" was released as a triple album in 2012, comprising his critically acclaimed 2011 mixtapes "House of Balloons", "Echoes of Silence" and "Thursday". The Knife's 2013 album "Shaking the Habitual  is spread across three LPs and two CDs, being an hour and forty minutes in length. (Although a single-disc edit exists omitting the 19 minute track, Old Dreams Waiting To Be Realized"). Swallow the Sun's 2015 album "Songs from the North I, II & III" is divided into "Gloom", "Beauty" and "Despair". In total, each disc contains no more than 8 tracks and no less than 40 minutes. In April 2021, Eric Church released a triple album set, "Heart & Soul". Each album "Heart", "&", and "Soul", was released separately, with "&" being a vinyl-exclusive release. Box set. When albums exceed  the triple album format they are generally referred to as box sets. Normally, albums consisting of four or more discs are compilations or live recordings, such as "" and "Chicago at Carnegie Hall", respectively. Studio albums with more than three discs are very rare. Notable examples include: Simultaneous releases. Some performers have released two or more distinct but related albums simultaneously (or near-simultaneously) which could be seen together as a double album. Moby Grape's "Wow/Grape Jam" (released in 1968) is an early example. Others include: