Did You Know Billy Joel Was the First Artist Released On CD in 1982?

In March 1983, CD players made their debut in the U.S. with the Sony CDP-101. In October 1982, the player debuted in Japan alongside the first album released on CD. There was a long line of pressings, demonstrations, and developments that went back to 1976, when Sony and Phillips first developed the compact disc. Here’s a little bit of the history of the CD, plus who were the first artists released on the new format?

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Billy Joel Becomes First Artist Commercially Released on Compact Disc, But He’s Not the First Pressing

In Japan, Billy Joel’s 1978 album 52nd Street became the first album released on CD in conjunction with the debut of the CDP-101. However, it was not the first CD ever pressed. That goes to ABBA’s 1981 album The Visitors, which was pressed in Hanover, Germany, at the new Polydor Pressing Operations Plant. This pressing was not released, so Billy Joel is still the first artist to be released on CD, while ABBA remains the first to be officially pressed.

Even before that, in 1981, the first test CD was pressed in order to demonstrate how the players worked. This was a pressing of Richard Strauss’s “Eine Alpensinfonie.” For the first public demonstration, however, another test CD was pressed: The Bee Gees’ Living Eyes from 1981. The demonstration took place on the BBC show Tomorrow’s World, according to a report from Jeremy Norman’s History of Information.

On March 8, 1979, Phillips first introduced the compact disco at a press conference in the Netherlands. Sony had done the same in 1976. The pieces were set for the compact disc boom, and the two companies definitely delivered on their promises.

The First CDs Released in America

In September 1984, the CBS Records production plant opened in Indiana, which pressed the first CDs released in the U.S. While Billy Joel made the compact disc debut in Japan, it was Bruce Springsteen who debuted the new format in the U.S. His album Born in the U.S.A. was the first CD pressed at the Indiana plant.

According to a report from CNN, CDs didn’t initially take off commercially until the mid-80s. Dire Straits’ 1985 album Brothers in Arms was the first compact disc to sell 1 million copies. Additionally, the CD that has sold the most copies is the Beatles’ 1 with 30 million copies, as of 2010. Overall, the biggest selling album in all formats is Michael Jackson’s Thriller with more than 70 million sold.

While we know Born in the U.S.A. was the first CD released in the U.S., but about subsequent releases? In 1983, new pressings in the U.S. plant included The Police’s Synchronicity, Bryan Adams’ Cuts Like a Knife, Joe Jackson’s Night and Day, Styx’s Kilroy Was Here, Billy Joel’s An Innocent Man, and David Bowie’s Let’s Dance. This, of course, doesn’t include the many CDs that were pressed that had already come out in the previous years.

Featured Image by Richard E. Aaron/Redferns