Have records always been 7″ and 12″?

Posted On January 1, 2025January 1, 2025

With records having experienced a major resurgence in the last decade, all kinds of novel packaging or artwork have been devised to further the collectable artefact of an album or give a classic LP a reissued rejuvenation, from Friday the 13th‘s blood-dripping clear vinyl to Alice in Chains’ genuine dead insects in their Jar of Flies 30th anniversary. While less extravagant, the size of records has been played with for the occasional novel marketing.

Records weren’t always cut as 7″ or 12″. Back in the 1930s, before vinyl was even used, records could be a massive 16″, cut on aluminium specifically for radio broadcasts. Jump to the 1950s and children’s records of stories and nursery rhymes were often 6″ and 8″ with the intention of being spun at 78rpm, Pickwick’s Happy Time Records releasing such kids LPs with a brightly coloured splatter design.

The late 1960s saw Philco’s 4″ flexidiscs under the Hip Pocket Records tag, typically only able to hold one song but available from vending machines or Woolworths for 50 cents. Japan went one step further in 2004 and produced the ‘8-Ban’ record players designed to play specific small-sized vinyl on 3″ discs called Triple Inchophones, typically for kids’ TV shows like Ultraman. Guitarist Jack White loved them so much that he commissioned an official White Stripes player, complete with mini singles available on their Get Behind Me Satan tour.

Odd sizes were played with into the 1980s too. Squeeze’s ‘If I Didn’t Love You’ was issued as a 5″, and Stiff cut a 6″ for Jona Lewie’s ‘Big Shot Momentarily’ bearing the warning: “This record may not play on automatic decks. So try putting it on ‘manual’. If this does not work you are advised to invest in the 7″ version.”

When still stuck on the TVT label, Nine Inch Nails’ third single from debut Pretty Hate Machine ‘Sin’ was released as an aptly limited 9″ edition in the UK, and Sonic Boomer Peter Kember’s band E.A.R. produced a 5″ ‘Pocket Symphony’ single and 8″ picture disc for Ochre records in the 1990s.

11″s have been cut, one notably by Batcave legends Alien Sex Fiend on their ‘E.S.T. (Trip to the Moon)’ 1984 EP, boasting to be the world’s first within its sleeve, and Luke Vibert, under his drum ‘n’ bass Wagon Christ alias sampling Withnail and I, released a glow-in-the-dark 11″ for the Electro Bunker Cologne label.

Reportedly, at the 2010 SXSW, Third Man Records sold some whopping 13″ LPs, including The Raconteurs’ Broken Boy Soldiers (White is clearly a fan of the novel LP), calling them ‘Texas-sized’ and featuring the caption “Y’all’s Turntables Aren’t Big Enough.”

To promote the re-opening of Los Angeles’ The Forum, the stadium affixed a genuine 4824″ revolving roof of The Eagles’ Hotel California record constructed from 250,000 square feet of printed vinyl and spinning at 17 miles per hour. Thankfully, owner Steve Ballmer’s budget didn’t stretch to supply a giant needle, sparing everyone from the record’s yacht rock horror.

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