– Philips 400 004 AE

This EP was originally released in 1955. 1955 is supposed to be the first year Philips produced 7 inch singles and EP’s (not counting the mini 78rpm records). The first release came in a paper-like sleeve (with folded flaps glued on top of the back cover and no lamination); it came earlier than the laminated version shown here which also shows the text “All Philips records are high fidelity records” on the back.

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– Philips 07XXX LP series

Recent observations led me to think Philips 07XXX series (for jazz, big band and other more popular genres) were released according to the following scheme:

070XX Most releases before 10/1956
071XX Released from 1956 onwards
072XX Released later than 9/1956
073XX Released later than 9/1956
074XX Non-existent
075XX Released later than 9/1956
076XX Most releases before 10/1956
077XX Most releases before 10/1956
078XX Non-existent
079XX Non-existent

This means that the 070XX, 076XX and 077XX ranges were released first, than came 071XX, to be followed by 072XX, 073XX, 075XX.

Sources: My own collection, Discogs and especially the Philips catalog “Amerikanische Serie, Hauptcatalog 1956/57”, which lists releases published before Sept. 30, 1956. When going through the pages all I can find are issues from the 070XX, 076XX and 077XX ranges and a few from the 071XX range.

More research is needed though.

– 10 inch Favourites-series

Philips began issuing the 10 inch Favourites-serie (or Favoriten-Serie) in 1954 and not in 1956. Before, I was assuming both the 10 and 12 inch series started in 1956, but that’s not correct as can be seen in this ad from “Algemeen Handelsblad”, Sept. 17, 1954. The ad announces it as a new series.

Early album covers are made of one piece and have flaps which fold over the back cover to be glued in place. This was the common construction used for early Philips albums until probably early to mid 1955. From c. mid 1954 until early to mid 1955 Philips also issued an increasing number of these covers with lamination – both the front and the back covers were laminated (while later covers were constructed differently and had lamination on the front cover only). All early first pressings in the Favourites-series (until c. S 06040 R) are fully laminated. Philips probably started using lamination for this series.

– Philips A 00339 L

Another album in the “Mozart Jubilee Edition 1756 – 1956”. This album was released in 1956, probably later in that year.

Click on the image above to see a complete set of larger images and more details.