Is your 12″ copy of Robert Shaw’s Chorale Christmas Carols a 78rpm by any chance ? The early Blue Notes produced the same format back then as well, but unfortunately they didn’t have decent covers like the later 12” 33rpm format, and despite their excessive girth were extremely “frahhhgilehhh”. (Play on words from the ‘Christmas Story’movie …Sorry, slow day at the office)

The issue with the date most likely arose from Intro’s notation of their general use copyright on the bottom left hand corner on the back side of the cover which states “COPYRIGHT 1951 by INTRO RECORDS, INC.” This is actually printed on the back covers of all four known original Intro releases despite the fact that the recording dates were much later. In this case, December 28th, 1956 and January 14, 1957 along with the detailed recording information, all of which is provided in the liner notes directly above the copyright. Which explains the confusion here, and even in many past auctions described on Popsike.

There is a great discography on the birth of Intro from Aladdin Records for anyone interested at the following URL: http://www.bsnpubs.com/aladdin/aladdinstory.html

Here are a few key bits of trivia taken from the Intro / Aladdin Records Discography:

The Intro label was the pop/jazz subsidiary of Aladdin Records. Intro issued a couple of 10-inch LPs in 1952, then did not issue albums until 1957 or so, when they started a 12-inch series.

Although the output of Aladdin was not great in quantity, it was outstanding in quality. The jazz recordings of Kenny Drew and Art Pepper are very much in demand today. Aladdin, Score and Jazz: West albums are some of the rarest in the record-collecting field. Eight Aladdin albums appear on the Goldmine list of “The 100 Most Valuable U.S. Albums”. George Moonoogian, in an article written for Goldmine in 1979, called Aladdin “The King of LP Rarities.”

Prior to 1955, Aladdin had 3 subsidiary labels issuing albums. The jazz label Jazz:West issued two 10- inch albums. In 1955 Jazz: West switched over to 12-inch albums, but issued them in the same series as their 10-inch albums. There were eight 12-inch albums issued by Jazz:West in 1955 and 1956. In 1952, the popular music subsidiary Intro issued two 10-inch albums and the classical music subsidiary Orfeo issued one 10-inch album and two 12-inch albums. Orfeo did not issue any albums after 1952. In 1957, the Mesners revived the Intro label and issued at least four albums. Intro 602 and 603 were reissues of Lester Young’s Aladdin 801 and Aladdin 802. There were two new jazz albums issued, one by Art Pepper titled Modern Art [Intro 606] and an Art Pepper, Red Norvo, and Joe Morello album titled Recollections [Intro 608].

Following the lead of Modern Records, who had introduced a successful line of budget albums on the Crown label, the Mesner brothers, owners of Aladdin Records, started a budget line of LPs in 1957 using their old subsidiary name, Score. All of the Score albums were $1.98 and most of the Aladdin, Jazz:West, Orfeo and Intro albums were reissued on Score. The establishment of the Score label may account for the scarcity of the Aladdin and Intro 12-inch albums, as they were only in print for a short time before being deleted and reissued on Score. In fact, several intended Aladdin releases may not have been issued at all before being transferred to Score. While the Crown label flourished, the Score line of LPs seemed to die a slow death.

Modern Art was also reissued shortly after on the Score Label:
SLP-4030 – Modern Art – Art Pepper [1958] Label is maroon with silver printing. Reissue of Intro LP-606. Intro number “LP-606” is not in the trailoff wax area.

The best quote by Don Clark who wrote the liner notes on Intro ILP-606 really speaks volumes on this one:
“Some people never find their niche in life, some at least do what they like to do, but only a very few do what they were chosen to do. Art Pepper applies to the latter.”

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Art-Pepper/dp/B000005H5O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337973177&sr=8-1

About that wrong date, does anyone know what year the first 12″ LPs came out?

(As for the Art Pepper LP… I will let you know what year it actually is once it arrives, I took a gamble on this one condition aside !)