Mad Magazine’s It’s a Super Spectacular Day has eight grooves on one side, each with a different ending to the same song.
I didn’t know about that, so I looked it up.
And found that the first multisided disks were released in 1898!
So-called Puzzle Plates produced by the Gramophone Company in London in 1898 and 1899: these were discs with two interleaved tracks, issued as E5504, 9290, 9296. Their most famous was a three-track Puzzle Plate (9317) recorded in January 1901 and given as the prize for a competition, for which several master recordings had to be made, distinguished by suffix letters against the catalogue number.
Now that’s good trivia!
Tadpoles by the Bonzo Dog Band had an animated cover. There were cutouts on the front cover and when you removed the sleeve, things would move. Neil Innes would have musical notes going through his head; “Legs” Larry Smith’s eyes went back and forth, and Vivian Stanshall had different glasses.
Jon Anderson sang part of King Crimson’s “Lizard” while still a member of Yes.
And then there’s this…
Wow. I couldn’t have been more wrong could I?
I had forgotten about Lizard.
And as for Wakeman, I knew about his many guest spots, but thought they were before or after his time in Yes. Should have done my homework before posting. 
Union is the only studio album to feature the work of eight full members of the band Yes:
- Vocalist Jon Anderson
- Vocalist/guitarist Trevor Rabin
- Guitarist Steve Howe
- Bassist Chris Squire
- Keyboardist Rick Wakeman
- Keyboardist Tony Kaye
- Drummer Alan White
- Drummer Bill Bruford
Which is actually another example of a band absorbing another band. Or maybe absorbing itself?
Even better, two splinter factions of a band temporarily reuniting to record an album, because neither faction was able to get one done on their own.
R.E.M.'s Out of Time was the only album to include a mail in petition to sign and send to your senator.
They were not the first, though. The Small Faces concept album “Odgen’s Nut Gone Flake” originally came in a circular metal fake tobacco tin.
As far as I know, Manfred Mann’s The Good Earth is the only album to come with a certificate good for a square foot of land in Wales.
The Flaming Lips also gave us the only albums to be released on:
- a disc filled with beer
- a disc filled with the band members’ blood
- a USB drive encased in a human skull
https://www.discogs.com/release/11903395-The-Flaming-Lips-The-Story-Of-Yum-Yum-And-Dragon
https://www.discogs.com/release/3605303-The-Flaming-Lips-24-Hour-Song-Skull
I didn’t know about those, but I’m not surprised, because the Flaming Lips are a wonderfully weird band. I love them for that.
I should have started the thread with this:
The Wu Tang Clan created only one copy of its Once Upon a Time in Shaolin album (actually a 2 CD set). It was sold to crypto crook Martin Shkreli for $2 million. When he was busted it was sold to PleasrDAO for $4 million to pay off debts. It cannot be commercially available until 2103.
Shkreli, a villain to the core like Snidely Whiplash, illegally made a copy for himself and live-streamed it in 2024, before a judge clamped down.
And I suppose after having been streamed, it was out in the open and will still be (illegally) downloadable or streamable somewhere.
Jean-Michel Jarre released only a single copy of Musique pour Supermarché (1983) before destroying the master plates, though it’s become available online since then.