A Google search, and a look-through of Philips’ site, have not revealed the answer to this question, so I turn to the Straight Dope.
What was the first musical album released on CD?
I have a feeling one of the first was Dire Straits’ Brothers in Arms, but that may have been the first popular-music album…
Nope, it wasn’t Brothers in Arms. I know that because I bought Making Movies on CD before BiA. Sorry, but I can’t give you the answer you are looking for.
WAG is that it was Bob 'Til You Drop by Ry Cooder. It was the first pop record that was recorded, mixed, and mastered digitally.
It wasn’t Brother’s In Arms, but this was certainly one of the first to get a big push on CD. Philips sponsored Dire Straits’ 1985 world tour as a means of promoting CDs.
** Schnitte**, the CD you refer to was released in 1990. I think what it really refers to is the first CD by that particular artist.
This site says Billy Joel was first!
This site says also Bridge Over Troubled Water and Michael Jackson. But it also says 34 unnamed classical pieces came first.
I thought it was Billy Joels Glass Houses but I’m not sure anymore… damn… I heard this a just while ago but can’t remember.
Maybe it was a Springsteen album instead.
I’m not sure who the first original CD release was (i.e. hadn’t been previously issued on vinyl), but I seem to recall that the first CD’s to hit the store were the re-release of The Beatle’s Sgt Pepper back in '85 or '86. I remember a couple of local music stores with lone-standing displays for Sgt Pepper CD’s, in a sea of vinyl and cassettes of other artists.
Sorry, but you recall incorrectly. Sgt. Pepper was re-released in '87 for its 20th anniversary. CDs had already been available in stores for 5 years before then…
Again no. My CD collection was already around 70 discs before Sgt. Pepper was released. Granted it did get one hell of a media blitz.
Chrome Spot, I was under the impression that The Nightfly by Donald Fagan was the first DDD CD.
interesting stuff you should know
It also looks as if there were probably a number of titles released simultaneously.
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I belive Dire Straits ‘Brother in Arms’ was the first CD to sell a million units.
I would tend to believe that there were a number of titles released simultaneously. It would seem odd to me to go through the headache of putting together what at that time was expensive hardware for which there would only be one title available.
For what its worth, Devo’s Total Devo in '88 was the first to be released simultaniously in LP, CD, Cassette, and DAT formats.
I remember as a kid in the very early 80s reading Stereo Review magazine (This is when i lusted after a portable boom box type record player from Radio Shack that was advertised in the magazine…I’d give my left nut for one of those now…well, maybe not) and they were hyping the new technology as the wave of the future…I remember the players were over a Thousand Dollars and that most of the discs available were classical music.
I’m hoping that with all the bad press record companies and their twenty dollar coasters are getting, that vinyl will make a comback, not that it ever went away.
Jon
Why A Duck and astro. Thanks guys. Next time I’m looking for someone to repeat what I’ve just said using the exact same web page cites I’ll know where to look…
Did somebody say something? 
Why a Duck quack is a Futile Gesture? Because it doesn’t echo if no one can hear it.
Yeah I’m looking for the source of the noise too but I’ve got the feeling it’s an exercise in futility. 
If I remember correctly, Vanilla Ice had the first Cd to not be released on Vinyl…
The man was a pioneer in so many ways…