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The strange habit that some record companies had of releasing a double album also as two single records, didn't last long. It was something only done in 1968 and 1969 by and large. Clearly it was motivated by fear that punters couldn't afford the price of the 2-disc release, but of course, it totally changed how you could listen to the record.
The 3 best known example are Cream - Wheels of Fire, Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland and Tommy by The Who. These all came out with their own sleeve artwork - in the Hendrix case, a much better cover.
It can't be a coincidence that these were on Polydor. In the case of Tommy, it was on Track which was a subsidiary of Polydor, I think. So it seems likely it was a company policy. It's worth remembering that even by 68, double albums in the rock genre were quite unusual, even though they dated back to 1950 in the jazz world.
I do have a copy of The Band's Rock Of Ages live album, which is split into 2 single discs and that's on Capitol. Both have the same cover, in fact. That came out in 1972 and I don't know of a later one than that.
I'd be interested to hear from you on Facebook if you've got any other examples. As a collector, it creates a nice little bit of extra stuff to find and that's always a good thing!
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