Till 40’s most phonograph records had more or less the same standard appearance. However, large-scale commercial adoption of vinyl led to production of unusually but highly attractively designed records every now and then.
Usually these creatively designed vinyl records were produced on a short scale and geared toward hard-core vinyl fans or vinyl enthusiast that like to own—and flaunt—eye-catching vinyl records.
Here are top 10 rarest, weirdest, and bizarre records to ever appear on the vinyl scene.
1. X-Ray Records
During the cold war, Soviet Union had banned many records. However, bootleggers came up with an ingenious strategy to pull the wool over the eyes of the authorities.
They copied and pressed banned records on thrown-away X-Rays, obtained secretly from hospitals.
2. Vinyl Zerotypes
If you’re wondering what a zerotype is, it is a pre-cinema animation which gives the illusion of motion. It achieves this by showing a sequence of photographs or drawing, with each drawing showing the next-in-line phase of the motion than the one before it.
3. Voyager Golden Record
These records contain different natural sounds, like those made by wind, thunder, surf, and animals. The record’s content was handpicked for none other than NASA. The images on these records were just as interesting as, if not more than, its audio content.
In addition to different natural sounds, the record had musical selections from a variety of cultures as well as eras in both modern and ancient languages. The records also contained printed messages from Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States.
4. Gold and Platinum Coated Vinyl
The LP release of The Great Gatsby soundtrack (Directed by Baz Luhrmann) was handled by Third Man Records. The company released a limited-edited version of the film’s soundtrack containing one platinum disc (Disc One) and one gold disc (Disc Two). The company had used a novel method for these records. Never before commercially-available vinyl records had been made using gold and platinum through this process. What’s more these records come packed in a specially created laser-cut wooden jacket.
5. Blood Filled Record
The album “The Flaming Lips And Heady Fewnds” by The Flaming Lips was also released in a limited edition (10 copies were made in total) featuring human-blood filled records. Each copy was priced at $2,500 and the proceeds went to The Oklahoma Humane Society. Several famous celebrities gave their blood samples for these records, including Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Nick Cave, and Erykah Badu.
6. String Embedded Vinyl
Mess on a Mission, a single from Liars, was released in a limited edition (1000 copies). These copies are a clear vinyl pressings having multi-colored strings pressed into them. This was something that had never been done before and came across as a beautifully unique and eye-catching way to offer great music to fans.
7. 3 RPM Record
For their Three Year Anniversary Party, Third Man Records released the first ever 3 RPM record. All the singles of Blue Series Singles were included in these 7-inch records.
8. Laser Etched Record
Typically only the non-playable side of a record has laser etching. However, it is possible to have laser etching on the playable side. This, however, requires some tweaking. When a light hits on laser etching, it is reflected in attractive polychromatic colors.
9. Vinyl that glows in dark
The 30th Anniversary edition of Ghostbusters Soundtrack (Ray Parker Jr.), featured glow in dark vinyl records. Only 5,000 copies of glow in dark vinyl were released.
10. Laser Cut Wood Records
Created by Amanda Ghassaei, these records are very attractive, not to mention a bit unusual.
All the records listed here are, quite naturally, expensive. If you’re a budget buyer and are looking for normal vinyl records, you can click the Shop Music tab at the top of your page. We have an impressive vinyl collection, and we are sure you’ll find your favorite records at affordable prices.