Jack White Releases World’s Fastest Record
Jack White came in ahead of schedule on his plan to record the world’s fastest record. According to Third Man Records, the first batch of 7″s for Record Store Day were recorded, pressed, assembled and available for sale at the store with 3:55:21 on the stopwatch.
Record Store Day 2014 Ultimate Buyer’s Guide
White announced his record-breaking plan earlier this month, declaring that “Lazaretto” would be “the world’s fastest released record . . . in the history of mankind.” He took the stage at 10 a.m. Saturday morning in the Blue Room at Third Man Records’ Nashville headquarters, accompanied by a band including Fats Kaplin and Daru Jones, and recorded two tracks. The first was “Lazaretto,” the title track from his forthcoming solo album, and the B-side was a cover of Elvis Presley’s 1969 song “Power of My Love.”
The two songs were cut directly to acetate, and the masters were rushed from the Blue Room to United Record Pressing to make the 45s, with a sleeve featuring photos taken during the performance. United will continue pressing and delivering the record today as long as fans line up to buy it.
“Originally, we were just gonna do this record and go back to sleep,” White told the assembled crowd after a live video screen showed the acetate taken off its machine, according to The Tennessean. Instead, they played an hour-long set, including a mix of new songs and White Stripes favorites.
By recording, pressing and releasing “Lazaretto” in less than four hours, Jack White broke the Guinness World Record set by Swiss polka trio Vollgas Kompanie, who issued their album Live on August 16th, 2008, the day after they recorded it.