Disneyland Records - 7-inch Little-LP Books and Records

7-inch Little-LP Books and Records

Disney Read-Alongs are a series of illustrated books for children with accompanying recordings of the books being read. The first Read-Alongs, book-and-record sets, were released in 1965 by Disneyland Records; several hundred titles have been produced.

These were typically adaptations of popular Disney movies, cartoons, and other stories, running 24 pages. A narrator (or in some titles, a character from the story in first-person) read the story, and dialogue and songs from the original source were included. The sound of Tinker Bell's chimes was the signal for the reader to turn the page. The books always contained the tag line "SEE the pictures, HEAR the record, READ the book." The first editions typically had this introduction:

• "This is a Disneyland original Little Long-Playing Record, and I am your story reader. I am now going to begin to read the story of . You can read along with me in your book. You will know it's time to turn the page when Tinker Bell rings her little bells like this: (sound of 'chimes' ringing). Let's begin now."

Meanwhile, the second editions (released beginning in 1977), and new titles released thereafter, typically had this introduction (since the second editions were also released on cassette), and still do to this day:

• "This is the story of . You can read along with me in your book. You'll know it's time to turn the page when you hear the chimes ring like this: (sound of chimes ringing). Let's begin now."

(Note: Both editions of Peter and the Wolf did not include a chimes ring and thus that part of the introduction was skipped.)

Some titles also had different signals for turning the page, but most were presented in this manner. Also the way the story was presented differed from the first and second editions. In the former, the story was presented in its entirety on side 1 (on some shorter ones, the story was read twice), with one or two songs related to the story on side 2. In the latter, the story was spread out across both sides of the record with the related song(s) playing after the story was finished.

In the late 1970s, Disney started releasing Read-Along titles on cassette in addition to the versions on records. The cassette versions usually had the story in its entirety, plus the songs (if applicable) on both sides making it unnecessary to turn the cassette over to listen to the rest of the story. As such, the sides were not designated. The cassette versions were based on the second editions.

• "That was the end of the story. If you would like to hear it again, turn the tape over." (1977–88)
• "That was the end of the story. If you would like to hear it again, just turn the tape over." (1988–97)

There are the CD editions in now, too.

• "That was the end of the story. If you would like to hear it again, just put the disc back to track one." (2009–present)

Disney also produced titles based on non-Disney properties, such as the Star Wars films; these were released under the Buena Vista name (one exception was E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which was released under the Disney name). They also produced titles adapted from the Peanuts animated specials under the Charlie Brown Records banner, and which had a specialized introduction:

• "Hi. I'm Charlie Brown. You can read along in your book as you listen to the story. You'll know it's time to turn the page when you hear the chimes ring like this: (sound of chimes ringing). And now we present ."