BLACK SABBATH Black Sabbath (Rare France first issue 7-track vinyl LP with Swirl design, matt gatefold picture sleeve . The birth of Heavy Metal. The eponymous debut studio album, recorded for Fontana Records in October 1969, prior to release the record company elected to switch the band to another of their labels, Vertigo Records, which housed the company's more progressive acts. Released on Friday the 13th February 1970, the album reached number eight on the UK Albums Charts. Following its United States release in June 1970 by Warner Bros. Records, the album reached number 23 on the Billboard 200, where it remained for more than a year and sold one million copies. Sleeve Notes Three versions of the sleeve exist. The first issue had an erroneous copyright warning stating that “Copyright subsists in all Stereo recordings…”. The 2nd version corrected this to ”Copyright subsists in all Vertigo recordings…”. Both these versions had band member and production credits in capital letters throughout. The third version of the sleeve changed all credits into upper and lower case and also adds in composition and publishing credits, whilst all versions including reissues, mis-spell Ozzy Osbourne as Ossie Osborne. This copy comes with the 2nd version of the sleeve, as stated above. Label Notes Large swirl logo above spindle. “VERTIGO” below spindle hole. Upper case song titles with track numbers. On later issues the 'Philips' reference is removed Matrix Details • Matrix / Runout (A side runout, machine-stamped): PHI AA 847903 1Y 380 • Matrix / Runout (B side runout, machine-stamped): PHI AA 847903 2Y 380 • Condition The sleeve has some scuffing edgewear, which is usual for the non laminate sleeves and has no splits - although a light amount of foxing is clearly visible throughout. The labels are clean, whilst the vinyl is G with a few light hairlines throughout. Though not Mint - A nice copy of this extremely rare pressing. Tracklisting Side A 1. Black Sabbath 2. The Wizard 3. Behind The Wall Of Sleep 4. NIB Side B 1. Evil Woman 2. Sleeping Village 3. Warning Year of Release - 1970 Format - vinyl LP album (LP record) Record Label - Vertigo