Record Store Day 2026’s Most Wanted: Taylor Swift, Pink Floyd, Tom Petty, Brandi Carlile, Hilary Duff, ‘Demon Hunters,’ Bruce Springsteen and Laufey Lead a List of 350 Exclusives

(6050 copies on LP, black vinyl, RSD Exclusive) (3700 copies on compact disc, RSD First)

He’s a prince among No Kings proponents. And now you can relive his 2024 tour, whether or not you’ve been able to make it to the ’26. Previously available only on Nugs and never on a physical format, this captures his homecoming performance in Asbury Park at the 2024 Sea.Hear.Now festival and spans over three hours of a boardwalk-adjacent performance that took place in front of 35,000 people. Some music fans who are still partial to CDs complain that Record Store Day is too exclusively fixated on vinyl, so they should be happy that Springsteen and company have seen fit to release this in both formats for indie stores, spread across 5 LPs or two CDs. By the way, if wrangling five records feels a little unwieldy, each disc does come in its own dust jacket with its own cover photo, encased in a slipcase. (The LP version is marked RSD Exclusive, meaning this is the only pressing that will ever be done; the CD set is RSD First, meaning that it will probably be repressed for a more general release.)

(unknown quantity, 7-inch violet glitter vinyl, RSD Exclusive)

It’s probably safe to say that a good part of whatever lineup you’re seeing in front of stores has to do with Swiftie interest in RSD, thanks to a colorful 7-inch single that was announced after the initial lineup of exclusives went out. The big mystery is how many are being pressed and released to stores, as Swift’s camp seems to have wanted to keep that under wraps for their recent RSD releases, whereas there’s a specific quantity given for every other limited edition. If we had to hazard a guess, they aren’t releasing a number because it’s a truly massive pressing, as opposed to something that will be an immediate collectors’ item. Our basis for saying that is the release this time last year of a “Fortnight” single, which also didn’t have the quantity revealed, but was so well-stocked in some stores that they didn’t sell out for days or weeks. But if you’re a hardcore fan, do you really want to take a chance that there will be gobs and gobs of these, and sleep in? Of course you don’t. It doesn’t hurt the must-have factor that Swift’s violet disc — so colored after Ms. Taylor’s eyes, of course — is the prettiest colored vinyl product she’s yet put out.

(8,000 copies, black vinyl, Record Store Day Exclusive)

Who doesn’t love a good sequel? The first in-store live EP that Carlile released, “Live at Easy Street Records,” came out toward the beginning of her career, in 2007 — in CD form only, by the way — and is tough to find. This followup, 19 years later, is also coming out in a single physical format, but it’s vinyl only, as a sign of how things have changed for music retail, as they also have for Carlile’s explosive career. A pressing of 8,000 is not bad, so this may not become quite so much of a collectors’ item as its long-distant predecessor. But you also shouldn’t expect a limited live release from one of America’s most justifiably celebrated concert performers to stick around on shelves terribly long. (Plus, who can be sure that Easy Street, her hometown store in Seattle, didn’t claim a lot of the stock for themselves?)

(6000 copies, clear vinyl, RSD First)

As semiannual RSD events roll around, Young has done a good job of letting celebrants get a jump on the releases he has coming out, by allowing Record Store Day shoppers to get these albums a week or two before the general market does, and in special limited editions with some sort of different packaging angle. “As Time Explodes,” a brand new double live album recorded last year, will get a general release to all retail on May 1, in both vinyl and CD formats. But besides getting it two weeks before everyone else, RSD customers also get it on clear vinyl with an exclusive lyric poster and gatefold jacket.

(15,400 copies, clear vinyl, RSD Exclusive)

This live album first got an official release in December as part of the “Wish You Were Here” 50th anniversary boxed set, but it was controversial at the time for a couple of reasons. One is that, in that hefty collection, it was only included on a Blu-ray component, and not available on vinyl or CD at the time. This stand-alone release of the concert for RSD in both those formats solves that issue. That still leaves the other issue that some fans had: The recording is sourced from an audience tape, captured by a famous bootlegger in the audience. Given the rarity of professionally recorded Floyd shows from the mid-’70s, though, most fans who ever heard it on bootleg back in the day agreed that it was awfully close to soundboard quality, and might be mistaken for it. That was even before it got an audio upgrade from one of the archival wizards fans trust most, Steven Wilson. As with the aforementioned Springsteen release, this is a rare RSD release that has something to satisfy the small contingent of music fans who are holding onto their CD players but couldn’t care less about turntables. (The LP version is RSD Exclusive, meaning it’s kind of now or never; the CD version is RSD First, which means it could stay in print forever.)

(8000 copies, pink and green translucent splatter color vinyl, RSD Exclusive)

The tour behind the Heartbreakers’ second album, “You’re Gonna Get It,” was recorded on 2-track at the Paradise and broadcast by local rock radio station WBCN-FM. While bootlegs have been out there for decades, the estate is finally making the concert officially available, with audio restoration done by the longtime Tom associate everyone trusts with the keys to the Petty vaults, Ryan Ulyate. It’s on 180g pink and green translucent splatter color vinyl — thick and juicy, in other words — and contains a vintage-style tour sticky pass. The plain white die-cut cover has built-in distress marks, to fool you (not really) into believing this really did get the release it deserved in ’78 and has been getting wear and tear on your LP shelf ever since.

(17,000 copies, Big Apple red vinyl, RSD First)

Here’s another one that, like the Taylor Swift single, was announced after the initial lineup was revealed, so you might’ve missed it if you made your shopping list and didn’t check it twice back in February. A year ago at this time, Laufey gave Record Store Day an exclusive release recorded in concert at the Hollywood Bowl, and now she shows she has no favoritism toward the west coast by putting out a comparable release recorded at MSG. It was captured at the New York arena in October, so feels fairly hot off the presses. Packaging includes a booklet with previously unseen photos and drafts of the tour production. The pressing quantity, 17,000, is a large one, as RSD exclusives go, but her label may believe that her feverish cult will be expanding even more, as the on-sale coincides with the second of her two weekends of Coachella performances. (Speaking of which… maybe they’ll be releasing her Coachella set for RSD 2027?)

(2000 copies, 7-inch black vinyl, RSD First)

Dacus’ RSD release was downright secretive at first; when the RSD lineup was first announced in January, this was the only one of hundreds of releases announced that didn’t even have a title. It is a mystery no more. “Planting Tomatoes” is coming out exclusively for RSD via this 7-inch single before it comes out on streaming platforms on April 24. We got a sneak preview of the tune, and it’s terrific — as cheerfully rocking a number as Dacus has ever done, even though its theme is something as gentle as morality and the preciousness of life. As she explained it in a teaser statement: “It’s about trying to stay present and grateful when you know that life ends, for yourself and everyone you love, and how to avoid disenchantment by seeing through as many of your little ideas as possible.” In other words, life is short, and (sorry) so is the supply of this possibly under-pressed record.

(2200 copies, black vinyl, RSD Exclusiver)

The jazz world is still mourning — and probably always will be — the untimely loss of the great trumpeter in 2018 at age 49. As long as they can keep finding live sets like this one, the sting of not getting fresh studio recordings may not be quite so harsh. He was known for his appeal to everyone from jazz traditionalists to neo-soul stirrers and hip-hoppers, and it’s evident why in a performance — captured at the Bern Jazz Festival in 2000, when he was still coming in hot, at 30 — that bops in an assortment of grooves. It’s a single LP but comes with the kind of booklet that you’d expect from the more expansive collections so often put together by co-producer Zev Feldman, filled with photos and testimonials as well as liner notes by the celebrated jazz writer Nate Chinen. Feeling the Bern is a must, this RSD. (But if you’re not a vinyl person, CD and download versions will follow a week later, on April 24.)

(1950 copies, black vinyl, RSD Exclusive)

An ingenious idea for a boxed set: bundling the debut solo albums that were released by David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash in the wake of the CSNY smash “Déjà vu” — with a fourth LP of demos and sessions from all three albums. You can dream about what kind of classic CSN album might have resulted if they’d actually re-teamed for each other’s “Laughing,” “Love the One You”re With” and “Military Madness,” but in truth all the music fans of that era benefited from each member following his own muse at greater length. The bonus discs, marked “Solo Rarities,” is a fun reason to pick this up even if you already own the individual albums, as it alternates between the three. Change partners, indeed.

(7000 copies, black vinyl, RSD Exclusive)

And they were… This is the first vinyl release of demo sessions recorded by the original three-piece lineup of Talking Heads for CBS/Columbia in 1975. Obviously, that relationship did not take, with Byrne and company opting to go Sire. But as a result of their flirtation, we now get to hear these 15 tracks across two LPs at 45rpm. The track list includes “Psycho Killer,” ”Love –> Building On Fire” and “Warning Sign.” It’s a vinyl breakout from the upcoming 3-CD boxed set, “Tentative Decisions: Demos & Live”; their catalog’s overseers have done a nice job over the past few RSD events of giving us all the pieces of that collection in individualized LP editions that have become quickly snapped-up must-haves.

(7000 copies, white vinyl, RSD Exclusive)

A 12-inch EP on “milky white” vinyl brings Strings’ live set from public radio’s desk to yours, and features the virtuoso and his band taking to the Tiny Desk and getting a big sound out of “Red Daisy,” “My Alice,” “Malfunction Junction” and Gild the Lily.” 

(10,000 copies, silver vinyl, RSD Exclusive)

The Duff-assance continues in high fashion with this interesting side project. It features newly re-recorded versions of her greatest hits, including “Come Clean (Mine)” and “What Dreams Are Made Of (Mine),” on silver vinyl. Fans have some familiarity with the concept. as the album already came out recently on streaming. But this is the first physical artifact of Duff using her mature voice to revisit her arguably pre-mature material, letting us decide for ourselves if the child really was mother to the woman.

(7100 copies, “BBC Sessions”; 2000 copies, “Found Dogs”; both black vinyl, RSD Exclusive)

The first official release of his BBC sessions from the early ‘70s includes favorites from the legendary artist’s first two albums. It’s one of two Prine releases this RSD.  This one is a newly curated archival release celebrating the 30th anniversary of “Lost Dogs & Mixed Blessings,” with alternate versions, acoustic performances, and five previously unreleased tracks. The jacket is foil-stamped and numbered. A few of the tracks have been previously issued on CD deluxe editions, but the last four tracks on side B have been unreleased in any format.

(10,000 copies each, splatter vinyl, RSD Exclusive)

Fans of the franchise will be casting their vote for either Huntr/X or Saja Boys, unless they can find and afford both editions — two different “special effect vinyl” versions of the soundtrack featuring original art cover by Marion Bordeyne plus a fold-out poster, sticker sheet, and three snapshot cards. These of course are not the first or only chances to get the “Demon Hunters” soundtrack on vinyl, but these two editions are exclusive to RSD, for anyone determined to achieve some sort of “Golden” standard by collecting ‘em all. 

(2000 units, marble vinyl, RSD Exclusive)

Oglio, the label that recently brought you a reissue of the classic Brian Wilson album “Live at the Roxy Theatre” as a three-LP boxed set, follows that up with another gem: the first-time issue of “On Tour 1999-2007,” a new single-LP compilation authorized by the estate and produced and engineered by a long-time key figure in the camp, Mark Linett. One look at the track list and you see how this is aimed at the serious Brian aficionado, as it starts off with “This Could Be the Night” (too great a song to have gotten buried with Rodney Bingenheimer’s KROQ show) and, from there, moving on to such solo and Beach Boys cult favorites as “Melt Away,” “The Night Was So Young,” “Marcella,” “Friends” and “Our Prayer/Heroes & Villains,” plus a concluding cover of “She’s Leaving Home.” The gatefold jacket includes photos of Wilson with some of his most beloved band members from these prime touring years. Come on a safari with them, to the land of deeper tracks.

(2000 copies, black vinyl, RSD Exclusive)

Resonance’s all-stars worked to bring this project to light, with Zev Feldman producing and label founder/engineer George Klabin restoring and mastering from the original tapes, recorded in 1976 and previously unreleased. The material ranges from Duke Ellington’s “Prelude to a Kiss” to an Antonio Carlos Jobim bossa nova to the wilder fusion of Herbie Hancock’s “Dolphin Dance” to his take on “Theme From M*A*S*H”… to his own original composition “Ahmad’s Song.” Jazz pianist and Jamal scholar Joe Alterman contributes to Resonance’s usual authoritative liner notes, as the label goes further toward taking up the musician as one of its in-house favorites.

(4400 copies, brick-color vinyl, RSD Exclusive)

Some more excellent Coachella timing, as old and new fans who just caught Dijon Duenas and his big band in Indio or on the livestream will be looking to bulk up on his catalog. The first-ever vinyl issue of this 2020 EP is a good place to start, recorded at a time when he’d just signed to Warner Bros. and already had several independent EPs and singles under his belt yet still hadn’t released a full-length yet. In the past year or two, Dijon’s star has risen so greatly that it’s nice to look back on a time when we weren’t yet betrothed, via this fuzz-rocky origin story.

(3500 copies, black vinyl, RSD Exclusive)

As an extension of Plant’s and Dian’s “Saving Grace” album, this EP offers four previously unreleased studio recordings: the traditional “Blackest Crow,” Bert Jansch’s “Poison,” Gillian Welch’s “Orphan Girl” and the Ted Daryll/Greg Richards song “She Cried.”

(2050 copies, black vinyl, RSD First)

The blues legend performed in front of 50,000 fans at France’s Nancy Jazz Pulsations Festival in 1975, the year before he died, captured on recordings unreleased until Zev Feldman brought the tapes to their due justice now, just over a half-century after that triumphant, autumnal moment. As you might guess from the title, King covers Dave Mason’s “Feelin’ Alright” along with standards like “Got My Mojo Workin’,” “Stormy Monday” and “Have You Ever Loved a Woman.” Historian Cary Baker, who was deeply rooted in Chicago blues before becoming a fixture of the L.A. music industry, contributed the absorbing liner notes, and ZZ Top’s Billy F. Gibbons gets a word or two in, too.

(2000 copies, black vinyl, RSD Exclusive)

A 75th anniversary reissue of Davis’ first album as a bandleader, this 10-inch, four-song EP was cut AAA from the original mono tapes by Jeff Powell at Take Out Vinyl. “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” goes Davis’ closing song, and the packaging here is “only” a Stoughton tip-on jacket that perfectly reproduces the original package design; that is, you won’t find a bar code or anything that post-dates 1961 anywhere but the shrink-wrap sticker. This sublime revisiting of some of his breakout work is proof that Miles was Miles before he was Miles.

(3500 copies, rose color vinyl, RSD Exclusive)

For her 1972 album, Mitchell originally had intended the album cover to feature a horse with roses coming out of its hind end, reflecting her view of the music business. Eventually cooler heads (or asses) prevailed, and she compromised and agreed to use the Joel Bernstein photo that was ultimately the album’s cover. But this limited edition for Record Store Day restores her original vision for the cover for the first time, which is actually lovelier than any “horses’s ass” description would suggest. Even loveilier, this special pressing comes on rose-colored vinyl.

(1000 copies, black vinyl, RSD Limited Run/Regional Focus)

Gaby Moreno is one of L.A.’s great musical treasures, and it’s fitting that she would be captured for this release as heard on L.A.’s arguably most respected music station, KCRW. Her being an integral part of the SoCal music scene only partly has to do with her status as one of the area’s most accomplished bilingual performers, but that doesn’t hurt; this mostly English-language set ends with the Guatemalan anthem “Luna de Xelaju.” The in-studio set was recorded in early 2024 following the release of her acclaimed “Dusk,” and as it turns out, sunset becomes eclectic, too.

(3500 copies, black vinyl, RSD Exclusive)

Bill Evans is nearly synonymous with RSD, at least to a certain subset of jazz aficionados who reliably look forward to the releases that come from the vault and his estate. This two-LP set is the first official release taken from two Bill Evans Trio shows at the BBC Television Theatre in 1965, originally performed for the program “Jazz 625,” with bassist Chuck Israels and drummer Larry Bunker completing his trio. An extensive booklet includes photographs from the show and liner notes by Evans authority Marc Myers along with interviews with Israels and James Pearson, a pianist and the director of London’s Ronnie Scott’s jazz club. It’s “jazz detective” Zev Feldman’s 15th production in association with the Evans estate, taking material that had previously been relegated to laserdisc back in the day and remastering it for the highest quality pure audio. “We were damn near perfect at the BBC,” Israels says with pride in the booklet, 61 years later, and who would take up the dare to disagree? (The 2-LP set can also be bought on CD and digital download on April 24.)

(8000 copies, pink and red splatter vinyl, RSD First)

What’s the matter, Kat’s got your dollar? They will if you or your loved ones have to have a record that includes “Touch” and “Gabriela,” each heard in both “tour” and a cappella versions on one side of a 12-inch disc, pressed on pink-and-red splatter vinyl, with an etching on the B-side.

(2000 copies, black vinyl, RSD Exclusive)

Resonance Records is taking on the audio archives of the Jazz Showcase club in Chicago, and this three-LP set represents the first release in what looks to be a long and fruitful dip into that unexplored vault. The recordings of the sax great date to 1978, as he led a quartet that included bassist Steve Rodby (pre-Pat Metheny), drummer Danny Spencer and pianist Joanne Brackeen, all of them ready to go fast and furious. (A 2-CD set will follow on April 24, for the non-turntable-inclined.)

(4500 copies, iridescent pearl arctic vinyl, RSD First)

Are you ready for a three-LP set that is based entirely on one song? You might be if you are a fan of the Lennon-Ono family, or just deeply curious about the myriad ambient ways one tune can be turned. Sean Ono Lennon has gone way beyond what we would normally call remixing in his approach to his father’s song “Love” from the 1970 “Plastic Ono Band” album, with nine “re-imagined Meditation Mixes” spread across six sides. As an additional novelty, the official description notes: “Side B on LP3 features nine unique 1.8 second mantras that play continuously in the vinyl’s run out grooves to create infinite loops.” Ono Lennon has been up to this before, having similarly done nine Meditation Mixes of “Mind Games” last year. The scion says there’s some science to this: “Four of the tracks are presented as Binaural Beat versions that each focus on different types of brain waves: Beta, Delta, Gamma, and Theta. … these tracks feature a Binaural Beat, an auditory illusion created within the brain when the left and right ears hear two slightly different frequencies whose difference is perceived as a new frequency which can activate different brain patterns for scientifically proven therapeutic effects.” Turn on your mind, detox and float upstream?

(3000 copies, transparent light blue vinyl, RSD Exclusive)

Rhino has been good about rifling through Todd Rundgren’s Bearsville catalog for color-vinyl reissues of his classic studio albums for RSD, but some of us have been patiently waiting for rarer material. Now we’re getting it. When Rundgren laid down this live performance for Philadelphia’s WMMR from the city’s Sigma Sound Studios on June 30th, 1971, it was under his fading band moniker, Runt. But this release calls it “the first-ever solo Todd Rundgren performance,” which they’re able to qualify as such by the fact that he was taking up a new cast of players at this point, including future Utopia keyboardist Mark “Moogy” Klingman. Not many of these Runt-era songs survived into later Todd setlists — mainly “Broke Down and Busted” and his enduring soul man cover of “Ooh Baby Baby” — so it’s a treat to hear the then-baby-faced star already in his prime but not yet primed to have to do “Hello, It’s Me.” Preeminent Rundgren scholar Paul Myers again puts it all in context in savvy liner notes.

(1550 copies, black vinyl, RSD Exclusive)

The avant-garde pianist is heard in this three-LP set in a collection of previously unreleased performances from 1969, with a band he formed that lasted only a year (with tenor sax player/flutist Sam Rivers grafted onto a trio Taylor had going with alto sax player Jimmy Lyons and drummer Andrew Cyrille). The band’s sets then “consisted of a single marathon piece, created anew each time they took the stage,” in varying length — hence full-side tracks here labeled as “Fragments of a Dedication to Duke Ellington” (versions 1 and 2). Cyrille, last survivng member of the quartet, speaks up in the liner notes, along with admirers like Jack DeJohnette. 1969 was a heady year in many genres, but no one was doing music any more mind-bending.

(5000 units, color vinyl, RSD First)

Part of a series of deluxe RSD reissues from the Who’s catalog, “A Quick One” comes as a double-LP featuring the original mono mix on one disc and an LP of alternate versions and B-sides, on color vinyl.

(4000 copies, black vinyl, RSD Exclusive)

An official Steely Dan album that has never been available on vinyl, until now? Hard to believe but true. This two-LP set marks what the label calls “an audiophile-grade document” of the duo’s first reunion tour in the mid-1990s.

(1500 copies, black vinyl, RSD Frist)

After being dormant for a dozen years, the dB’s reunited two years ago for a short but celebrated club tour, focused largely but not entirely on material from their first two early ’80s albums, which had just been freshly reissued on vinyl. That happy occasion is commemorated in a 13-track album that is the band’s first-ever live release, compiled and mixed by Chris Stamey, that includes fan favorites such as “Black and White,” “Amplifier” and “Love Is for Lovers.” On “firework” splatter vinyl.

(1000 copies, black vinyl, RSD Limited Run/Regional Focus)

Everybody loves the story of a good “lost” album, right? Especially when the lost artifact in question was co-produced by T Bone Burnett and Don Dixon, before yet somehow cooler (or hotter?) record company heads prevailed and the whole thing was scrapped. Coming off of an EP that had had some press and college radio success in the mid-’80s, power pop hero Keene recorded what was to be his first full-length LP with Burnett and Dixon at the helm for an indie label. But when Geffen signed him away, they nixed this completed project and sent him back to the drawing board with producer Geoff Emerick instead. Now the original mix and sequence are finally restored, and aficionados of Keene and the era can finally decide who among the shifting producers wore it better.

(2500 copies each; electric teal and neon red vinyl, respectively; RSD Exclusive)

Muse is putting out two 12-inch EPs from early in the band’s career that had never been out on vinyl before. “Muscle Museum,” from 1999, has four songs that later appeared on “Showbiz,” in earlier, different versions, plus a B-side. It’s on “electric teal” vinyl. “Muse,” from 1998, is on neon-red vinyl and also includes songs that ended up in different form on “Showbiz,” plus a B-side.

(7500 copies, glow in the dark vinyl, RSD First)

Sir Elton often puts out deluxe editions of his classic albums for Record Store Day, but he took a break from that this time to curate an eight-track collection of dance mixes of some of his biggest hits. The collection begins with the Blessed Madonna’s spin on the Dua Lipa collab “Cold Heart” and ends with a KDME remix of “Rocket Man,” with stops along the way like a Shep Pettibone-mixed “I Don’t Wanna Go On With You Like That.” The vinyl is glow-in-the-dark, perhaps all the illumination you’ll need for your private EJ rave.

(7000 copies, black vinyl, RSD Exclusive)

Putting the more in Paramore, this deluxe edition of the band’s debut album has that release joined by as a bonus LP featuring the first-ever vinyl release of the rare “The Summer Tic EP,” originally released in 2006.

(1200 copies, cobalt blue vinyl, RSD Exclusive)

A year ago, a Blasters boxed set was issued for TSD, in such limited quanties, it pretty much sold out everywhere in a day. Thankfully, the label has subsequently been individually reissuing each one of the Blasters’ original records, which made up the bulk of that set. Now, perhaps the biggest prize is the separate release of the rarities disc that rounded out the box, which fans will want to pick up even if they were content to hold onto their original 1980s copies of the other LPs. Chris Morris, the band’s all-but-official scrivener and scholar, again contributes liner notes that do justice to the band’s considerable and lasting legacy. It was a blast while it lasted.