Those three words (or four, if you ignore the hyphen)? ‘Seven-inch double pack’. Something which, in this digital day and age, record labels would call a ‘bundle’. Two 7”s, extending a single release from A- and B-side to A-, B-, C- and D-side, and usually packaged in a gatefold sleeve. So much more than a simple bundle, to me, it’s a fascinating format. Not least because you can see why artists and labels loved them – for completely different reasons.
For the labels, it was easy: a classic ‘twofer’. Offering two singles for the price of one would make record buyers more likely to choose a particular release and more likely to push it up the charts. They’d leave what to actually put on the records to the artist, and leave the worry of how to make it look less like a fruit-and-veg deal and more like a sophisticated artistic release to the designer… and then just sit back and count the money.