Collecting log: Born To Run / Backstreets Japanese 7-inch single with an unusual inner company sleeve (Part 1 of 2)

The two most unique picture inserts among the Japanese commercial 7-inch releases (CBS/SONY SOPB 334 and 07SP 511; shown are promotional issues) were reproduced for the front and rear sleeves of the extremely rare custom promotion-only 5-inch CD EP (SONY XDCS 93176) to support the sale of the GREATST HITS album in 1995 (SONY SRCS 7631).

While not a serious 7-inch collector, I've occasionally picked up domestic and imported discs, both online and on-site nearby, if I found them rare, interesting, bizarre, or cheap (such blog posts are put together here). As for such 7-inch singles, whether vinyl pressing or styrene molding (see, for example, 05/14/2016 and 02/23/2020 if interested in this topic), sleeve artwork constitutes a major part of collectors' interest. In this respect, many Japanese 7-inch are collectible, mostly because of the unique graphic treatments on picture sleeves using the Japanese writing system consisting of Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji.

A recent cheap purchase [The River / Ramrod Dutch pressing (CBS A 1356)] featuring
a unique front picture sleeve (not shown). Whenever I get a 7-inch import, the first thing
to do is to clean the paper sleeve bag using pencil erasers (though stains and blots are
generally impossible to remove).

Japanese singles are also uncommon to the world standard in adopting a paper insert rather than a paper bag for graphical representation. Including custom promotion-only releases, most of Springsteen's singles on the CBS/SONY label were manufactured this way from the first Born To Run (SOPB 334) in 1975 to the last One Step Up (05SP 3017) in 1988, except for the following: Hungry Heart (07SP 511, reissued in the U.S.-style sleeve with an insert of Japanese lyric translation/liner note, upon the recall of the first edition), the promotion-only Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town (XDSP 93026, in the custom-designed paper bag), Glory Days (07SP 896, a tri-folded insert), I'm Goin' Down (10SP 914, cardboard gatefold sleeve with five postcards), and two issues of Brilliant Disguise (07SP 1070, a double-folded insert; 04SP 1075, the one-sided single in the grocery-style paper bag).

The Japanese descriptions (rectangled in red) on the top of the sleeve mean something
like, "A paranormal phenomenon!? The album was ranked tenth in its first appearance
on the chart. A star was born who determines the fate of the future of rock music."
BORN TO RUN debuted on the Billboard album chart at the 84th position on Sept. 13,
1975, so the "tenth" must have referred to the chart ranking in Japan, such as on the
Oricon chart.

However, what I want to talk about here is not these picture inserts or sleeves. Due to the picture inserts, Japanese 7-inch discs generally came in a company sleeve. The use of such generic sleeves might have reduced the cost of manufacturing custom paper sleeves, which were specific to each single release for graphic design. Then, were there varieties in CBS/SONY company sleeves for Springsteen single releases? This question was inspired by a recent online auction here I've seen, where the auctioned Born To Run single was NOT accompanied by the standard company sleeve.

CBS/SONY's inner company sleeves in the early to mid-1970s. One of my
Born To Run copies came in an EPIC/SONY sleeve (lower left), probably
replacing its original sleeve during circulation in the second-hand market.

Japanese copies of the Born To Run single, originally pressed in 1975, have been an all-time popular 7-inch collectible worldwide, owing to the following three features: the first-ever Japanese single cut, an eye-catching vivid green Japanese writing on the picture insert, and the exclusive coupling with Backstreets on the B-side. Charles R. Cross, the founder and original editor of the Backstreets magazine, wrote in his book Backstreets — Springsteen: The Man and His Music (1989, Harmony Books, New York) that Japan was also the only country with the sense to issue "Born to Run" backed with "Backstreets," the strongest double A-sided single since "La Bamba"/"Donna."

Generally, CBS/SONY's singles released in the mid-1970s, including Born To Run and Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out (SOPB 350), came in the company sleeves with white type/logo in the ocean-blue background. Then, they were replaced by those with orange type/logo in the white background around 1977, and from Prove It All Night (06SP 232) in the case of Springsteen's 7-inch singles, which continued to be used till the end of the vinyl era in Japan in the late 1980s. Before the ocean-blue sleeves, the company had used moss-green sleeves in the early 1970s. In my collection, the white-label promotional pressing came in an ocean-blue sleeve, whereas the regular discs are housed in either ocean-blue or moss-green sleeves, with one particular exception (not the yellow EPIC/SONY sleeve shown in the image immediately above).

— Continued to Part 2.