Just when you think you’ve found all known variations on an album sleeve or label, up pops another one! And so it is with Black Sabbath’s “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”. Here is the newly discovered first issue variation. Have you spotted what’s different about it? 
Well, the sharp-eyed amongst you may have spotted that there is no “Pacific Eye & Ear” credit. Specifically, until now, we were used to seeing the following credit below the ‘special thanks’ two lines (just above the central illustration):
‘album concept and design: pacific eye and ear / illustrations: drew struzan / photography: shepard sherbell’
When compared to the second issue sleeve (which does have this credit) one can see that it looks to be added as an afterthought, the text is a little heavier and blacker than the two lines above it. So it was either overprinted onto existing sleeves or it was a new line of type-setting (that didn’t quite match the original) that was added onto the artwork for the next batch of print runs.
This newly discovered version (well spotted Adrian!) joins the ranks of other Sabbath first issue sleeves such as ‘Paranoid Big Bear’ and the debut with ‘copyright subsists in Stereo recordings’…
So who’s got a genuine first issue SBS sleeve then…?!
If this is a very first issue then the matrix should be 1y 1 2y1 but my copy has 1 // 2 2 // 4 This can’t be a first issue can it ?
Not all ‘1st pressings’ (of any album) are A1/B1 or 1Y1/2Y1 – test pressings would be produced for every album and if rejected, a new pressing (therefore A2 or B2 depending on the side to be re-pressed) would be requested and only the approved test pressing would then be issued, so it could easily be a 2nd or 3rd test pressing that could be the final commercial release and carry a 2 or 3 in the matrix.