A certain RobH, of uk.rec.audio "fame", writes :

Wasn't there another reason for choosing this particular sampling
rate - it
allowed storage of approx 1 hour of music on the CD technology
available at
the time?

IIRC it was to get the whole of Beethoven's 9th symphony on a single
disc or is this an urban myth?

CD was a 74 minute format (not 60 minutes) right from the very start.

--

"Jokes mentioning ducks were considered particularly funny." - cnn.com