A tape recording head is provided comprising a multiple plane transducer row having a plurality of planes of transducer arrays fabricated on a substrate and which may be staggered or offset relative to one another in a direction perpendicular to the direction of linear motion of the recording tape over the recording head. The multiple plane recording head provides a significant advantage over a head having a single transducer plane by allowing simultaneous reading (or writing) of data tracks on a magnetic recording tape that are more closely spaced apart with respect to one another than the spacing of the read (or write) transducers in a single plane.