According to this website from Columbia University
http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~hgs/audio/44.1.html, the decision was
logical giving the desire for compatibility with televisions with two
standards consistent with 50 Hz and 60 Hz electricity:
Explanation of 44.1 kHz CD sampling rate
The CD sampling rate has to be larger than about 40 kHz to fulfill the
Nyquist criterion that requires sampling at twice the maximum analog
frequency, which is about 20 kHz for audio. The sampling frequency is
chosen somewhat higher than the Nyquist rate since practical filters
neede to prevent aliasing have a finite slope.
Digital audio tapes (DATs) use a sampling rate of 48 kHz. It has been
claimed that thier sampling rate differs from that of CDs to make digital
copying from one to the other more difficult. 48 kHz is, in principle, a better
rate since it is a multiple of the other standard sampling rates, namely 8
and 16 kHz for telephone-quality audio. Sampling rate conversion is
simplified if rates are integer multiples of each other.
From John Watkinson, The Art of Digital Audio, 2nd edition, pg. 104:
"Video recorders... were adapted to store audio samples by creating a
pseudo-video waveform which would convey binary as black and white
levels. The sampling rate of such a system is constrained to relate simply
to the field rate and field structure of the television standard used, so that
an integer number of samples can be stored on each usable TV line in
the field.
Such a recording can be made on a monochrome recorder, and these
recording are made in two standards, 525 lines at 60 Hz and 625 lines at
50 Hz. Thus it is possible to find a frequency which is a common multiple
of the two and is also suitable for use as a sampling rate.
The allowable sampling rates in a pseudo-video system can be deduced
by multiplying the field rate by the number of active lines in a field
(blanking lines cannot be used) and again by the number of samples in a
line. By careful choice of parameters it is possible to use either 525/60 or
625/50 video with a sampling rate of 44.1KHz.
In 60 Hz video, there are 35 blanked lines, leaving 490 lines per frame or
245 lines per field, so the sampling rate is given by :
60 X 245 X 3 = 44.1 KHz
In 50 Hz video, there are 37 lines of blanking, leaving 588 active lines per
frame, or 294 per field, so the same sampling rate is given by
50 X 294 X3 = 44.1 Khz.
The sampling rate of 44.1 KHz came to be that of the Compact Disc. Even
though CD has no video circuitry, the equipment used to make CD
masters is video based and determines the sampling rate.