This amazing book from Easy On The Eye is now in stock. 300 of the strangest vinyl covers of all time from the collection of Steve Goldman, with text from ST33’s Simon Robinson and a brilliant foreword from comedian and vinyl collector Stewart Lee. Ideal Christmas gift for all vinyl lovers! Our regular posts continue below…
Interesting early advertising sleeve here from the stationary and newsagents shop W H Smiths advertising Broadcast Records. As Broadcast were only operational from 1927 to 1933/4 this sleeve must date from around that time. Thanks to 78 researchers however we know Broadcast records went to a 9” size in 1931, which this disc is, narrowing the date even more precisely. So, for 1/3d (7p) this jazz cover of Sonny Boy would have been bought from Smiths at their Strand House shop or one of their other London outlets.
Quite a few shops and labels got together to promote record labels on their 78 sleeves, though it is difficult to know how this sort of advertising was arranged; perhaps the shops got the sleeves printed free in return for a plug? Note too the little copyright payment stamp stuck to the label to show royalties had been paid.
The idea of promoting labels on shopping bags went out of fashion post-World War Two but then later in the 1980s some of the bigger chains started giving out special plastic shop bags advertising some of the bigger album launches. As for Smiths, I certainly recall shopping for records there in the 70s and early 80s but they were usually more expensive than dedicated record shops and tended to focus on the chart end of the market.
A really excellent commercial illustration decorates this Glenn Miller album from the Sixties. Assembled from vintage recordings, RCA probably wanted to avoid what was by this time the rather outdated photo of Miller in his military uniform which most sleeves went with. Instead the couple reinforced the dance music which was Miller’s forte. Frustratingly the artist did sign the work but the signature is impossible to read and I can find not references on the web. The album was issued by RCA in America, where the illustration bled off the edge. This is the British version from 1967 and has a white border. If anyone does know who painted this please let me know.
There are some more painted cover illustrations on the site.
Yet more fun look a likes! The Beach Boys album Pet Sounds is perhaps not an iconic cover, but nevertheless it is regarded as important musically. So people borrowing the idea is not a surprise, although they are two unlikely records.
The Lancashire Hotpots must have been rightly pleased with their spoof, a really good version of The Beach Boys sleeve from 2008. They are a comedy folk band from St Helens and record songs about Lancashire, technology and British culture, all with twists on existing albums (so their debut was Never Mind The Hotpots, then Achtung Gravy, etc. Whether the material is as good as the title I don’t know! The Surf Sluts cover changes just one letter to their album title, and adds a suitably psych take on the original. Theirs came out in 2000.
Link/s • More of this kind of copycat sleeve in the Covered! book by Easy On The Eye.
UK libraries are under considerable pressure these days as councils look to make savings to meet government cut-backs. This sleeve I found recently reminded me of happier times, when many bigger libraries had albums available to borrow as well as books. I made a lot of use of Manchester’s vinyl library when I was there in the Seventies, and also Sheffield’s Central Library. This magnificent building has been starved of funds for 4 decades and is now so dangerous they have put netting round in case bits drop off. But you can clearly see how popular the service was; the borrowing stamps show the album was on loan almost continuously over a 12 month period. Of course you had to do your best to look after it, and every so often the library would ask to look at your stylus to see it wasn’t doing harm! This copy was sold off after about three years, and has lately hit the charity shops which is where I found it.
Around the same time I also spotted this music library copy of a record from Granada TV’s internal collection. These were albums available to the producers of television shows to use and any such had to be logged to allow Granada to clear copyright and license fees. The album by Roger Whittaker dates from 1981. I assume the discs were later sold off, probably when CD took over, and the charity shop has quite a few. Given that they were not likely to have had much wear they must have been a good buy.
Another decent cover design from the Island label, for the Mango imprint. This 12” dates from 1989 and had a very colourful design which is essentially simple but nicely put together. It is only when you see the label that the small Mango design reveals itself as a face. It is not a label I was familiar with but goes back to the 1970s, when Island were releasing loads of reggae records. Back then the Mango label design was a bit of an in-joke variation on the Island palm tree label (below).
This lasted into the early 1980s, was followed by a couple of half hearted redesigns, before this new one arrived circa 1989. Which did surprise me as I assumed it was much more recent. The label closed in the US but was kept going in the UK until 1997.
I have not been able to find out who designed it, if you’re out there claim a credit!
There are a couple of label colour variations from other territories (the one below I found online is from a Columbian pressing) though the generic sleeve seems to have been the same colourway everywhere.
Anyone who spent any time in the Sixties could not fail to be aware of actress Jane Birkin, and her recording career which started with the infamous Sege Gainsbourg duet Je t’aime… moi non plus. Birkin’s recent passing (or as her site put it ‘nous a quittés’) got me thinking about her vinyl output. With her striking looks most of her album sleeves fell back on usually high quality photographs, but every so often labels tried something else. I particularly like this Japanese edition of the single from 1971, which uses a film grain filter to produce an interesting graphic look (most of her singles were poorly packaged with just a cut round press photo).
And in more recent years when she had far more control over the packaging, this album cover above really stands out. Birkin has clearly been through her old photo albums, and this marvellous snap of her at the coast, with very gentle hand colouring, makes for a great cover. It’s almost as if it was posed for at the time! The release initially came out only on CD but with interest in the format growing a vinyl edition came out a little later. The back is nice too, using some old Polyfoto head and shoulder images of her as a child. From 2008, art direction is credited to Emilie Urbansky with artwork by Bénédicte Villechange. It was one of a trio of her albums which used a typewriter font for the titling, beginning with Fictions (also done by Emilie Urbansky) seen below (which has not appeared on vinyl yet).
Another fun look a like album cover! I think what I like about this one is the double parody. Most of us are familiar with David Bowie’s Heroes album cover, and American musician Cex (real name Rjyan Claybrook Kidwell according to his website!) decided to parody it on his 2003 CD. Now I’m not in the least bit familiar with his work, or why he would want to do this (though anyone who calls a CD Actual Fucking and then mixes that with Kate Bush samples probably deserves checking out). And the original cover for Being Ridden (below) was an OK sort of parody. The stroke of genius as far as I’m concerned came when Cex thought to do a second instrumental version of the album, and reshoot the cover but with gaffer tape across his mouth. Maybe he planned to do this right from the off and shot both covers together. Either way it was genius as far as I’m concerned!
Link/s • More of this kind of copycat sleeve in the Covered! book by Easy On The Eye.
Working through my older CD design jobs this Spencer Davis Group is one I have covered on my design site. Sadly at the end of the 1990s nobody wanted vinyl, which is a shame as I think it would have worked well. But I was pleased with the overall look.
Although much of my time these days is spent with our various book publishing projects (at Easy On The Eye Books), it’s nice to do a CD once in a while to keep my hand in as it were. This is for a local Sheffield quartet called Das Rad, on the Discus label, home to strange and alternate music for decades. So this needed a cover which was also a little off the wall. I went for pulling the type apart and letting the colours appear as a result of interacting with hidden images and photos on layers below, to reflect the way Das Rad create in the studio. The image below is my original back cover, but in the end we centred the lettering which meant the photo had to move as well. You can read more about the project on my design site, and see the inner gatefold images.
 | simon robinson on Another look a like |
 | Vinyl Connection on Another look a like |
| Vinyl Connection on In London |
| simon robinson on Matching halves |
 | Tony Steel on Matching halves |
ST33 