Uploaded May 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
People have vast collections of record albums. There were so many pressed over such a long period--and so many gotten rid of as people adopted other media like tapes and CDs--that for many years they were just all over the place. I knew early on that I would NEVER have the space to collect all I would like to. So I did what collectors do. I specialized.
I decided to collect albums just for their covers. Some may contain great music. Some may not. I decided that wasn't the point of this collection. Here are a few choice examples:
Dave Brubeck - Angel Eyes: Oh man, obviously it's the photo here that is just so stunning. The girl, the angle. Even the type is great. Great layout. Very Columbia Records.
The Velvetones: Now this one is a whole other thing! Maybe it's the hairdos. Or the cheesy cut-out layout, or the bad typography. Mostly I think it's the people themselves. This is a religious record--and HE is straight out of the choir loft--but the two sisters are something else again. They may have fit right into the church scene in Southern California where they were from, but they would have shocked the folks where I come from. And I guess that's what I like about this cover most of all.
The Love Generation - Including Groovy Summertime: Well of course. This, my friends, is how the '60s died. The cigar-chomping capitialist who put together this wank--and a thousand more like him--killed everything good that the '60s was about. So much so that these days people will laugh at the mere idea that anything "good" came out of the '60s. Well, it tried to, folks. It tried to.
Kiddie Au Go-Go -- Nursery Rhymes With the Teen Dance Beat of Today!: Yes, that about says it. You can do the Frug to "Old Macdonald Had a Farm" and the Jerk to "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." I can't wait. On Happy Time Records, of course. Check out the outfits. Groovy. The go-go boots. Those Roger McGuinn granny glasses. The huge typography apes the Bill Graham Fillmore posters.
Blackwood Brothers - Hymn Sing: The giant type and the action on-stage shot make this one a standout. In a good way! Though the picture is only in black and white, this album cover is outstanding on every level. On the upper right corner, RCA sticks its logo right over the title type! If it looks like they are all singing into "Elvis mikes," they are. Larry King mikes. Lots of folks used this microphone, the RCA 77 so-called "pill mike." The Blackwood Brothers went on to make probably a hundred more albums in their career, none with a cover anywhere near as good as this one.
Back in the day record albums were a hot commodity. Sales grew substantially every year. Department stores carried them, music stores, and record stores, of course. Even grocery stores. But EVERYBODY wanted to get into the act so you would see little kiosks of records even in hardware stores and in drug stores and what we used to call dime stores. These kiosks didn't have the major brand stuff, they had repackaged old records made by current stars before they were any good. And they had generic versions of current hits recorded by people you never heard of. That's all right, grandma never heard of any of them anyway so she won't know the difference when she buys the grandchildren a treat. They like that song by those insects, what's the name? "I Want To Hold Your Hand?" Oh, here it is! By the Buggs. And only $2.98! ...Oh thanks, grandma.
Top Hits by Johnny Sullivan and His Orchestra
The Beetle Beat/The Buggs
The Jonah Jones Quartet - Swingin' on Broadway: Ah yes, a couple of fun-lovin' gals taking their slacks for a walk on Broadway. This one speaks for itself!
James Brown - Please, Please, Please: This is just so bad it's great. Garish colors, little explosions all over it. And in "Vivid Sound!" There were lots of covers like this out of King Records of Cincinnati and others. Our job is to find them all.
People have vast collections of record albums. There were so many pressed over such a long period--and so many gotten rid of as people adopted other media like tapes and CDs--that for many years they were just all over the place. I knew early on that I would NEVER have the space to collect all I would like to. So I did what collectors do. I specialized.
I decided to collect albums just for their covers. Some may contain great music. Some may not. I decided that wasn't the point of this collection. Here are a few choice examples:
Dave Brubeck - Angel Eyes: Oh man, obviously it's the photo here that is just so stunning. The girl, the angle. Even the type is great. Great layout. Very Columbia Records.
The Velvetones: Now this one is a whole other thing! Maybe it's the hairdos. Or the cheesy cut-out layout, or the bad typography. Mostly I think it's the people themselves. This is a religious record--and HE is straight out of the choir loft--but the two sisters are something else again. They may have fit right into the church scene in Southern California where they were from, but they would have shocked the folks where I come from. And I guess that's what I like about this cover most of all.
The Love Generation - Including Groovy Summertime: Well of course. This, my friends, is how the '60s died. The cigar-chomping capitialist who put together this wank--and a thousand more like him--killed everything good that the '60s was about. So much so that these days people will laugh at the mere idea that anything "good" came out of the '60s. Well, it tried to, folks. It tried to.
Kiddie Au Go-Go -- Nursery Rhymes With the Teen Dance Beat of Today!: Yes, that about says it. You can do the Frug to "Old Macdonald Had a Farm" and the Jerk to "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." I can't wait. On Happy Time Records, of course. Check out the outfits. Groovy. The go-go boots. Those Roger McGuinn granny glasses. The huge typography apes the Bill Graham Fillmore posters.
Blackwood Brothers - Hymn Sing: The giant type and the action on-stage shot make this one a standout. In a good way! Though the picture is only in black and white, this album cover is outstanding on every level. On the upper right corner, RCA sticks its logo right over the title type! If it looks like they are all singing into "Elvis mikes," they are. Larry King mikes. Lots of folks used this microphone, the RCA 77 so-called "pill mike." The Blackwood Brothers went on to make probably a hundred more albums in their career, none with a cover anywhere near as good as this one.
Back in the day record albums were a hot commodity. Sales grew substantially every year. Department stores carried them, music stores, and record stores, of course. Even grocery stores. But EVERYBODY wanted to get into the act so you would see little kiosks of records even in hardware stores and in drug stores and what we used to call dime stores. These kiosks didn't have the major brand stuff, they had repackaged old records made by current stars before they were any good. And they had generic versions of current hits recorded by people you never heard of. That's all right, grandma never heard of any of them anyway so she won't know the difference when she buys the grandchildren a treat. They like that song by those insects, what's the name? "I Want To Hold Your Hand?" Oh, here it is! By the Buggs. And only $2.98! ...Oh thanks, grandma.
Top Hits by Johnny Sullivan and His Orchestra
The Beetle Beat/The Buggs
The Jonah Jones Quartet - Swingin' on Broadway: Ah yes, a couple of fun-lovin' gals taking their slacks for a walk on Broadway. This one speaks for itself!
James Brown - Please, Please, Please: This is just so bad it's great. Garish colors, little explosions all over it. And in "Vivid Sound!" There were lots of covers like this out of King Records of Cincinnati and others. Our job is to find them all.
