In 1980 Andy Warhol created a series of now iconic portrait paintings of Blondie’s frontwoman Deborah Harry, herself of course a living icon on her own artistic merit. The portraits were not made as a commission for a record cover. Debbie Harry bought one for […]
All posts filed under: Eighties

Warhol from Ads to Books and Back Again
Record albums with Andy Warhol cover art is not all I have been collecting of this artist the past twenty or so years, also books and magazines designed, illustrated or published by Warhol. It’s time to take these out of the bookshelves and boxes, and […]

Elvis has never left the building
Now let’s throw some Elvises in the mix! The famous Silver Elvis paintings Andy Warhol has created in 1963 for Irving Blum’s Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, have proven to be immensely popular for appropiation, and they still are. Also on record covers. I know, […]

Enzo Avitabile and his not so comfy chair
What makes writing this blog very rewarding, is when fellow collectors get in touch, and share their knowledge of local Warhol (or Warhol inspired) covers. Recently I got a message from Paolo Verda, an Italian architect, art and music lover, writer of prestigious books on […]

“Andy and André”, a Viennese operetta in three acts
Although I have a copy of Warhol’s (in)famous Diaries for years already – including the two unofficial indexes of celebrity namedropping published by the magazines Spy and Face – I decided to also purchase a Kindle version. At a low price of $3.60, how can […]

Billy Squier: “I asked Warhol to do the cover for my new album, and he said: ‘OK’.”
Why should I just write about the how and why of Billy Squier’s Warhol portraits on the cover of his 1982 hit album Emotions In Motion, when we can hear it from the rocker himself. This is Billy Squier in an interview on “Rolling Stone […]

I’m Talking, with Marilyn Monroe’s Lips!
With a little help from our friends, we will eventually manage to track down every Warhol cover or pastiche ever produced, worldwide. Two years ago Kevin J. Kinney, a Warhol enthousiast from Milwaukee, Wisconsin – who prefers ‘old school’ crate digging at record fairs and […]

“The Huckleberry Finn of the avant-garde”
A few months ago on eBay a copy of Walter Steding and The Dragon People’s 12″ single The Joke was for sale, accompanied by an original press promo sheet. In an earlier post I wrote about Andy Warhol’s involvement in Steding’s music carreer as a manager. […]

Silkscreened flowers on Literature cover
Appropriation of art can be fun! Arab Spring is the title of an album released in 2012 by Literature, an indie pop band from Philadelphia. On the cover they used what seems to be one of Warhol’s famous flower prints or paintings, but they were […]

Four pencil drawings of Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin looks very regal on Warhol’s cover portrait for her album Aretha. A true Queen of Soul. I have never seen the original source picture that Warhol used for the portrait. It is probably a promotional picture delivered for this purpose by Arista records. Unlike […]

Glorious longbox suits Aretha well
When we talk about record cover art, of course in 99,99 % of the cases the very frameable 12″ LP format is meant. But once in a while also other formats deserve our attention. In Warhol’s long career as cover artist, starting as early as […]

‘Made in Spain’: Andy’s idea, Bosé’s writing
Earlier this year I wrote a blog post in which I wondered if the handwriting on the cover of Miguel Bosé’s albums Made in Spain and Milano-Madrid is Warhol’s. Now I know for sure: it is not! Bosé himself wrote all titles. In 2008 the […]