Two years after the release of Paul Desmond’s album Take Ten, its cover design was used on two other albums in Europe. Recordings for Bossa Antigua, the album that followed Take Ten, were made in the Summer of 1964, and the album was released in […]
All posts tagged: lp cover art

George Avakian’s stunning production note on ‘Take Ten’
It has been more than a year since I last wrote on this blog, the last post being about my discovery of Andy Warhol’s involvement in the cover artwork design of Paul Desmond’s RCA jazz album Take Ten. So it’s about time to pick up […]

The bossa nova cover no one knew was a Warhol: Paul Desmond’s Take Ten
In September I travelled to Pittsburgh for events that were both deeply sad and joyful: the beautiful and touching memorial services for Matt Wrbican, the Warhol archivist who died in June at the age of 60, and the official launch of Matt’s new book A […]

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 […]

Epic Records: Warhol and S. Neil Fujita
A few months ago I was contacted by Scott Lindberg (dcmnts) and Aaron Cohen (www.projectobjectstore.com), who are both lovers of graphic design and record cover art. Scott wrote he was doing research on the American graphic designer S. Neil Fujita, world famous for his colorful […]

Porgy and Bess: proof it’s a Warhol
Three albums in the RCA Victor Bluebird Classics series have been a topic of discussion among Warhol cover collectors for a long time. Especially the illustration of a village scene and playing children on Porgy And Bess had its doubters and non-believers. The discussion can now come […]

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 […]

More Jan August records
Some more records by piano player Jan August have turned up, that have the same picture on the cover that was the source of Warhol’s drawing for the Progressive Piano cover. They are all on the Mercury label, but were issued in three different continents. […]

The Smiths: the complete Flesh picture
For the cover of their iconic 1984 debut album, singer Morrissey of UK indie band The Smiths chose to use a cropped still of Joe Dallessandro from the movie Flesh. This underground flick was produced by Andy Warhol and directed by Paul Morrissey (not related […]

The Nation’s Nightmare Shooter Boy
Less rare than the Night Beat ep box, yet still pretty rare is this other 1950’s spoken word album with radio broadcasts and Warhol cover design: The Nation’s Nightmare. According to the archives of the American Institute of Graphic Arts only 2.936 copies were pressed. The […]