By Martin Chilton

Published on February 23, 2024

From www.udiscovermusic.com

 

Tony Bennett said of the marvelous album covers of the 50s that, when you bought a record, “you felt like you were taking home your very own work of art.” Indeed, artwork can be as much a part of the identity of a record as the sound. Billions of music fans over the past century have taken pleasure from looking again and again at old album covers.

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The name “album” comes from a pre-war era when it literally referred to the album that contained the 78rpm shellac disc, held in a drab heavy paper sleeve with only a title embossed on the front and spine. Sometimes the discs were contained in a leather book, similar to a photographic album.

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EARLY PIONEERS

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The first signs of change came in the 30s, from pioneering designers such as Alex Steinweiss, whose illustrated covers – for singers such as Paul Robeson, or the classical records of Beethoven – led to huge increases in sales. However, it was the advent of the long-playing 33⅓rpm record that changed everything. The heavy paper used for 78s damaged the delicate grooves on LPs, and record companies started using a folded-over board format sleeve. The format was ripe for artistic experimentation and ultimately led to covers such as The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers – something unimaginable in more conservative times.

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A landmark artwork that first attracted mass attention in America was the Capitol Records design for Nat King Cole’s The King Cole Trio album – a lively abstract image featuring a double bass, a guitar, and a piano keyboard under a gold crown. The four 78rpm records housed inside made history, topping the first Billboard Best Selling Popular Record Albums chart, on 24 March 1945. The King Cole Trio spent most of the rest of the year on the bestseller list, with many of its singles reaching No.1.

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There was no turning back. Nat King Cole showed that cover design was going to be a massive cultural influence; it was one of the few mediums which reached millions of people in the golden age of radio and before television had become king. Moreover, the music sales industry had a global impact, because it provided designers with a way to express their creativity and originality to the whole world. A host of renowned artists, including Andy Warhol, Roger Dean and Burt Goldblatt, kick-started amazing careers by designing album covers.

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Capitol Records have a proud history of album art, utilizing talented individuals such as painter Thomas B Allen and costume designer Donfeld (Donald Lee Feld), whose first job, after graduating from college, was as a designer and art director at the company. Donfeld was the man behind the cover of Aaron Copland’s Billy The Kid album, and he went on to design the iconic Wonder Woman costume.

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