#album cover history

[albumwalloffame]

Album Cover Artist Spotlight -  Alex Steinweiss

Something I feel I’m not doing that good a job of is actually giving credit to the people behind the iconic album covers I showcase on this micro-blog. So I’m going to try something a little different. The Album Cover Artist Spotlight will be looking at the people responsible for the album covers we love so much, and what could possibly be a better place to start than with the inventor of the album cover, Alex Steinweiss.

Alex Steinweiss was born in Brooklyn, New York, USA on March 24th, 1917. As his surname would suggest, his parents were European, his father from Poland and his mother from Latvia. Alex studied at Abraham Lincoln High School and earned a scholarship to the Parsons School of Design.

He worked with an Austrian graphic designer named Joseph Binder, who pretty much made the art aesthetic of the 1930s.

This is Binder’s entry for a U.S. Army Poster Competition, and he also did a poster for the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

In 1938, Alex Steinweiss became the first Art Director for Colombia Records, apparently in 1939, he just grabbed a photographer and headed to the Imperial Theatre, where he got the owner to change the letters on the sign temporarily and art history was made.

Smash Song Hits By Rodgers & Hart, an album released in 1939 was quite possibly one of the earliest album covers that was seen by a general public, and he continued designing album covers until 1973, when he decided to do more painting than graphic design. Arguable one of his most famous works being the cover art for the original cast recording of the musical South Pacific.

In 1998 he was inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame, alongside Tom Geismar, Chuck Jones and Paula Scher.

In 2011, Alex Steinweiss would sadly pass away at the age of 94, leaving a legacy of amazing work behind, and a whole side of art that I like exploring.

Prior to Steinweiss, records would come in plain packaging, a brown paper bag, or a bag with the record store’s logo on it. Nowadays, we have made images that directly linked to the sounds on the record, we have band mascots and stories told though the images, he have albums that hide more unique covers behind their front covers. Album covers that have interactive elements, album covers that play with expectations, album covers that have become so iconic that they almost transcend just being an album cover and have become icons in pop culture.

I think this one is my favourite of Steinweiss, the minimalist Art Deco style and the colour palette give the image such an emotion that really defines what a large appeal behind the album cover became. You can almost see how images and designs like this would lead to the iconic album covers of the psychedelic era, and the rise of album designers like Hipgnosis, Jamie Reid and many others.

I’ve been wanting to talk about Alex Steinweiss and his contributions to the album cover for a little while, so if you enjoyed this... admittedly very shallow dive into one of the many artists in album design, feel free to let me know. If this goes over well, I may do some more. Now I am going to leave you with a small sample of his work, I hope you learned something new today.

[seashoreships]

[ourstaturestouchtheskies]

Celtic Design of Interlaced Dogs // The Tortured Poets Department (The Black Dog Variant) – Taylor Swift

[arconinternet]

The Ultimate Unauthorized Nintendo Strategies Series Plus Two Others (Books, Corey Sandler, Tom Badgett & Jason Rich, 1989-1994)

You can read these books (some of which require borrowing and thus an account) here.

[ghostbergara]

Almost halfway through with 100 heads, here’s some watcher highlights!

[frail-simulacra]

deftones diamond eyes https://illcommunicated.wordpress.com/2010/12/06/john-ross-photographer/

[hobbyarchivist]

October 6th, 1976, someone won a signed copy of the acclaimed album Plantasia from the house plant store Mother Earth!

[the-cricket-chirps]

Robert Mapplethorpe

Patti Smith

1979

[swampybogg]

☠️🥀

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Judas Priest

[hooked-on-elvis]

Elvis Presley, "Let Me Be There" (LIVE, 1976)

Source (FULL ALBUM): Elvis Presley Concert CD (Youtube channel)

Audio from Bootleg album "A New Kind Of Rhythm!", released in 2007 by Madison label. This CD contains full soundboard recording from an Elvis concert recorded live at the Riverfront Coliseum on March 21, 1976 (evening concert at 8:30 pm), Cincinnati, Ohio.

PICTURES: Elvis concert Riverfront Coliseum on March 21, 1976 (evening concert, 8:30pm).

FUN FACT: Elvis performed twice that day at the Riverfront Coliseum. For the afternoon concert (2:30pm), EP was wearing the "Blue Egyptian Bird" suit, but at given moment the rear end of that suit teared up due to his movement onstage (no surprise it happened right after Elvis performed "Polk Salad Annie"). He briefly went offstage and changed into the "Rainfall" suit, in which the show moved along. There's another bootleg CD from this concert, with the title "Rippin' It In Cincinnati" (released in 2018 by Straight Arrow label), a clear reference to that one incident onstage. For the evening concert (8:30pm) Elvis wore the "Rainfall" suit again.

After changing his outfit (afternoon concert), picture above shows Elvis showing the rip to his audience. Riverfront Coliseum on March 21, 1976. There's footage of that moment too. You can watch it, here [Dailymotion]. In spite what happened, the Blue Egyptian Bird suit was fixed and Elvis wore it again in many occasions after that one incident.

Source (all the pictures): elvisconcerts.com

FULL CONCERT [Riverfront Coliseum on March 21, 1976 — Evening concert at 8:30 pm]. If you'd like to know what EP said about the ripping suit incident (yes, he mentioned it on the evening concert), you can listen to it on this soundboard recording (begins at 29:06). EP mentioned it briefly. Take your time to appreciate the full concert, seriously. This concert is AMAZING! "Steamroller Blues" (at 15:53)? Uhh! ❤️‍🔥

[roxrocknmetal]

This weeks Iconic Vinyl: Animals by Pink Floyd

https://www.roxalive.co.uk/2024/09/iconic-vinyl-animals-by-pink-floyd.html

[ourstaturestouchtheskies]

The Daydream – John William Godward // The Tortured Poets Department – Taylor Swift

[hairtusk]

thank you lovely grace @sapokanikan for tagging me !! as usual i'm too anxious to tag anyone, but if you do one i would like to see it

[echera]

The Sorrows of Satan, directed by D.W. Griffith in 1926.

"A Midnight Visit to The Neighborhood Bloodbank", by Tom Wright in 1972

An album cover for Bela Lugosi's Dead, by Bauhaus, released in 1979.

[electrosquash]

SHE MAKES ME INSAAAAAANEEEEEE 🎵