The Art of the LP: Classic Album Covers 1955-1995

Product Information

The Hari hotel opened its doors in August 2016. The hotel is the vision of Dr. Aron Harilela, Chairman and CEO of Harilela Hotels Ltd, and the first hotel to open under the 'The Hari' brand. A second hotel opened in December 2020 in Hong Kong. It was weird, it was witty, it was Warhol. The famous minimalism of The Velvet Underground & Nico peel-away banana album cover became an influence on punk visual style many years later and remains one of the greatest album covers. The design-centric 4AD label did some of its finest work for the Cocteau Twins album covers. This shimmering image is undeniably beautiful, yet you never know just what it means…just like their music. 81: James Brown: Hell (design by Joe Belt) Beggars Banquet is a rare case where an album’s two famous covers really complement each other. Put the notorious bathroom cover together with the engraved invitation on the US replacement, and you’ve got the yin and the yang of The Rolling Stones at the time. as their life’s calling, likening it to the art of comedy. “It’s putting someone at ease, helping their

With all four bandmembers together in a bathtub, the cover said more about The Mamas & The Papas than what was probably intended. The toilet on the original cover of If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears also proved to be a no-no in 1966. George Clinton’s gonzoid take on outer-space adventure found its perfect match in the effortlessly cool spaceship-party cover for Parliament’s Mothership Connection. The fact that it looked remarkably low budget only made it funkier.

Notes

The work was chosen from a diverse and striking shortlist of 50 nominations of the very best in vinyl record cover art from 2021, chosen by a panel of illustrious artists, designers and music industry experts. All 50 nominations form an incredible art installation in the window of the Hari, London from 27 Jan -17 Feb. All the Ohio Players covers were legendary, and the early Westbound ones were considerably more daring than the hit-era ones for Mercury. As the band often claimed, fewer people would have bought the albums if they’d put themselves on the covers. 30: The Louvin Brothers: Satan is Real (design by Ira Louvin) Jefferson Airplane’s Long John Silver hails from the golden age of elaborate album covers. Since people were already using LPs to store and clean marijuana, the Airplane gave you a cardboard box holder for it, along with the pot, or at least a realistic-looking photo. 94: Billie Eilish: When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (design by Kenneth Cappello)

The cover for Ten Out Of 10 remains one of Hipgnosis’ fiendishly clever 10cc covers and one of their more overlooked albums. Here they’re on the 10th floor of a hotel standing at the precipice, and only one of the guys seems concerned about it. 54: Thelonious Monk: Underground (photo by Horn Grinner Studios; art direction/design: John Berg and Richard Mantel) Most of the classic Blue Note coverswere full of bright graphics and exuberant photos (and lots of exclamation marks!). Not so with John Coltrane’s Blue Train, whose cool album cover photo and mood lighting marked it as a work to take seriously. One of the greatest joke album covers, the boxer was already a perfect image for the Pogues, but don’t miss the subtle bit of play here. (The word “peace” of course has five letters.) 71: Rush: Moving Pictures (design by Hugh Syme)

The Nominees and Winners of the Best Art Vinyl Award feature in numerous exhibitions in the UK and across Europe, and can be viewed on artvinyl.com. All of the designs will be displayed in the unique Art Vinyl Flip Frame which allows instant access to the music and additional inner sleeve designs. Modern death metal bands got nothing on country duo The Louvin Brothers, who went to the inferno in 1959 and looked great in white suits while doing it. 29: David Bowie: Heroes (design by Masayoshi Sukita)

RCA wasted no time in cleaning up Elvis, who’d look completely respectable on all future albums. Meanwhile, his debut allowed him to look like the crazed hillbilly everyone’s parents feared he was, captured in mid-song at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in Tampa, Florida. Which of course leads us to… 2: The Clash: London Calling (photo by Pennie Smith, design by Ray Lowry) Since 2019, the Best Art Vinyl Award trophy has been re-designed and manufactured by Vinylize. The Budapest based brand has been handcrafting glasses out of unwanted vinyl records since 2004 and is a design pioneer within alternative vinyl culture. https://vinylize.com/

The iconic cover for Who’s Next worked on two levels: first as a futuristic image of The Who against a monolith; and second, when you noticed their zippers and realized what the guys had been doing. 21: Uriah Heep: The Magician’s Birthday (design by Roger Dean) Art Vinyl has curated annual exhibitions to celebrate the best in record cover design for the past 16 years.

For her debut solo album, Courtney Love took the Cars’ concept a step further by enlisting the younger, edgier pin-up artist (known professionally as Olivia) to paint her. Of course, it got an extra dimension by playing with Love’s own image at the time. 89: The Rolling Stones: Their Satanic Majesties Request (design by Michael Cooper) This cover is Roger Dean at his most vivid. When you walked into a record store, you could see this album clear across the room. 20: Cream: Disraeli Gears (cover by Martin Sharp)PiL’s follow-up to their famous Metal Box album cover was even cooler, showing non-performing bandmember Jeanette Lee with a rose in her teeth, a weapon in her hand, and a murderous look in her eyes. 87: The Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground & Nico (design by Andy Warhol) This famous album cover did wonders with its simple strategy. On his Dr. Dre’s solo debut The Chronic, the design assumed that Dre was already an icon and presented him accordingly.