Saturday, December 20, 2008

Album Cover Art

Drumroll please! We are at the number 3 position of Gigwise.com's dirtiest and sexiest album covers! (Gigwise comments in quotes):



3. Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass: ‘Whipped Cream & Other Delights’ – "Released way back in 1965, Herb Alpert’s album has since shifted 6million copies and has garnered a legendary status thanks to its extremely risqué cover of a woman doused in whipped cream and sucking suggestively on her finger. It’s no wonder that it has been parodied a number of times since."

Whipped Cream and Other Delights is a 1965 album by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, called "Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass" for this album, released on A&M Records. It is the band's fourth full album and arguably their most popular release.

This album saw the band nearly abandoning its Mexican-themed music, featuring mostly covers of popular songs, and also generating some major pop hits for the first time since "The Lonely Bull". One "tradition" of the early Brass was to include a number rendered in "strip-tease" fashion, and this album's entry for that style was "Love Potion No. 9"

Whipped Cream sold over 6 million copies in the United States and the album cover alone is considered a classic pop culture icon. It featured model Dolores Erickson wearing chiffon and shaving cream. The picture was taken at a time when Erickson was three months pregnant. The cover was so popular with Alpert fans that, during concerts, when about to play the song "Whipped Cream", Alpert would tell the audience, "Sorry, we can't play the cover for you!"

The art was parodied by several groups including once A&M band Soul Asylum, who made fun of the liner notes along with the back cover on their album Clam Dip & Other Delights, comedian Pat Cooper on his album Spaghetti Sauce and Other Delights, the Frivolous Five on a Herb Alpert tribute album, "Sour Cream and Other Delights" and by Peter Nero on his album, Peter Nero Plays a Salute to Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass.

A classic album cover, who would have known back when it was done that we would still be talking about it 40 years later?

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