Elvis-Heartbreak Hotel
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Album Cover Art
We made it to lucky number 13 on Gigwise.com's list of the 50 most controversial, weirdest, best and worst album covers of all time as voted on by their staff:
Controversial
13. Nurse With Wound / White House: ‘150 Murderous Passions’ – A weird cut-and-paste of a whole load of distasteful ideas and images were featured on the cover of Steven Stapleton’s fifth full-length release. Here, he is joined by Whitehouse's William Bennett during Stapleton's power electronics days (this album dates from 1981), recording thoroughly brutal, mind-wrenching ugliness.
Nurse with Wound was originally a band, formed in 1978 by Stapleton, John Fothergill and Heman Pathak. The band ranges in many genres such as avant-garde, industrial, noise, dark ambient, and drone. Their early recordings, all made quickly, were heavily influenced by free improvisation and Krautrock and were generally considered industrial music, despite the objections of the group.
With a cover like this, it is a wonder they sold any copies at all, this has to be the worst cover I have seen on the Gigwise list (so far).
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Weird
13. Twiztid: 'Freek Show' This cover is tame compared to the last one, this is easily done with some make-up and imagination. "Freek Show" is the second studio album by Twiztid. Released on October 31, 2000, the album peaked at #51 on the Billboard 200. In his review of the album, Allmusic's Brad Mills wrote that "this kind of music appeals to a small sector of hip-hop listeners and will probably do well within their niche market, but the average hip-hop listener will just have to understand that this is a different kind of album." And a different kind of album cover as well.
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Worst
13. Heino – ‘Liebe Mutter…’: Another obscure musician, and another obscure album cover-maybe this artist is big in Germany, but I doubt it. Heino (born 13 December 1938 in Düsseldorf as Heinz Georg Kramm) is a German singer of popular music (Schlager) and traditional Volksmusik.
With his booming voice, bright blonde hair, and ever present sunglasses (due to exophthalmos), Heino is considered by many an icon of kitsch and in the English-speaking world the Latin American themes of many of his songs lending themselves to jokes about German emigration to South America after World War II.
Uhh, ok if you say so.
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Best
13. Pink Floyd: ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ Certainly one of rock & roll's most distinguished and recognizable covers of all time, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon certainly belongs here with the best. I would have even gone a bit higher.
The Dark Side of the Moon is a concept album by the British progressive rock band Pink Floyd. It was released on March 17, 1973 in the U.S. and March 24, 1973 in the UK.
The Dark Side of the Moon builds upon previous experimentation that Pink Floyd had explored in their live shows and recordings, but without the extended instrumental excursions that, according to critic David Fricke, had become characteristic of the band after founding member Syd Barrett left in 1968. Guitarist David Gilmour, Barrett's replacement, would later refer to these instrumentals as "that psychedelic noodling stuff." Gilmour and Roger Waters, the band's bassist (and principal lyricist on Dark Side), cite 1971's Meddle as a turning point toward what would be realized on The Dark Side of the Moon. The album's themes include conflict, greed, aging and mental illness (or "insanity"); the latter inspired in part by the deteriorating mental state of Barrett, who had been the band's principal composer and lyricist. The album is notable for its use of musique concrète and conceptual, philosophical lyrics, as found in much of Pink Floyd's other work.
The band's most successful release, The Dark Side of the Moon is often considered to be the group's defining work, and is still frequently ranked by music critics as one of the greatest and most influential albums of all time.
The album was originally released in a gatefold LP sleeve designed by Hipgnosis and George Hardie, of Nicholas Thirkell Associates, and bore Hardie's iconic refracting prism on the cover. Inside were two posters, one bearing pictures of the band in concert with the words PINK FLOYD broken up and scattered about, and the other being a slightly psychedelic image of the Great Pyramids of Giza taken on infrared film. Also included was a sheet of stickers of the pyramids. The album was also the first Pink Floyd album to have picture labels on the record where it depicted a blue prism with black background and the credits written either in grey lettering (European issues) or white lettering (US and Canadian issues). In a 1991 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine, the refracting prism album cover was #35 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest album covers of all time. In 2003, VH1 named the album's cover the 4th Greatest Album Cover of All Time on their 50 Greatest Album Covers of All Time special.
Controversial
13. Nurse With Wound / White House: ‘150 Murderous Passions’ – A weird cut-and-paste of a whole load of distasteful ideas and images were featured on the cover of Steven Stapleton’s fifth full-length release. Here, he is joined by Whitehouse's William Bennett during Stapleton's power electronics days (this album dates from 1981), recording thoroughly brutal, mind-wrenching ugliness. Nurse with Wound was originally a band, formed in 1978 by Stapleton, John Fothergill and Heman Pathak. The band ranges in many genres such as avant-garde, industrial, noise, dark ambient, and drone. Their early recordings, all made quickly, were heavily influenced by free improvisation and Krautrock and were generally considered industrial music, despite the objections of the group.
With a cover like this, it is a wonder they sold any copies at all, this has to be the worst cover I have seen on the Gigwise list (so far).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Weird
13. Twiztid: 'Freek Show' This cover is tame compared to the last one, this is easily done with some make-up and imagination. "Freek Show" is the second studio album by Twiztid. Released on October 31, 2000, the album peaked at #51 on the Billboard 200. In his review of the album, Allmusic's Brad Mills wrote that "this kind of music appeals to a small sector of hip-hop listeners and will probably do well within their niche market, but the average hip-hop listener will just have to understand that this is a different kind of album." And a different kind of album cover as well.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Worst
13. Heino – ‘Liebe Mutter…’: Another obscure musician, and another obscure album cover-maybe this artist is big in Germany, but I doubt it. Heino (born 13 December 1938 in Düsseldorf as Heinz Georg Kramm) is a German singer of popular music (Schlager) and traditional Volksmusik.
With his booming voice, bright blonde hair, and ever present sunglasses (due to exophthalmos), Heino is considered by many an icon of kitsch and in the English-speaking world the Latin American themes of many of his songs lending themselves to jokes about German emigration to South America after World War II.
Uhh, ok if you say so.
------------------------------------------------
Best
13. Pink Floyd: ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ Certainly one of rock & roll's most distinguished and recognizable covers of all time, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon certainly belongs here with the best. I would have even gone a bit higher.
The Dark Side of the Moon is a concept album by the British progressive rock band Pink Floyd. It was released on March 17, 1973 in the U.S. and March 24, 1973 in the UK.
The Dark Side of the Moon builds upon previous experimentation that Pink Floyd had explored in their live shows and recordings, but without the extended instrumental excursions that, according to critic David Fricke, had become characteristic of the band after founding member Syd Barrett left in 1968. Guitarist David Gilmour, Barrett's replacement, would later refer to these instrumentals as "that psychedelic noodling stuff." Gilmour and Roger Waters, the band's bassist (and principal lyricist on Dark Side), cite 1971's Meddle as a turning point toward what would be realized on The Dark Side of the Moon. The album's themes include conflict, greed, aging and mental illness (or "insanity"); the latter inspired in part by the deteriorating mental state of Barrett, who had been the band's principal composer and lyricist. The album is notable for its use of musique concrète and conceptual, philosophical lyrics, as found in much of Pink Floyd's other work.
The band's most successful release, The Dark Side of the Moon is often considered to be the group's defining work, and is still frequently ranked by music critics as one of the greatest and most influential albums of all time.
The album was originally released in a gatefold LP sleeve designed by Hipgnosis and George Hardie, of Nicholas Thirkell Associates, and bore Hardie's iconic refracting prism on the cover. Inside were two posters, one bearing pictures of the band in concert with the words PINK FLOYD broken up and scattered about, and the other being a slightly psychedelic image of the Great Pyramids of Giza taken on infrared film. Also included was a sheet of stickers of the pyramids. The album was also the first Pink Floyd album to have picture labels on the record where it depicted a blue prism with black background and the credits written either in grey lettering (European issues) or white lettering (US and Canadian issues). In a 1991 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine, the refracting prism album cover was #35 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest album covers of all time. In 2003, VH1 named the album's cover the 4th Greatest Album Cover of All Time on their 50 Greatest Album Covers of All Time special.
Motown collects chart-topping hits on boxed set
NEW YORK (Billboard) - R&B label Motown will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a mammoth boxed set, "Motown: The Complete No. 1's."
Due December 9, the 10-disc package features 191 songs, all of which have topped a chart in the United States or internationally.
Stevie Wonder, the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, the Four Tops, Martha & the Vandellas, Mary Wells, the Temptations and Gladys Knight & the Pips are represented throughout "The Complete No. 1s."
Ten bonus tracks round up cover versions of Motown songs that reached the top of the charts, including singles from acts such as Vanessa Williams, Jodeci, Coolio featuring L.V., Blood, Sweat & Tears and David Bowie and Mick Jagger.
Reuters/Billboard
Due December 9, the 10-disc package features 191 songs, all of which have topped a chart in the United States or internationally.
Stevie Wonder, the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, the Four Tops, Martha & the Vandellas, Mary Wells, the Temptations and Gladys Knight & the Pips are represented throughout "The Complete No. 1s."
Ten bonus tracks round up cover versions of Motown songs that reached the top of the charts, including singles from acts such as Vanessa Williams, Jodeci, Coolio featuring L.V., Blood, Sweat & Tears and David Bowie and Mick Jagger.
Reuters/Billboard
This Date In Music History- October 16
Birthdays:
Bob Weir, guitarist and vocalist with the Grateful Dead, was born in Atherton, California in 1947.
Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea was born in 1962 in Melbourne, Australia, as Michael Balzary.
Born on this day in 1977, John Mayer, US singer and songwriter.
Fred Turner of Bachman-Turner Overdrive ("Let It Ride") turns 65.
Wendy Wilson of Wilson Phillips ("Hold On") was born to Beach Boy Brian Wilson and his wife, Marilyn (of the Honeys) in 1969.
History:
Jay & the Americans recorded "This Magic Moment" in 1968.
Today in 1976, the song "Disco Duck (Part 1)" by Ricky Dees & His Cast of Idiots topped the charts and stayed there for a week.
Sam Cooke released his single "You Send Me" in 1957. The No. 1, written by his brother Charles Cooke, becomes his first and biggest hit, selling 2.5 million copies.
The Elvis Presley film "Love Me Tender" premiered in 1956.
Chess Records founder Leonard Chess, 52, died of a heart attack in 1969 in Chicago.
In 1972, Creedence Clearwater Revival announced they are splitting up. They say in a statement, "We don't regard this as breaking up. We look at it as an expansion of our activities. We will devote our time to individual rather than group projects."
The New Yardbirds played their first concert in 1968. The band later changed their name to Led Zeppelin.
18 year old Richard Penniman, who was already using the stage name Little Richard, made his first recordings for RCA Camden in 1951, at the studios of Atlanta radio station WGST.
In 1954, two weeks after his appearance at Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, Elvis Presley performed on the Country music radio program, Louisiana Hayride, broadcast live on KWKH in Shreveport. After an enthusiastic reception from the audience, Presley was booked to appear every week for a year at $18 per show. His sidemen, Bill Black and Scotty Moore were paid $12 each.
In 1967, Folk singer Joan Baez was arrested, along with 123 others, for blocking the entrance to an Armed Forces Induction Center in Oakland, California.
Issac Hayes' "Theme From Shaft" was released in 1971. When Hayes sings "That John Shaft is a bad mother..." the voice you hear telling Hayes to "shut your mouth" is that of Thelma Hopkins of Tony Orlando and Dawn.
Stevie Wonder's "Song in the Key of Life" is released in 1976. It will immediately hit the Billboard Hot 200 album chart and stay there into 1978. It's Wonder's first release since his $13 million signing with Motown. The three record set goes platinum yielding the hits, "Sir Duke", "Isn't She Lovely" and "I Wish".
Be careful what you wish for: In 2001, two security guards were fired after refusing to allow Bob Dylan into his own concert. Dylan who had demanded that security on his 'Love and Theft' tour should be tighter than ever didn't have a pass when he arrived backstage.
1965- The Beatles recorded ‘Day Tripper’ at Abbey Road studio’s London in three takes, they then added vocals and other overdubs, completing the song before the end of the day.
1992- Two weeks after tearing up a picture of the pope on Saturday Night Live, Sinead O'Connor was booed at a Bob Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden. She replied by reciting the words to Bob Marley's "War" before being escorted from the stage by Kris Kristofferson, who advised her, "Don't let the bastards get you down." George Harrison, Neil Young, Tom Petty, and Eric Clapton also performed, but in less controversial ways.
Bob Weir, guitarist and vocalist with the Grateful Dead, was born in Atherton, California in 1947.
Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea was born in 1962 in Melbourne, Australia, as Michael Balzary.
Born on this day in 1977, John Mayer, US singer and songwriter.
Fred Turner of Bachman-Turner Overdrive ("Let It Ride") turns 65.
Wendy Wilson of Wilson Phillips ("Hold On") was born to Beach Boy Brian Wilson and his wife, Marilyn (of the Honeys) in 1969.
History:
Jay & the Americans recorded "This Magic Moment" in 1968.
Today in 1976, the song "Disco Duck (Part 1)" by Ricky Dees & His Cast of Idiots topped the charts and stayed there for a week.
Sam Cooke released his single "You Send Me" in 1957. The No. 1, written by his brother Charles Cooke, becomes his first and biggest hit, selling 2.5 million copies.
The Elvis Presley film "Love Me Tender" premiered in 1956.
Chess Records founder Leonard Chess, 52, died of a heart attack in 1969 in Chicago.
In 1972, Creedence Clearwater Revival announced they are splitting up. They say in a statement, "We don't regard this as breaking up. We look at it as an expansion of our activities. We will devote our time to individual rather than group projects."
The New Yardbirds played their first concert in 1968. The band later changed their name to Led Zeppelin.
18 year old Richard Penniman, who was already using the stage name Little Richard, made his first recordings for RCA Camden in 1951, at the studios of Atlanta radio station WGST.
In 1954, two weeks after his appearance at Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, Elvis Presley performed on the Country music radio program, Louisiana Hayride, broadcast live on KWKH in Shreveport. After an enthusiastic reception from the audience, Presley was booked to appear every week for a year at $18 per show. His sidemen, Bill Black and Scotty Moore were paid $12 each.
In 1967, Folk singer Joan Baez was arrested, along with 123 others, for blocking the entrance to an Armed Forces Induction Center in Oakland, California.
Issac Hayes' "Theme From Shaft" was released in 1971. When Hayes sings "That John Shaft is a bad mother..." the voice you hear telling Hayes to "shut your mouth" is that of Thelma Hopkins of Tony Orlando and Dawn.
Stevie Wonder's "Song in the Key of Life" is released in 1976. It will immediately hit the Billboard Hot 200 album chart and stay there into 1978. It's Wonder's first release since his $13 million signing with Motown. The three record set goes platinum yielding the hits, "Sir Duke", "Isn't She Lovely" and "I Wish".
Be careful what you wish for: In 2001, two security guards were fired after refusing to allow Bob Dylan into his own concert. Dylan who had demanded that security on his 'Love and Theft' tour should be tighter than ever didn't have a pass when he arrived backstage.
1965- The Beatles recorded ‘Day Tripper’ at Abbey Road studio’s London in three takes, they then added vocals and other overdubs, completing the song before the end of the day.
1992- Two weeks after tearing up a picture of the pope on Saturday Night Live, Sinead O'Connor was booed at a Bob Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden. She replied by reciting the words to Bob Marley's "War" before being escorted from the stage by Kris Kristofferson, who advised her, "Don't let the bastards get you down." George Harrison, Neil Young, Tom Petty, and Eric Clapton also performed, but in less controversial ways.