The World’s First Album Cover

Alex Steinweiss’ Greatest Hit
I was contacted by a gentleman yesterday about the value of this particular album cover (and records), which is said to be Alex Steinweiss's first cover for Columbia Records in 1938. Alex Steinwess, a then 23 years old designer, convinced Columbia’s suits to create the first true album cover. Until then, 78s were sold in generic brown paper sleeves.

I did some research and found this site that adds information about this historic album cover, (http://tinyurl.com/2835va)
but does not mention what it is worth today. Anyone know how much this album is worth?

The Future Of Album Cover Art

By Robert Benson

As we conclude our four-part article series on album cover art, let’s to peer into the future and see what lies ahead for vinyl records and album cover art. Joining us again for our discussion is Vinyl Record Day Founder and vinyl businessman Gary Freiberg (www.RockArtPictureShow.com & www.VinylRecordDay.org).

“The introduction of the compact disc and of course the new required player was nothing new in the history of recording. Ever since Thomas Edison introduced records in 1877 record companies have periodically changed the format of how the recording is listened to,” Freiberg explains. “Edison’s first records were round cylinders that slipped onto a spindle, then records became flat, a disc. Now everyone had to go out and buy the new disc player, the flat record phonograph, and replace their old cylinder records with flat ones that played at the 78 rpm speed. Years went by and Columbia invented a new speed, the 33rpm. Again, consumers had to replace that old 78rpm phonograph and buy new phonographs that played the new 33rpm speed. RCA didn’t like Columbia introducing their new speed so they came out with one of their own, the 45rpm.”

“In fact, Robert Sarnoff, the president of RCA became furious when Columbia offered him the new speed; it was like Apple offering Sony their iPod technology and Sony turning it down. Sarnoff wanted his engineers to come up with something different, hence, the 45rpm, which if you start with 78 and subtract 33 you get 45 and that’s how that came to be.”

Getting back on track Freiberg continues, “The 33rpm and 45rpm were the leaders until 8 track tapes were introduced, and of course the new player to listen to them. Next were the smaller cassette tapes, and yes, a new player to play them.”

A few years later came the compact disc, and again, a new player to hear them.

Optimistically Freiberg says, “Through the digital revolution vinyl has endured because it has something no other format has, personal connection. No other format has the association we attach to vinyl and our personal history. But that doesn’t mean that when all the baby boomers are gone vinyl will disappear? There is resurgence in vinyl, the generation that grew up on CD’s are recognizing the differences between the formats, they appreciate cover art and the difference in sound. For a generation that grew up playing vinyl, CD’s were a big change, for the CD generation it’s vinyl that is a change. I’m very encouraged about the future of the vinyl record not just from a business point but as a vinyl preservationist and historian. It’s important we preserve our audio history, vinyl is the format that has more of it than any other.”

Moreover, does album cover art add a new dimension to the overall listening experience? As we have learned yes it does. It is a tangible, tactile connection, one you don’t really get with a CD or a download. Yes, CD’s have art and lyrics, but in a shrunken format and certainly it is not the same experience that one would get with an elaborate album cover. There are even a number of record companies who are adding images and art work to downloaded material, but it is virtual, not tactile. And there is another vital reason to appreciate vinyl and album cover art.

“Only five percent of vinyl recordings have been transferred to commercial compact disc,” Freiberg states. “Record companies cannot afford to transfer everything onto CD; it’s not economically viable to do that. For example there’s not much demand for radio broadcasts from the forties. Record companies wouldn’t recoup their costs releasing a CD like that; much of our audio history is not commercially viable so it doesn’t get transferred.”

So who then, is responsible for preserving our audio past?

“Consumers,” Freiberg answers without hesitation. “The public are the custodian of our audio history. We are the ones responsible to make sure our record collection and album cover art is cared for so that we can pass on to future generation the voices and sound of years past. Record companies won’t do it, so it’s up to every person who has a record collection to preserve it for the future.”

How do we encourage today’s society to preserve those “old records” containing recordings that will never see the shine of a compact disc? Gary explains why he founded Vinyl Record Day in 2002:

“Vinyl Record Day.org is the only 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the Preservation of the Cultural Influences, Recordings and Album Cover Art of the Vinyl Record. The Internet has been the primary avenue for the public to learn of us and our objectives. To raise funds for education and awareness I created the ‘Mural of Album Cover Art.’ It’s our poster child featuring one hundred different album covers from a forty year period and includes music artists from many genres as well as the album covers of many highly respected graphic artists. The Mural of Album Cover Art is not the definitive representation of album covers or the definitive set of covers. It is a representation of the depiction the art form has of fashion, lifestyles and social values as we evolved from the forties to the nineties. There’s a Narrative Guide that annotates each one of the one hundred covers that explains their place in the history of Album Cover Art.” You can check the mural out at www.VinylRecordDay.org.

Freiberg concludes with a touch of irony, “Now the digital age has come full circle. Trying to add value to downloading music, major players like Apple’s iTunes now include cover art with the individual download. Loaded onto an iPod screen, with this latest innovation, record companies have succeeded in shrinking cover art even further than a CD jewel case. A new innovation, however; there is no substitute, no replacement for the historic album cover art that accompanies the musical format that we are closest to, the vinyl record.”

So with record companies trying to add value to download by including specific art work for the individual download, until they come up with a new innovation, there will be no substitute for the old-fashioned and historic album cover art that accompanies the classic music we adore.

This Day In Music History- Feb 29

Gretchen Christopher of the Fleetwoods ("Come Softly To Me") is 17 (she was born 68 years ago but only has a birthday once every four years)

Partridge Family producer/songwriter Wes Farrell ("Hang On Sloopy", "Come On Down To My Boat", "Come A Little Bit Closer" and many others) died in Fisher Island, Florida in 1996. He also worked with the Everly Brothers and Lou Christie. The Beatles, Van Morrison, Jay & the Americans, and the Yardbirds also covered his songs.

In 1980, Mason City Police discovered a file containing Buddy Holly's glasses and a watch owned by The Big Bopper, that were found in the wreckage of their plane crash in 1959. Holly's cuff links worn during the crash had already been presented to Paul McCartney back in 1976, when the first Buddy Holly Week was held. Holly's widow would eventually launch a lawsuit to recover his glasses.

Aretha Franklin won her first Grammy (Best Female R&B Vocal for "Respect") in 1968.

In 2000, Lonestar top the Hot 100 chart with the their country single "Amazed." It's the first time a country song has gone to No. 1 since Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton's "Islands in the Stream" in 1983.

2000 - In Guilford, Surrey, Eric Clapton had his driving privileges suspended for six months and was fined about $570 dollars for speeding. (I guess he’s not “slow foot)

In 1964, Betty Everett's "The Shoop Shoop Song" entered the Billboard chart, where it will peak at #6.

In 2000, 'Two Against Nature,' Steely Dan's first studio album since 1980, was released.

Today in 1992, the song "To Be with You" by Mr. Big topped the charts and stayed there for 3 weeks.

The Beatles won an Album of the Year Grammy for “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” in 1968. How could they not win with one of the most historic LP’s ever released?

John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s U.S. visas expired in 1972. This begins a three-year struggle for permanent residency status. The couple were viewed as political radicals by the Nixon Administration who wants them deported. John and Yoko eventually win the right to stay.

In 2000, Smashing Pumpkins released “MACHINA/The Machines of Gods,” their last studio LP.

R.I.P- Buddy Miles

Buddy Miles, the rock and R&B drummer, singer and songwriter whose eclectic career included stints playing with Jimi Hendrix and as the lead voice of the California Raisins, the animated clay figures that became an advertising phenomenon in the late 1980s, has died. He was 60.

Miles died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at his home in Austin, Texas, according to an announcement on his website.

A massive man with a distinctive, sculpted afro, Miles hit his peak of popularity when he joined Hendrix and bassist Billy Cox to form Hendrix's Band of Gypsys, which the New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll called "the first black rock group." Miles had played with Hendrix on the guitarist's influential "Electric Ladyland" album released in 1968.

The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper Album Steals The Show

Butcher Block Album Creates Controversy

By Robert Benson


As we continue our discussion with Gary Freiberg (www.RockArtPictureShow.com
www.VinylRecordDay.org), let’s pick up where we left off and continue detailing the poll that was conducted at the Vinyl Record Day web site and specifically, the album that was voted to be the number one album cover of all time, the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper” album.

The album was groundbreaking because up until then album covers were pretty standard, a picture of the artist (usually a head shot) or group or a specific setting, for example, maybe a jukebox surrounded by teens. This was a very careful and easy way of doing things. But, the Beatles added new elements to album cover art, as Gary details:


“The Beatles did something with the Sgt. Pepper album that had never been done before, this was the first packaged vinyl and it came complete with inserts and a specially designed album cover. And, who and why were these pictures of other famous people included on the cover, it just didn’t make sense. The Beatles also included cardboard cut-outs. Up until then it was logical, here’s the music, here’s the artist. It also started the idea that Paul was dead because there is a hand that seems to be coming out of nowhere, it is above Paul’s head; and Paul is also wearing a black carnation. So there were elements about the entire album package that gave people a purpose to sit down with it. That is one of the unique features of album cover art and why people have such a bond with albums, because it is something tactile; we put it in our hands and we sat down and looked at it. The Beatles broke all ground and Sgt. Pepper is by far, in the history of album cover art, the most pivotal album cover of all time.”

Now an interesting note for record collectors is that the value of this classic album is directly influenced by whether or not the package includes the aforementioned cut-outs as well as a custom sleeve. Of course, the condition of the vinyl record itself is paramount and is the single most deciding factor when ascertaining the price for, not only this album, but for any vinyl record.

After the Sgt. Pepper album, record labels and the musicians themselves were much more liberal when creating album cover art. They started to market to specific demographics and groups. Graphics were improved and famous artists were also commissioned to add their expertise to the evolving world of album cover art. Bands started to include more lyrics, band pictures and production notes. Many controversial, provocative and famous album covers were produced. But, even before Sgt. Pepper, the Beatles were at the forefront with regards to controversial album cover art. In fact, the Beatles’ album “Yesterday...& Today” (also known as the “butcher block” album) gained critical attention and controversy.

“The story behind this is that it portrays the Beatles wearing white butcher smocks with various severed baby doll parts. Paul is sitting with a severed head in his lap and the rest of the torso on his shoulder and they mixed this all in with bloody beef ribs,” details Gary. “The reason the Beatles did this cover was that they did not like what the record company did with their album “Help.” That is the cover where the Beatles’ intent was to purposely try to spell out “help” with the pictures of themselves with outstretched arms and everyone is considered in a different way. But when the album cover was released in the states, the executives at Capitol records didn’t get it and they just randomly arranged the Beatles on the cover and the Beatles thought that the record company had “butchered” the cover.”


“As soon as it (the butcher cover) got over here, it got recalled and in fact, I spoke with a record store owner in Los Angles who recently sold a copy of the record, still in shrink wrap, stereo version, along with the original letter from Capitol Records stating that they were recalling the album and he sold this copy for $80,000. Now this is a very rare record because the mono version of the album out numbered the stereo version eight to one and is much more common.”

The album has been out of print for years. It was replaced by the “trunk cover”, a picture of the Fab Four around a large trunk (with Paul McCartney sitting inside the trunk). After the recall, this picture was either pasted over the “butcher block” picture or the “butcher block” cover was removed all together, with the “trunk cover” then pasted on the front of the album (incidentally, the pictures of both covers were taken by the same photographer, Robert Whitaker). Now, is there a way to ascertain exactly what kind of cover you have if you happen to own a copy of the Beatles’ “Yesterday...& Today” album? Yes, there is as Gary informs us:

“With the paste over there is a way to know if you have a paste over cover or not. On the right hand side, a couple of inches above the bottom and a couple of inches over (there is a lot of white filler space on this particular cover and it is very plain again was a purposeful comment from the Beatles) there is a “V”. You see, Ringo was wearing a turtle-neck on the butcher cover and if you have a paste over copy you can see that black triangle that bleeds through. If you have a pasted over cover, there is value to those as well.”

So with the Beatles’ vision and creativeness, other artist joined the crowd. For instance, the Jimi Hendrix LP called “Electric Ladyland” was released in the U.K. with pictures of nude women. But, the album cover was censored in the states, as Gary explains:


“It’s a fold out and a continuous front and back image of topless women, some of which are holding copies of the album. That’s (the censorship) typical of American morality, same thing with the Blind Faith album, taking off the bare-chested adolescent girl and putting on a picture of the band and I think is pretty consistent with our society of having a face of being puritan, but when you scratch the surface, there’s a lot more there than perhaps how we like to present things.”

In our last article, we will continue our discussion about album cover art and see what lies ahead, not only for vinyl records, but the digital world as well.

LOOK FOR OUR LAST ARTICLE IN OUR FOUR-PART INTERVIEW WITH FAMED VINYL ENTHUSIAST GARY FREIBERG TOMMORROW

Mini Clubman "Record Player"

It never ceases to amaze me what kinds of listening experiences one can get with our wonderful vinyl record. In my never ending search to keep you informed, I have this unique little Mini Clubman Vinyl Killer Record Player for you to look at.

Visionaire 53 is a collection of five 12-inch vinyl “picture disc” records that are packaged inside a sleek domed case. While we’re sure that the selection of sound pieces by artists ranging from U2, David Byrne, Michael Stipe, Robert Wilson and Cat Power, among others, are riveting, we’re slightly more interested in the record player provided to listen to them.

The compilation comes with what’s called a Mini Clubman “Vinyl Killer” record player. The portable music maker is battery operated, “driving” along the groves in the record to produce the sound. There’s a tiny speaker built right into the top of the miniature Clubman, and though we can’t imagine the sound is terribly powerful, we can’t help but really want one anyway. Unfortunately, Visionaire 53 runs a steep $250 for one of the 4,000 total copies to be sold. Perhaps not a bad deal for the vinyl record enthusiast that has to have everything, and as a collector, I certainly want one!

For more information:

http://www.visionaireworld.com/index.php

This Day In Music History- Feb 27

Pink Floyd recorded their first single, "Arnold Layne," at Sound Techniques Studio in London in 1967. It reached #20 on the British singles chart.

'Pearl,' the album that Janis Joplin was making at the time of her death, hits #1 on the album charts in 1971, where it will stay for nine weeks.

1982-'Damn the Torpedoes' is Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ first album to be certified platinum (one million copies sold).

In 1970, Jefferson Airplane was fined $1,000 for onstage profanity in Oklahoma City.

James Brown was paroled from prison after serving two years on drug and assault charges in 1991.

Keith Richards was arrested for heroin possession in Toronto in 1977. Police find heroin, cocaine and narcotics paraphernalia. Authorities accuse Richards of intending to traffic the drugs but Keith’s attorney claims his client’s drug problem is so extreme all the drugs are for his personal use.

Jamie Foxx wins a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Ray Charles in the movie, "Ray" in 2005.

The Miracles make their first TV appearance, on "American Bandstand" in 1960.

Today in 1961, the song "Pony Time" by Chubby Checker topped the charts and stayed there for 3 weeks.

In 2003, a lawyer for Great White's tour manager says the band had permission from a Rhode Island nightclub to use pyrotechnics at their fatal Feb. 20 show. Ninety-six people died after the club caught fire. The Boston Herald reports the band's record sales are up following the tragedy.

Journey founder and Santana guitarist Neal Schon was born in San Mateo, CA in 1954.

In 1956, Specialty Records released Little Richard's "Slippin' and Slidin'." The song becomes the pianist's first R&B No. 1, while its flip side, "Long Tall Sally," becomes his first top 10 pop hit.

1990 - Milli Vanilli's Rob Pilatus shared his perspective on life with Time magazine. In the interview he said, "Musically, we're more talented than any Bob Dylan or Paul McCartney. Mick Jagger can't produce a sound. I'm the new Elvis." In a related story, it was reported that pigs fly.

Cindy Wilson (The B-52's) was born in Athens, GA in 1957.

Lynyrd Skynyrd vocalist (since ‘87 - replacing the late Ronnie Van Zant), Johnny Van Zant, was born in 1960.

In 2007, an album featuring the children of well-known musicians performing their parent's hits is available exclusively in Target stores. "Song For My Father " includes Salvador Santana's rendition of "Evil Ways" and Devon Allman's version of "Midnight Rider."

In 1980, The Doobie Brothers' "What a Fool Believes" wins a Grammy Award for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year, while Billy Joel's "52nd Street" wins both Album of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder recorded "Ebony and Ivory" in 1981, which will top both the Billboard Pop chart and the Adult Contemporary chart during a 15 week run.

Sony's New Toy For Consumers

LAS VEGAS, Feb 26, 2008 /PRNewswire

Providing a clever approach for converting vinyl records to digital files, Sony today unveiled a turntable system with USB output. Got a stack of old records that you would like to get onto your iPod? Sony's PS-LX300USB may be just what you need. The turntable can be connected to any standard Windows PC via a USB cable, where your 33 1/3rpm albums or 45rpm singles can be captured and edited via the included Sound Forge Audio Studio software. Prefer to listen the old-fashioned way? The PS-LX300USB also works as a standard record player--just connect it to a receiver with a dedicated phono input (or, with the help of a phono preamp, any standard stereo input will do).

It offers a belt drive system for reduced motor noise and rotational stability, in addition to a static balance tone arm with a bonded diamond stylus for precise tracking and low record wear. A supplied moving-magnet phonograph cartridge and built-in phonograph pre-amp allows for compatibility with A/V receivers without a phonograph input.

The turntable is packaged with Sound Forge Audio Studio software for simple professional-quality audio editing and production on a home computer, allowing for MP3 playback on portable music players.

How does it compare with USB turntables from Ion and Stanton? We'll find out when the $150 PS-LX300USB hits stores in March

Album Cover Art History

Forty Years That Changed Society

by Robert Benson


In part two of our four-part discussion with Vinyl Record Day Founder and vinyl businessman Gary Freiberg (www.RockArtPictureShow.com & www.VinylRecordDay.org), we focus our attention on the history of album cover art.

CDs and computer files fail to give an artist or group a proper canvas in which to display their visual art, to help create an image of who the group is. After all, not everyone buys a record strictly for the music.

“Album cover art historically catered to recognizing some customers will purchase an album just for the cover art,” said Gary Freiberg. “Now this commercial pursuit, perhaps the most creative product packaging there has ever been, has become an American art form with significant social importance.”

“Album cover art is a unique depiction of the evolution of our society,” explained Gary. “Since it was first introduced in 1939-40 it has evolved both in format and subject matter. Initially album covers were drawn illustrations; Alex Steinweiss, the creator of the art form, has a strong European poster influence. Steinweiss covers are among the few that are “signed” by the artist; his name is typically along the right side edge on the front of the album cover he designed. In the fifties technology advancements in photography replaced illustrated covers with head shots and scenes depicting “typical” life at the time, everyone was white, wore a tie or cocktail dress and had perfect children. It was Sgt. Pepper that changed it all graphically, creativity zoomed after that release and compared to what had been, the gloves came off on what was acceptable.”

Freiberg continues, “However; regardless of the graphic method, album cover art has always depicted our social values, racial attitudes, lifestyles, fashion and political views in a way that is only seen in the art form. It reflected who we were, who we were supposed to be, and at times, led who we became.”


Discussing the roots of album cover art Gary Freiberg adds, “When Alex Steinweiss was hired by newly formed Columbia Records to be their art director, he was the first in the industry to create advertising material to promote a company’s musicians. His background was in poster art and was heavily influenced by French and German artists. Steinweiss had a logical idea; he suggested discerning different artists and their music by having art on the paper packaging in place of the plain brown paper packaging that was customary when individual records were first introduced. The brown wrapped records promoted the record company; there was no promotion for the artist or the music other than the hole in the center that allowed reading what the record was. The idea had merit since there were no record stores, records were sold in the back of appliance stores. Steinweiss argued an art cover would make the customer stop, pick up and want to look at the record. Thus a better likelihood they would buy it. One of the first attempts, a record of Beethoven ‘hits’ had an 800% increase in sales.”

“History has shown this was pure genius, not just because it revolutionized the marketing of music, but for the accidental visual recording of a society that dramatically changed in the forty year tenure of album cover art.”


Continuing, Freiberg says, “Steinweiss may have been the catalyst to change the visual representation in album cover art but it was the record companies that brought the social changes into visual form. Several record companies, Specialty Records, who gave Little Richard, Larry Williams and others their break, the Jazz label Bluenote and later Motown, were particularly influential in promoting civil rights when this country was experiencing race relation changes that had been building for years.”

“Like Specialty, Bluenote was distinctive in that they did not hide their black artists on the album cover. It was common, with some exception, for record companies to hide black artists from public view,” said Gary.

“Were they racist or just reflecting society?” Freiberg rhetorically asked. “Having a black artist on the cover was very socially controversial at the time.” He then quickly adds, “But doing so was a reflection of what was happening in society at large and was a part of the puzzle that coalesced into legislation changing racial equality.”

Asked about the influence of the respected Bluenote label, Freiberg explains what made this company revered among record companies.

“They had a very, very unique and cohesive integration; the recording, the pressing and album cover art were all combined to present the product. There leadership was not confined to who they put on the album cover. Designer Reed Miles was the primary graphic artist and he wanted to know the mood and the intent of each one of the records that Bluenote produced. His goal was to then integrate the cover art so that it would reflect and be consistent with the mood of the music. It was a step forward that other companies emulated but perhaps not until Sgt. Pepper accomplished.”

In our next article, we will discuss the Beatles’ majestic and historic Sgt. Pepper album with Gary and why it is so popular and innovative, as well its role in the historic album covers of all time.


LOOK FOR PART THREE WITH OUR DISCUSSION WITH GARY FREIBERG TOMORROW!

YouTube Videos

YouTube has some fascinating videos and I will share a few that have captured my interest:

THE DOORS



KING CRIMSON



GREAT ALBUM COVERS

Wearing their art on their sleeve

As I have stated before, every now and then I read a great article and like to share it with my readers. Author Joe Burns was kind enough to allow me to reprint his wonderful article about picture sleeves. Joe's article originally was printed here: www.wickedlocal.com/

Wearing their art on their sleeve

By Joe Burns


YARMOUTH - It was never just for the record.

Back when vinyl was the final word in music marketing, the picture sleeves that covered the doughnut-hole 45 RPMs served as more than dust protectors; they were colorful come-ons designed not only to sell the single, but the artist as well.

Less common and more fragile than their LP cover cousins, they’ve become scarcer over the years. Ripped, discarded, soiled and written on, many didn’t make it past the ‘50s and ‘60s. Fortunately some survived and were rescued by Chip Bishop of West Dennis, who’ll be exhibiting items from his collection of pop culture artifacts starting Feb. 20 at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod in South Yarmouth.

Bishop’s introduction to record sleeve art began 51 years ago, in Woonsocket, R.I, when he was 12-years-old.

“I wanted to have a career in radio,” Bishop says, recalling his boyhood ambitions. “For Christmas I got a tiny little radio transmitter and I set up my own radio station in the basement of my parents’ home. Bishop’s AM radio signal reached about a mile, but that was far enough to find an audience, and soon he was getting requests.

“I started collecting records for my little pirate radio station, whatever I could afford. It was 79 cents a record at the time. I could afford maybe one or two a week,” Bishop says. “And that’s how it started.”

When he was 15 Bishop began hanging out at a real radio station — WWON in Rhode Island, which proved to be a boon for his record collection.

“The manager of the radio station would give me all the records that they weren’t going to play. They were an adult music station and they weren’t going to play Little Richard, Fats Domino and Elvis so he gave me the records,” Bishop says. “That led to a lifetime of collecting that was interrupted by college and getting married and raising a family. But I got back to it and started hitting yard sales and flea markets.”

Picture sleeves weren’t on Bishop’s mind when he was a boy.

“That was a bonus,” he says.

But by the 1970s Bishop’s interest in the art that accompanied the records was piqued by collectors’ magazines that began to feature them.

“It turns out that the sleeves are more valuable than the records because relatively few of them survived,” Bishop says.

At one time his collection of 45s was up to 4,000. That number has since been sliced nearly in half. The large majority of those records don’t have picture sleeves. Most are protected with the more common paper jacket with the hole in the middle to display the record label. Bishop says the less common picture sleeves came into their own in the era of the teen idols, when girls would buy records and pin the pictures up on their walls.

“It started for real with the coming of Elvis in the mid-‘50s. They were marketing tools, often times to introduce an artist who people weren’t familiar with,” Bishop says, noting that as rock and pop stars were being turned into movie stars, the sleeves were also a means of promoting movies such as “High School Confidential” (Jerry Lee Lewis) and “Where The Boy Are” (Connie Francis).

”It took off again in the mid-‘60s when The Beatles came on to the scene, because Americans didn’t know who these British lads were,” says Bishop whose collection also includes art from that period as well.

Picture sleeves didn’t end with that era, those 7-inch squares of art are still found today, protecting, new vinyl recordings, but you won’t find them in Bishop’s collection. He’ll be showing about 200 sleeves mostly from the ‘50s and the ‘60s and across a wide range of music from Little Richard to Annette and everything in between. Also on display will be a vintage record player from the era. CDs custom made by Bishop for the occasion will provide musical accompaniment.

The covers, along with the vinyl discs that they protected, provided something that, in this day of iPods and MP3s, most miss out on – the sensory experience that comes from handling a record and admiring the artwork.

“In this word of downloading music they don’t get that,” says Bishop, using a non-monetary measure in determining their value.

“They’re old friends from my youth,” he says. “Great memories from a much simpler time.”

This Day In Music History- Feb 25

The late George Harrison was born in 1943.

In 1957, Buddy Holly recorded "That'll Be the Day" at Norman Petty's studio in Clovis, New Mexico. The single is released on the Brunswick label (a Decca subsidiary) and credited to the Crickets.

Van Halen hits their first #1 with "Jump" in 1984.

The Beatles first U.S. single ("Please Please Me"/"Ask Me Why" on Chicago's Vee-Jay Records) was released (and Dick Biondi of WLS radio in Chicago plays the "A" side-- the first U.S. DJ to play a Beatles tune) in 1963.

Elvis Presley performed his first post-Army concert (and first since 1957), a charity benefit in Memphis in 1961.

Today in 1995 the song "Take a Bow," by Madonna topped the charts and stayed there for 7 weeks.

In 2004, Chicago-based blues saxophonist, vocalist, songwriter and bandleader A.C. Reed dies from cancer complications. He was 77. Reed played with the likes of Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt, and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

A wig reported to cost $10,000 is stolen from Cher's dressing room during the Richmond, Va., stop of her Living Proof tour in 2003. The wig is returned two weeks later. (She does have hair, doesn’t she?)

Also in 2003, Paul McCartney and his band performed at the 50th birthday of fan Wendy Whitworth in San Diego. Whitworth's husband paid $1 million to McCartney, who donated his fee to the Adopt-a-Minefield charity.

In 1998, Bob Dylan won three Grammys, including Best Album for his career renaissance Time out of Mind. While performing a song from the album, he is interrupted by a rogue performance artist with the words "soy bomb" painted on his chest. (Soy Bomb? How about “Hi Mom?”)

In 1990, Johnnie Ray, the Sultan of Sob, dies of liver failure at age 63. Despite having to wear a hearing aid since he was 14, Ray was one of the '50s' most popular vocalists, recording the No. 2 hit "Just Walking in the Rain."

In 1965, The Rolling Stones performed their just-released single "The Last Time" on the British rock show Ready! Steady! Go!.

Bluegrass titan Ralph Stanley was born in Stratton, Va. in 1927.

Toy Caldwell, lead singer for The Marshall Tucker band on their 1977 million seller, "Heard It In A Love Song", died in his sleep on February 25th at the age of 45 in 1993.

The first musical choreography score was copyrighted in 1952. It was Cole Porter's "Kiss Me Kate".

It was announced that Britney Spears would be releasing her own brand of bubble gum, "Britney Spears CD Bubble Gum", in March of 2000. (So that’s how she has made her money!)

Drummer Dennis Diken (The Smithereens) started his life in 1957.

"The Grand Illusion" peaks at #6 in 1978. It’s the first platinum album for Styx.

U2 began their first full U.S. tour in 1985.

In 2005, Shinedown and Tesla headline a benefit concert in Providence, RI, for survivors of the February 2003 fire at the Station nightclub.

The Alarm’s vocalist/guitarist Mike Peters was born 1959.

Nancy Sinatra received her first gold record in 1966 for "These Boots Are made for Walkin'". Her second was shared with her father Frank in 1967 for "Something Stupid".

Enjoy the Show

The Record Album Frame is the choice of Graceland, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Smithsonian. Turn your LP's into Art, simply and easily!

Preserve and Display Your Album Cover Art

By Robert Benson


In this introduction to a four part series about album cover art we will explore several elements of this creative and personal art form with Vinyl Record Day Founder and album frame innovator Gary Freiberg. (www.RockArtPictureShow.com & www.VinylRecordDay.org) We’ll look at historic and controversial album covers, the differences in album cover framing, learn about a growing organization called Vinyl Record Day and see what’s in the future for album cover art. But first, let’s introduce Gary, vinyl preservationist and businessman.

Gary Freiberg is a vinyl enthusiast, historian and preservationist. He is respected internationally as an expert in album cover art. In fact, esteemed programs from the BBC to NPR have featured his insights into an American art form whose repercussions have been felt around the world. His immense interest in vinyl cover art led Freiberg to develop his innovative and patented “Record Album Frame.”


“I’m humbled, and as an avid collector, proud our record album frame that started one evening as a drawing on the back of a paper napkin and has now been chosen by the Smithsonian for exhibit, Home & Garden TV, sold at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as well as thousands of Internet purchasers,” explained Gary. “The industry accolades are appreciated but it’s the customer comments, people we don’t know who have said so many nice things about our frame that is particularly gratifying. Rock Art Picture Show started from my interest in album cover art and I truly believe we have become a leader in the field for the same reason my wife and I had the conversation that led to the napkin drawing. It’s the look; our matted display and patented framing technique creates, and I know this sounds biased, the best display for album cover art. We received our patent because of innovation, just slide your vinyl record into our acrylic frame to matte and frame your album cover instantly, no clips, no assembly and easy to change. There’s a saw tooth hanger that is attached on the back, an album cover is framed and matted for wall display in less than a minute.”

I asked Gary what exactly is the allure, what makes album cover art so appealing? His reply was the abstract feel of music.

“It’s the most personable art form there is. We can appreciate the Rembrandt’s and Picasso’s as fine art but we don’t relate to their work personally, we don’t attach our emotion with fine art. Music is the primary vehicle to our memory of good times and good people, Dick Clark called it the soundtrack of our lives. At times cover art is part of that emotional connection we have with music. Anyone who has owned a record collection has spent time pouring over an album cover while listening to the music; the mental connection is a unified package of cover art and the musical experience. A universal example is the Beatles Sgt. Pepper album. Just mentioning that album conjures up a mental picture of the cover art aside from any emotion associated with the music. The allure of album cover art is- it triggers our personal positive connection to music, the appeal is the incredible creativity of the art form, the visual presentation of an album cover draws the viewer’s attention because we relate to it whether we owned the album or not, album cover art represents the era we alone define as important and influential to who we are today.”

Freiberg also believes album cover art depicts the many cultural aspects and changes society has gone through unlike any other art form.

“Fashion, politics, racial views, lifestyles, we can follow our cultural evolution through album cover art. The early fifties have Mom’s in cocktail dresses, Dad in a tie and the kids scrubbed and fresh,” detailed Gary. “The Beatles and Stones encouraged kids to have long hair in the sixties, John Travolta sold a lot of white disco suits, and each era has its own personality and fashion that is communicated through both the music and the accompanying cover art. We see black artists omitted from their album covers, no pictures front or back. The Chantels album cover took the group of four black women off the cover when their hit “Maybe” went national and replaced them with white teenagers. Album cover art captured our history in its quest to be commercially successful. The art form began in an effort to sell more records and through all the creativity and versatility throughout its forty year history, never lost that as the primary objective.”

And there is more to the story. Album cover art is also used as a marketing tool. As an artist or a group you would want your LP to stand out among the crowd. Album cover art is taken very seriously; it is a method to introduce band members or an image that the band wants you to associate with their music. For decades album cover design was a unique imagery forum of commercial art. And the 12" by 12" canvas was all that some famous artists needed to promote the band and their music.

I must admit, I was impressed reading the Customer Comments on the RockArtPictureShow.com web site (www.RockArtPictureShow.com/comments.html). In this world of cyber space, Rock Art Picture Show is not, according to the comments, some faceless corporation; they seem to treat their customers in a very personable way.

“I sincerely appreciate anyone coming by to check out our web site. I view customers as friends who have a common appreciation for the love of cover art and are helping to preserve the art form. My goal, sincerely, is for everyone who selects our frames to get the same enjoyment I get from displaying album covers,” related Gary.

In our next article, we will explore and learn more about album cover art, but in the meantime, stop by RockArtPictureShow.com and enjoy the show.


LOOK FOR PART TWO WITH OUR INTERVIEW WITH GARY FREIBERG TOMORROW!

$3M Bid for Record Collection Is a Fraud

This from the Ap wire: 23 hours ago

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A winning bid of $3 million for a huge record collection offered on eBay was apparently a fraud.

A bidder had claimed he would shell out $3,002,150 for the collection of nearly 3 million vinyl albums, singles and CDs being sold by Paul Mawhinney, 68, of Ross Township.

An agent for the sale, J. Paul Henderson, said an eBay executive notified him Friday night that the bid was not legitimate and that the bidder's account had been suspended, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

Mawhinney said he began collecting the records when he opened his record shop, Record Rama, in 1968. He closed it Thursday, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family.

"I am legally blind," he said. "I had a couple of strokes a few years ago ... and it's time at my age to think about doing something else with my life."

Mawhinney said Saturday that he had already contacted six other bidders who had pledged more than $3 million on eBay and three others who approached him independently.

"It's still going to happen," he told The Associated Press.

This Day In Music History- Feb 23

Brad Whitford of Aerosmith was born in 1952.

In 2000, Carlos Santana swept the 42nd Grammy Awards, winning in nine categories.

"Crazy Little Thing Called Love" tops the chart for the first of four weeks in 1980. Queen's first #1 hit also marks the first time singer Freddie Mercury plays guitar on record. Freddie Mercury wrote it while in the bath.

Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" (also know as the theme to the movie 'The Exorcist') debuts on the singles chart in 1974.

Melvin Franklin of the Temptations ("My Girl") died of a brain seizure in 1995.

Little Richard receives a Lifetime Achievement Grammy award in 1993.
In 1970, Ringo Starr made his first solo TV appearance, on NBC's "Laugh In" (exactly six years after the Beatles' third "Ed Sullivan Show" appearance on CBS).

Simon & Garfunkel sing together for the first time in ten years as they receive a Lifetime Achievement Grammy award in 2003.

Today in 1991, the song "All the Man That I Need" by Whitney Houston topped the charts and stayed there for 2 weeks.

Twenty people are injured when ticketless fans try to gatecrash a Rolling Stones concert in Buenos Aires in 2006. Police use rubber bullets and tear gas to control the unruly crowd. (and Geritol for the band)

In 1974, Led Zeppelin decided to call their own record label Swan Song. Names turned down include Superhype, Slag, Eclipse, Deluxe, and that old reliable, Sh*t.

Texan blues guitarist Johnny Winter is born in Beaumont in 1944.
Among the albino's hit albums is 1973's Still Alive and Well.

"Eight Arms To Hold You," was one suggested title for The Beatles’ second film, "Help!" They began filming in the Bahamas in1965.

The Doors do it again. “Morrison Hotel/Hard Rock Café” becomes The Doors’ fifth straight gold album in 1970.

In 1978, the Eagles win the Record of the Year Grammy for “Hotel California” but don’t bother to show up. Fleetwood Mac picks up the statue for Best Album of the Year, “Rumours.”

A lack of business forces the legendary Muscle Shoals Studio in Sheffield Alabama to close its doors in 2005. The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Aretha Franklin were among the legends that recorded there.

Elvis and Priscilla Presley separated in 1972 after four years and one child, Lisa Marie.