Best A&M cover art

[Steven J. Gross]

The A&M album cover that stands out most in my mind was the Ozark Mountain Daredevils' "Car Over The Lake Album"
Supertramp's "Crisis? What Crisis?" is a close second.
Would like to hear everyone's faves!

 

[Rudy]

Too many to list them all, but the ones that stand out to me are:

TJB's Whipped Cream...notorious to the point of causing a bit of controversy when it first came out! Probably because it was a big seller...there were more provocative covers back in those days, especially if you look at some of the Latin albums. (It also could have been Dolores' teasing look, too. )

Styx, Equinox...that fire-on-ice motif was always a favorite.

Brasil '66, Herb Alpert Presents...it's not a good, classic cover, but there's just something about the mood it evokes. Look Around is neat, too, just for the colorful look.

Just about anything on the CTi label. Abstract photos have always been a favorite of mine, and Pete Turner (http://www.peteturner.com) is a master of fine photography and reality-bending abstractions. And who thought of that design with the large white border around those photos? This idea originated at Verve, but having a consistent white border on a gatefold album really gave the label an identity. (I notice they hung with it after CTi left A&M...Paul Desmond's Skylark is one such example of the same style.)

Carpenters, Passage...other than Horizon (which is a nice photo), many say that A&M's art department had no clue of how to photograph a brother/sister duo for an album cover. Passage makes neat use of color on a black background, and it's an abstract rendition of a musical staff and notes.

Herb Alpert, Magic Man...again, I like the use of color, which even carried over to the record label.

Plenty more, but no time to list them.

 

[Stephen Vakil]

First must be Sweet Bird - particularly the back cover! - followed closely by My Abstract Heart.

Stephen

 

[Steven J. Gross]

The CTi -series albums did have amazing cover work. Could publish a book just with "those covers".

 

[bob knack]

"If anyone remembers the BMB cover of "Fowl Play", that was the best of many very creative Baja covers. The cover of the band raiding a chicken coop hangs framed in my bar room.

Also, I'm finding many copies of "Whipped Cream" at resale shops. I'm thinking of collecting enough of them to paper an entire wall!!

 

[Rudy]

Well, someone has already papered an entire car with Whipped Cream album covers, including a live, whipped-cream-covered girl on the hood. (She's even cute w/o the whipped cream, IMHO. ) I believe her real name, ironically, was Mae...a name from another TJB album.

I also loved the BMB's running gag on each cover.

 

[Captain Bacardi]

Obviously, Whipped Cream tends to stand out for me. Rise is another favorite, with the silver A&M logo on an LP going across the back wall behind Herb. I also like Supertramp's Even In the Quietest Moments cover. Lani's Sweet Bird, Dave Liebman's Sweet Hands, Mangione's Chase The Clouds Away and the first cover of Michel Colombier's Wings are some other faves that pop to mind right now.


Capt. Bacardi

 

[bob knack]

rudy said:

Well, someone has already papered an entire car with Whipped Cream album covers, including a live, whipped-cream-covered girl on the hood. (She's even cute w/o the whipped cream,

WAS THAT OPTIONAL OR STANDARD EQUIPMENT?

 

[Rudy]

I guess optional--the car has traveled a lot of miles, but she only participates in low-speed events like parades.

 

[Steven J. Gross]

Can't leave out "The Beat of the Brass" cover!

 

[Ed Bishop]

There are so, so many....

TJB: South Of The Border (or Herb gives us that look: guess who's getting laid tonite?)
TJB: Whipped Cream (as if you don't know why)
Sergio: Herb Alpert Presents: my fave from a visual standpoint if FOOL ON THE HILL, but this one asserts itself, as if the group insists you listen(I did!)
Supertramp: Breakfast In America (I don't know why, just fits)
Sandy Denny: Sandy (wonderfully stern, lovely face; gone too soon)
Stealers Wheel: Stealers Wheel (another Patrick cover; gloriously odd)

There are others, of course, will have to check the discography to refresh my memory.

ED

 

[Rudy]

There are so, so many....
TJB: South Of The Border (or Herb gives us that look: guess who's getting laid tonite?)

Ed: that's actually quite funny, since that's Jerry Moss's wife he's posing with! The same photo shoot brought us the cover for What Now My Love..."not tonight dear, I have a headache" is the expression there.

<-- Buffy's lookin' pretty good there, y'know...

 

[DAN BOLTON]

My favorite A&M cover would have to be Andy Fairweather Low's album SPIDER JIVE. The album cover was done up like a 45 rpm sleeve, and the label on the album was printed up like a red plastic "spider" which we all used to use back in the good old days...


Dan