Sam Antupit created this white framing for the series to give the label an identity, and also to convey a sense of an art piece due to the "matted" Pete Turner photos. Take that away and the covers lose their impact. There are a few that don't work quite as well (like the two albums I posted above, where it's the photography effect that is awkward) and the Antupit frame goes away on an album like Quincy Jones' Walking In Space and Gula Matari, both of which featured closely-cropped head shots of Q.I always wondered why they thought it was a good idea to make all the album covers in a similar design. Not that it probably hurt sales any (or helped) but it does kind of rob the albums of some of their individuality.
I kind of miss this on the later CTi albums once Taylor left A&M--a few still present some kind of framing, but others seem to get a bit crowded. Like this one of Turner's famous "bubble" photo:
I feel the frameless design works better for his photography when the photo is simpler (unlike above where there's "clutter" above the bubble):
Deodato 2 returned the frame concept: