by Stuart Penney
They say you can’t judge a book by its cover. That’s equally true of records, of course. A 12” LP sleeve is the perfect size to display artwork of all kinds, but it’s not always an indication of the quality of the music (or otherwise) inside. Sometimes the covers are much better than the contents.
I should emphasise, this is not one of those lazy, threadbare internet lists showing a collection of willfully egregious or risqué LP covers. Not at all. These are some of my favourite album sleeves and although many of the records have seen very little turntable action, I find their artwork irresistible, which is why I treasure them. And, as we shall see, if you dig deep enough, every one of them has a story to tell.
Despite my best efforts I couldn't restrict this list to only 10 LPs. So, here are 11 oddities pulled from the dusty end of my record collection where only the brave or foolhardy dare to venture. Most of these were purchased cheaply from flea markets, record fairs or charity shops where I’ve found so many interesting and unusual records.
1. The New Vaudeville Band - Finchley Central (Fontana) 1967
I lived in London for the best part of 20 years, and the Underground train system was not only a major part of daily city life but an endless source of fascination and wonder. So, whenever I see artwork or memorabilia relating to the Tube, I generally snap it up. That’s why I have this LP.
Paul E. Garbutt’s 1964 Tube map takes
up the entire front cover and it is quite different to the network we know today. This is before the Victoria, Jubilee and Elizabeth
lines were built and stations such as Trafalgar Square, Strand and Aldwych,
once so familiar, no longer exist with those names. That only adds to the appeal and makes this sleeve
a charming period piece and a slice of London history.
The New Vaudeville Band were
assembled in 1966 specifically to promote the novelty single “Winchester
Cathedral.” Session players had recorded the song, but a real group was
needed when it began to climb the charts. The Bonzo Dog Band was approached but only their trumpet player Bob Kerr
was persuaded to jump ship. John Carter of “Funny How Love Can Be” hitmakers the
Ivy League sang on the single, but a new vocalist arrived
in the shape of Alan Klein (no, not that one). Billed as 'Tristam, Seventh Earl
of Cricklewood,' Klein had previously written hits for Joe Brown (“What A Crazy
World We’re Living In”) and others. “Winchester Cathedral” eventually reached
#1 in America and #4 in the UK.
The New Vaudeville Band was the brainchild
of songwriter/producer Geoff Stephens (1934 - 2020). He was Donovan’s early manager/producer
and a songwriter of note with hits by Dave Berry, Hermans Hermits and the
Hollies to his name.
“Finchley Central” - named after a station
on the High Barnet branch of the Northern Line - was the NVB’s fourth single and their last top 20
hit. After which their 20s style dance
band revival music fell out of favour.
London Transport, as it was then called (Transport For London or TfL today) have always been fiercely protective of their copyrights, and the record cover carries the credit “By Permission of London Transport.” The sleeve shows only the central part of the 1964 map. The full thing is reproduced below.
I was never a Bachelors fan (honest)
but there are two important reasons why I own this record: the car and the
location. The cover photo was taken in
Old Compton Street, Soho where I worked in the late 60s/early 70s, so it has huge
nostalgic significance for me. I like to
imagine I can even see my old workplace down the street on the left at number 30. It was the home of a long-established music publisher back then, but it's the G-A-Y Nightclub today. The bottom part of the sign for famous Italian grocery store Parmigiani on the corner of Frith Street can be seen above the letters "CH" of Bachelors.
We know it’s Old Compton Street by
the distinctive domed building in the distance visible over Con Cluskey’s
shoulder. This curiously shaped landmark sits at the divergence of Old Compton
Street and Moor Street close to Charing Cross Road. In the 60s the De Lane Lea
recording studio was located on the top floor and there was a Wimpy Bar at
street level. In later years a string of eateries came and went including
Ed’s Easy Diner and Slim Chickens.
The car is a 1930 Austin Seven convertible, which, 95 years after leaving the Longbridge factory, is still alive and well today with the same registration number PG 7811. The last I heard (2017) the Austin was living in Wales with long term owner Martin Christie.
At the
time of the cover photo shoot (April 1964) the Bachelors were appearing at the
London Palladium in a four-week season sharing a variety bill with Lena Horne, Des
O’Connor (described in the programme as "The Debonair Comedian"), The Three Monarchs (comedy harmonica trio), jugglers, dancers and ventriloquist Arthur Worsley with his dummy Charlie Brown. Arthur
was a TV favourite in the 50s and 60s and remained mute throughout his act
while Charlie did all the talking (you had to be there). There are several other shots of the Bachelors in this car which they appear to have driven around
the West End in order to drum up publicity for the Palladium shows.
The Dublin trio - brothers Conleth (Con) Cluskey, Declan (Dec) Cluskey and their friend John Stokes - were hugely successful in the early 60s, scoring seven UK top ten hits between 1963 – 1966. Four of them are included on this record: “I Believe,” “Charmaine,” “Diane” and “Ramona.”
The album sleeve notes are courtesy of Decca head of A&R Dick Rowe, the fellow who will be forever remembered (perhaps unfairly) as “the man who turned down the Beatles” (he’s listed here as “executive producer.”) This LP reached #2 in the UK album charts and stayed there over Christmas 1964.
The US LP Back Again pictured here showed the group in the same Austin Seven outside the Palladium on Argyll Street.
Play count: Nil. It’s the cover first and last with this one.
3. Peter and Gordon - In Touch with Peter and Gordon (Columbia) 1964
Nothing says 60s Britain like a red
telephone box, and this splendid sleeve shows a pair of the iconic K6 boxes illustrating
the album title (“In Touch,” geddit?) Like some earlier UK telephone boxes, the
K6 was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (1880 – 1960) a man who gave us
countless UK buildings, many of them churches and university structures. In 1930 he also acted as consulting architect
for the Battersea Power Station, still one of the most remarkable and
recognisable buildings in London.
The K6 was introduced in 1938 and was
by far the most prolific design until the K8 box arrived in 1968. Telephone box numbers in Britain peaked at
about 100,000 in 1990 but due to the advent of mobile phones, the number has
fallen drastically and today less than 21,000 remain in use.
At the time of this cover photo (1964) the cost of using a UK payphone was 3d or 6d for untimed local calls. That’s in old money, of course, and it converts to 1.25p and 2.5p today.
Peter and Gordon got off to a
flying start in February 1964 with their Lennon-McCartney penned debut single
“A World Without Love” which topped the charts on both sides of the
Atlantic. It didn’t hurt that Paul McCartney was dating Peter Asher’s sister
Jane at the time. Paul then donated their next two singles in quick
succession: “Nobody I Know” (May 1964) and “I Don’t Want to See You Again”
(September 1964). These were followed by “Woman” (January 1966) written under the
pseudonym Bernard Webb.
The duo split in 1968, and Asher went to work for the Beatles’ Apple label before moving to America, becoming a successful record producer for James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt. He still performs live today as a duo with Albert Lee and others. Gordon Waller died in 2009.
Released in December 1964, this was
the second Peter and Gordon album. Despite containing the aforementioned McCartney cast-off “I
Don’t Want to See You Again” it failed to chart. Brian Jones played harmonica, uncredited, on
three tracks: “A Mess of Blues,” “My Babe” and “Love Me Baby.” The same “telephone box” photo was used on
the duo’s US Capitol LP I Go To Pieces released in
1965.
Producer Norman Newell’s name is usually associated with film soundtracks and MOR artists such as Russ Conway, Shirley Bassey and Ken Dodd. Despite hundreds of production credits to his name, Peter and Gordon were one of the few pop/rock acts Newell worked with.
If anyone knows the location of
this cover photo please comment below.
Play count: Moderate
4. The Triumph of an A.4 Pacific (Argo) 1963
Before the internet, before YouTube
and all the rest of it, if you wanted to enjoy the sound of a powerful steam
locomotive running at full throttle (and why wouldn’t you, eh ladies?) other
than the real thing, almost your only option was on a vinyl record such as this.
I confess that before falling hard for rock and roll, I was a fully paid-up train spotter (You don’t
say! Ed.) The arrival of the Beatles
in 1963 put a swift end to all that nonsense, but my love of steam trains endures to
this day. So, when I stumbled across
this album, showing a compelling image of Mallard, the world’s fastest (that 126mph record still stands after 87 years) and surely most beautiful, streamlined steam
locomotive, I just had to take it home.
But although Mallard
(LNER number 60022) is on the cover, the sound we hear on the record comes from
a different A4 Pacific loco: Sir Nigel Gresley (LNER number
60007). This engine was named in honour
of arguably Britain’s most famous railway engineer, the eponymous Sir Nigel
himself. Gresley designed not only the
A4 Pacifics, but also the A1/A3 Pacific class, which included undoubtedly the
world’s most famous steam locomotive Flying Scotsman (LNER number
60103).
These recordings were made during a
record-breaking journey between Kings Cross and Doncaster on 23 May 1959. The
train, headed by Sir Nigel Gresley and driven by Bill Hoole,
reached a speed of 112 mph on the return journey.
Although the locomotive on the
cover is Mallard, the entire train is called The Elizabethan. This was a British Railways non-stop
passenger train that ran between London King's Cross and Edinburgh Waverley.
The daily service, which operated for ten years from 1953 to 1963, took just
over 6 hours. It was hauled by steam engines until 1961 when they were replaced
by diesel units.
In 1954, a quite wonderful short
film Elizabethan Express was made by British Transport Films to promote the train. Watch it HERE
This wasn’t the great locomotive’s
only appearance on a record cover. In 1975 there was the eponymous group
Mallard featuring ex-members of Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band and in 1993 a
populist oil painting of the famous engine was used on the cover of Modern
Life Is Rubbish by Blur (complete with 1951 Festival
of Britain style lettering). On both sleeves the loco was shown wearing
its post-war livery of garter blue.
After less than 30 years in
operation Mallard and Sir Nigel Gresley were withdrawn from service in April 1963 and
February 1966 respectively. Of the
original 35 A4 Pacific locomotives built between 1934 and 1938, six survive in
preservation. That’s a high percentage compared
to other, less glamorous engines.
The Argo label
was formed in 1951 before being absorbed by Decca in 1957. Initially
specialising in “British music played by British artists” it then became
a label primarily concentrating on spoken word recordings and other esoteric or
commercially marginal material. Argo also released many classical recordings,
focussing mainly on choral works.
Amazingly, this album was reissued
on CD (with a different cover) in 2000.
Play count: Nah. It's a big fat zero from me.
5. Dave Clark Five – Catch Us If You Can (Columbia) 1965
There are countless LP sleeves featuring E-Type Jaguars, but this is by far my favourite. If you’ve got it, flaunt it seems to be the theme here and the business savvy Dave Clark was not afraid to do exactly that. The car really is the star on this sleeve, and it features just as prominently as the Dave Clark Five themselves. Keen-eyed car spotters will notice that the motif bar across the air intake is slightly dislodged on the Jaguar, but 60 years later we can perhaps overlook that.
The cover photo showing Clark draped across the bonnet is the work of Bruce
Fleming, an eminent 60s snapper who became the DC5’s personal
photographer. Fleming also took the
picture on the cover of the 1967 debut Jimi Hendrix album Are You
Experienced (UK version). The very same E-Type also appeared on the cover of the
1966 DC5 US LP Try Too Hard.
I was almost 11 years old when Jaguar unveiled the E-Type and it instantly seemed like the most desirable object on Earth. Enzo Ferrari, no less, apparently called it "the most beautiful car ever made" and he should know.
Launched in March 1961 at the
bargain price of £2,000 (half the price of the contemporary Aston Martin DB4)
the E-Type took the world by storm, becoming an immediate sensation
and the ultimate fashion accessory for royalty, pop stars and footballers
alike.
Poring over E-Type brochures and spec
sheets as a schoolboy, I noted in amazement that the car was capable of 55mph
in first gear on its way to a claimed top speed of
150mph. That’s 55 in FIRST GEAR! At that time my dad’s old Wolseley could barely reach that
speed in TOP gear. No wonder I was so impressed.
In production for 13 years, the car
went through many design tweaks and specification upgrades until 1974 when it
went out in style with a 5.3 litre V12 engine as the Series 3 model.
It was hard to avoid the Dave Clark
Five in 1963. Their two biggest UK hits “Glad All Over” and “Bits and Pieces”
were everywhere, but their simplistic, drum heavy approach soon wore off, in Britain at
least. Proponents of the so-called
“Tottenham Sound” (whatever that was), they enjoyed far greater success across
the Atlantic, scoring 17 US top 40 hits and appearing on the Ed Sullivan
Show 18 times, more than any other British Invasion group. This was their second LP and, excluding
compilations, their final UK album chart entry.
The 1964 E-Type Jaguar shown here
was Dave Clark’s own car. It passed to DC5 singer Mike Smith around 1970 and in
1978 it was sold via the Exchange and Mart for £2,500. HMT 598B is a Series 1 OTS (open two-seater),
with a 3.8 litre engine. The car was
also available as a fixed head coupe (FHC). Unusually, both variations of the early E-Type models looked equally aesthetically pleasing, a rare thing in the world of car design. Unsurprisingly, E-Types have a high survival
rate, and 60 years later this actual car still exists with the same
registration number and today it lives in the south of England.
This was
not the only time the DC5 were photographed in an E-Type. Here they are in 903
CXX, an earlier Jaguar than the LP sleeve car. Judging by the shorter haircuts
this was taken some time before the album cover photo.
E-Types have appeared on dozens of LP
sleeves over the decades, usually when a touch of futuristic style or glamour
is required. But sometimes it’s there for another reason entirely, as with Bob
Dylan’s 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. It’s not easy to
spot, but there on the couch next to Bob along with a bunch of other enigmatic LPs
is a copy of the Impressions’ Keep on Pushing featuring an E-Type coupe in signal red.
At the time of writing (mid-2025) Jaguar was back in the news, but for all the wrong reasons. It was announced that, from 2026, they will make only electric vehicles. They put all their eggs in one basket with a disastrous rebrand ad campaign to promote an expensive and futuristic new EV. The campaign backfired spectacularly, receiving massive negative feedback, and the once-great British company looks to be in a perilous position today.
Play count: maybe once or twice,
but with the title track as the only big song, the cover far outweighs the
contents.
6. Hank Snow – I’ve Been Everywhere (RCA Victor) 1963
Just look at this amazing cover! I’m always attracted to records with interesting guitars on the sleeve and Hank Snow owned some beautiful examples. Like many old-school country music stars, Hank dressed to impress with his Nudie Suits, fancy cowboy boots and custom-built instruments. In a 60-year career he recorded 140 albums and charted more than 85 singles on the Billboard country charts between 1950 and 1980.
Guitars don’t come much fancier
than the 1961 cherry sunburst Gibson on the cover of this LP. It was based on
the J-185 model which went out of production in 1959. The book Gibson’s
Fabulous Flat-Top Guitars (by Eldon Whitford, David Vinopal and Dan
Erlewine) says this about Hank’s guitar:
Gibson made at least one more
guitar of this body size after the J-185 had been officially phased out. In
1961 their craftsmen constructed an elaborate custom guitar for “The Singing
Ranger” Hank Snow, one of country music’s true superstars. This guitar is a
fascinating combination of features characteristic of many other models: back
and sides are rosewood; the bridge is in the “open moustache” style of the
J-200; the saddle is a Tune-O-Matic (adjustable); the binding is as fancy as anyone
would want; the pickguard is borrowed from the Hummingbird; an abalone
flowerpot graces the peghead; and of course Hank’s name is inlaid in the
fingerboard. If a model has to die, this is the way to do it – in an
out-of-this-world custom order.
A few years ago, the Songbirds Guitar Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee had an instrument on display labelled “1966 Hank Snow’s Gibson SJ-200” which looked almost identical to the one on this sleeve, but with a few minor differences. It's possible Hank had more than one of these extraordinary custom-built guitars because the 1966 date doesn’t fit with his 1961 model (or this album which was released in 1963). The one on display also looked like a full-size Gibson J-200, while Hank’s guitar was based on the slightly smaller J-185 body size.
Unusually
for such a globally famous country song, “I’ve Been Everywhere” was written by an
Australian, Geoff Mack, and was first recorded down under in 1962 by the Aussie singer
Lucky Starr (Festival FK-205). The original version reeled off a list of
Australian destinations, such as Parramatta, Wangaratta, Coolangatta and
Mooloolaba. Mack later re-wrote the lyrics with American place names and in
1963 Hank Snow took it to the top of the US country charts.
There have been countless
adaptations using placenames from countries all over the
world. Rolf Harris (remember him?) released an early version using British placenames and recordings featuring New
Zealand and Texas locations also appeared. At the last count there were 180 versions of the song ranging from Johnny Cash to The Simpsons.
Play count: more than you might think. Hank was a fine singer. And it was co-produced by Chet Atkins.
7. The
Spotnicks - Out-A Space: The Spotnicks In London (Oriole) 1962
There’s so much to enjoy here. The location is Piccadilly Circus in the very
heart of London, with the Spotnicks in their low rent space suits looking like
they’ve just beamed down from planet Zorg - they really did wear those suits, with and without helmets onstage. There’s some questionable pre-photoshop editing going on with the airbrushed
spaceship and it’s hard to tell if the policeman is giving directions or ordering
the spacemen to move along. There is also an interesting selection of guitars, which
we shall examine below.
We see Piccadilly Circus in all its early 60s glory with an array of illuminated neon signs including the famous Guinness clock and ads for Coca-Cola, Skol lager, BP petrol, Player’s cigarettes and Double Diamond beer. Here’s a clearer photo taken the same year and showing the same signs.
The
Spotnicks were Sweden’s version of the Ventures (or maybe the Shadows) and they
were the first band from the region to enjoy worldwide success, albeit on a
modest scale. They took their name in 1961 as a play on the Russian satellite
“Sputnik,” which was big news in the late 50s.
The group scored minor instrumental
hits in the UK with “Orange Blossom Special” and “Hava Nagila” but were more
successful in Sweden and Belgium and, just like the Ventures, they were very big in
Japan. This album reached
#20 in the UK charts where it stayed for just one week in February 1963.
While the definitive early Spotnicks
line-up was Bo Winberg (lead guitar), Bob Lander (rhythm guitar), Björn Thelin
(bass guitar) and Ove Johansson (drums), Wikipedia tells us that no fewer than
40 different musicians passed through their ranks before they called it a day in
2019. And almost inevitably, there’s a Beatles connection even here.
Undoubtedly the most well-known later Spotnicks member was Jimmie Nicol who occupied the drum stool between 1965-67, replacing Ove Johansson. Nicol will forever be remembered for his time as a temporary Beatle. In 1964 he deputised for the ailing Ringo, playing a handful of dates in mainland Europe, Hong Kong and Australia. He also inspired the title of the Sgt Pepper song “Getting Better.”
At the end of Nicol's brief stint as one of the Fab Four he was given the agreed fee of £500 plus an inscribed gold watch and taken to Melbourne airport by Brian Epstein to fly home alone. He didn’t get to say goodbye to The Beatles as they were still asleep when he left the hotel.
The album
sleeve notes are by respected music journalist and Radio Luxembourg DJ Derek
Johnson. During the 1960s he acted as compere at the annual NME poll-winners
concert at the Empire Pool, Wembley, introducing among others, the Rolling
Stones and the Beatles. Perhaps his greatest coup came in 1960, when he
interviewed Elvis Presley for the NME at the Friedberg army base in Germany. When
Presley was discharged from the army, Johnson was invited to meet him at the
Prestwick air base in Scotland, which turned out to be the only time Elvis ever
set foot on British soil. Johnson and Presley went on to be great friends and
he visited Elvis at Graceland.
The Spotnicks’ records were
released in the UK on the Oriole label. This was a small independent company
which operated from the 1920s to 1965 after which it was taken over by
CBS. They may not have had too many hits and couldn't compete with the big boys at the major labels, but along the way Oriole made a
couple of vitally important contributions to British pop music.
During 1962 / 63 Oriole was the UK
home of Tamla Motown, releasing nineteen singles and seven albums. None were
hits and these are now some of the rarest and most valuable Motown releases of all. After a
handful of releases on London and Fontana, Oriole was the third UK label to
handle the Motown catalogue. Distribution moved to EMI's Stateside label in 1963
and two years later EMI finally gave Tamla Motown its own label identity in
Britain.
Between 1954-65 Oriole ran the
budget Embassy label which released soundalike versions of current hits for
sale exclusively in UK Woolworth’s stores.
Some of these outsold the original hits.
For an in-depth history of the
Oriole label check out the Around and Around blog Here
Now, here are those guitars in full
- from left to right:
Bob Lander (1942 – 2020) is playing
a Levin “Solid Body” with a wood grain finish.
Based in Gothenburg, Sweden, the Levin company was active from 1900 –
1978. The rare Solid Body model (that
was its name, unlikely as it seems) was produced in the late 50s / early 60s with
reportedly only 139 examples ever made, although this figure seems a little low
considering the number which come up for sale on online sites such as Reverb
and the like. It is supposedly the only
solid body guitar the company ever made. Perhaps Levin’s most famous guitar outside
Sweden was the big-selling Goliath acoustic flat top model. These were popular
folk guitars in the 60s and 70s. In 1973 Levin was sold to the US Martin
company and it became their European headquarters.
Björn Thelin (1942 - 2017). This one baffled guitar spotters for a long time. It looks like a Vox, a Hagstrom or even a strangely elongated Fender Precision, but Björn’s bass was eventually identified as a custom-built instrument completely handmade (apart from the electronics) by Bo Winberg the band’s lead guitarist. As confirmed by the LP sleeve notes Winberg also made amplifiers, speaker cabinets and a tape echo-machine for the Spotnicks. It’s said this very bass is now displayed in a glass case at a Stockholm music store.
Bo Winberg (1939 – 2020). Compared to the others, Bo’s Candy Apple Red Fender Stratocaster seems the most easily identifiable guitar here. But even this has an interesting backstory. Replying to a fan email enquiry about the Fender in 2006, Winberg wrote:
“(It was) bought in Sweden 1961
or 1962. In those days Fender was not too well represented so I bought the only
one in the music store and it was red! Since I don’t like red guitars, I
painted it white, but that didn’t look too good, so I added the blue colour on
it like on the (later) pictures and - voila - a blue sunburst was born. But
anyhow that Strat was a terrible one with no sustain at all and it never stayed
in tune. I sold it to a Swedish guy in Mexico and went to Hollywood to buy a
new one and that is the 1965 I still play (onstage) today. But that one was a sunburst,
and I didn’t like that colour either, so I burned the colour away and then lacquered
it with 15 layers of cellulose lacquer and that is the best guitar in the world
for me.” (reproduced thanks to the Facebook page Old Guitars in B&W).
Play count: Low. Not played this one for decades, but it's a great artifact.
8. Big Brother & the Holding Company – Cheap Thrills (CBS) 1968
This one probably doesn’t belong
here. It is, after all, a multi-million-selling album by an artist much beloved worldwide (although to be honest Janis’s sometimes histrionic vocal style has never
been to my taste). No, it’s the Robert Crumb designed sleeve which is the main
attraction here for me.
I’ve been a Crumb obsessive since I discovered his cartoons in 60s underground publications such as Zap Comix. It was here I first saw his famous Keep On Truckin' and Fritz the Cat comic strips. They mostly appeared in black and white back then, so to see his work on an album sleeve, and in colour too, was a dream come true. My bookshelf now contains dozens of items - books, comics, magazines, records and CDs - featuring Crumb's work.
Ironically, Crumb is not a rock and roll fan - he much prefers pre-war jazz and blues - and agreed to illustrate this cover as a favour to Janis Joplin, refusing all payment. Aside from the 1995 compilation The Music Never Stopped: Roots of the Grateful Dead, almost all the other album sleeves Crumb has designed were for blues and jazz labels such as Yazoo and Blue Goose. The design he submitted was originally destined for the back cover, but Janis insisted it take pride of place on the front, with her own photo on the reverse.
Cheap Thrills was ranked number nine in a Rolling Stone list of 100 greatest LP covers. It was the second Big Brother and the Holding Company album and their last before Janis left for a successful but tragically short solo career (she died on October 4, 1970). The band made two more albums without her - Be A Brother (1970) and How Hard It Is (1971) - neither of which sold.
Play count: maybe once a year.
9. Sebring
Corners (Riverside) 1961
A dramatic experiment in sound recording, featuring the results of a 6-microphone set-up which guarantees incredible presence. Recorded at Sebring - March 1961
Imagine the scene. It’s 1961 and
you’re relaxing in your upmarket bachelor pad, Mad Men style. You pour a whisky cocktail and
spark up a Peter Stuyvesant. A record is
spinning on your expensive turntable as you carefully lower the needle down on
track one, side one. But instead of
music coming out of those high-end Wharfedales, you hear the high-pitched scream of a V12 engine at full throttle as a Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa
accelerates out of Cunningham Corner. What’s going on?
Now, I love cars as much as the
next man (or woman), but it’s a very keen petrol head indeed who would listen
to a record featuring only the engine sounds of powerful sports racing cars. But that’s
exactly what we have here: sound recordings of assorted Ferrari, Maserati, Aston Martin et al negotiating various turns at the famous Sebring Raceway.
The LP itself may be the very definition of
esoteric, but more than 60 years later the cars pictured on the
cover (photo by Jane Grauer) are some of the finest and most beautiful examples in motorsport history. And, with only a
handful of each model made, many of these cars are worth millions of dollars / pounds today
– particularly the various Ferraris, Porsches and Aston Martin DB4GTs.
The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport endurance race for sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in Sebring, Florida. It is one of the oldest continuously operating racetracks in the US, its first race being run in 1950.
Sitting here today so many decades later, perhaps the most surprising thing about this record is not the outdated concept itself (after all, who enjoys the sound of race cars without the visuals?) but the fact it was released on one of America's most famous and respected jazz music labels.
Operating from 1954 to 1964,
Riverside is primarily known for its jazz, blues and folk releases. But this
wasn't the only oddball record the label issued. The back cover of this very LP
lists several other motor sport albums recorded at Sebring, plus others
featuring the sounds of Grand Prix cars, including interviews with famous
racing drivers such as Stirling Moss, Juan Manuel Fangio etc. Riverside
also released a 1959 comedy LP by Peter Ustinov The Grand Prix of
Gibraltar, sub-titled "The Brilliant Humorist Takes a
Devastating Look at Sports Car Racing." So, either someone at the renown jazz label
was a serious motor racing fan or there must have been an unexpected demand for these things
all those years ago.
The Riverside catalogue was reissued many times in later years via the ABC, Fantasy and Milestones labels, although I suspect the Sebring recordings did not see the light of day again.
Some of the famous drivers at Sebring 1961 included Stirling Moss (Maserati), Graham Hill (Maserati), Bruce McLaren (Maserati), Paddy Hopkirk (Sunbeam Alpine) and Phil Hill (Ferrari). These are the cars I was able to identify from the cover photo. Other suggestions are welcome;
Car
#42 - Sunbeam Alpine – finished 17th
Car #16 - Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa
– finished 8th
Car #26 - Ferrari Dino 246 S – did
not finish
Car #40 - Sunbeam Alpine –
finished 34th
Car #46 - Elva Courier - finished
35th
Car #32 - Arnolt Deluxe – finished
20th
Car #44 - MGA – finished 14th
Car #30 - Morgan 4/4 – finished
26th
Car #21 - Maserati Tipo 63 – Did
not finish
Car #25 - Maserati Tipo 63 – Did
not finish
Car #38 - Porsche 718 RS 60 - Did
not finish
Car #56 - Alfa Romeo Giulietta
Sprint Speciale - Disqualified
Play count: Maybe once out of curiosity. Mine is a mono copy, but it would probably make a modicum more sense in stereo.
10. The Golden Gate Strings
– The Bob Dylan Song Book (Epic) 1965
I bought this one solely for the
fabulous cover photo of Bob Dylan, guessing (correctly, as it turned out) that an
album of saccharine orchestral versions of his songs would not be to my taste.
Daniel Kramer was responsible for some of the most iconic photos of mid-60s Dylan, capturing him on the cusp of his dramatic reinvention from acoustic to electric music. This sleeve is adapted from one of Kramer's promotional photos and it’s a powerful image, better than some of Bob’s own early official record covers in fact. Much could happen in a year in the 60s, and Dylan's haircut in this photo can be carbon dated almost exactly to a month in early 1965, sometime after Another Side and between Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited, pre-dating the impressive halo of curls we saw on the cover of Blonde on Blonde and the ensuing 1966 tour by several months.
Although The Golden Gate Strings
were probably just a collection of faceless US session musicians, there’s a strong
British connection here. String arrangements on “Mr Tambourine Man,”
“With God on Our Side” and “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright” are credited to
Englishman Brian Fahey. Fahey is possibly best known for composing the
instrumental “At the Sign of the Swingin' Cymbal” which was the theme to the
BBC radio chart show Pick of the Pops from 1961 to 1966 and
again from 1970 to the present day.
Tony Osborne arranged “Subterranean
Homesick Blues,” “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are
A-Changin’.” In 1957 he was musical
director for the UK’s first pop music television show Six-Five Special
and later (as Ozzie Warlock and the Wizards) wrote the theme for Juke Box Jury which was used for
early episodes of the show before the John Barry Seven’s “Hit and Miss” took
over in 1960.
Composer, conductor and
multi-instrumentalist Johnny (aka Johnnie) Scott arranged “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” and
“It Ain’t Me Babe.” Scott has countless big-name composer and arranging credits,
but perhaps his biggest claim to fame came on the Beatles’ song “You’ve Got to
Hide Your Love Away” from the Help! album where he played flutes. Recorded four months before
“Yesterday,” it was the first time an outside session musician appeared on a
Beatles’ track.
George Williams arranged “Farewell,” “Tomorrow Is A Long Time,” It’s All Over Now Baby Blue” and “When the Ship Comes In.” An American, Williams is better known for his big band arrangements for Gene Krupa, Woody Herman etc. He also conducted the orchestra featured on records by Barbra Streisand and many others.
EMI producer Norrie Paramor is credited with unspecified arrangements on the US Epic pressing, but his name does not appear on the rare UK EMI Columbia version. The track listing is also slightly rearranged on the British pressing.
 |
| UK Version |
The most interesting song here is
“Tomorrow is a Long Time” mainly because it was unreleased by Dylan at
that point. Joan Baez recorded it in 1963, but her version didn’t
appear until 2002 as a CD bonus track on the album Joan Baez in Concert
Part 2. Possibly the only other released version at the time was by Ian & Sylvia on their 1963 LP Four Strong Winds.
Dylan’s own version, recorded live in April 1963, did not appear until 1971 on
the double album Greatest Hits Vol II (known as More
Greatest Hits in the UK).
The Golden Gate Strings released only two further albums, both in 1967: A String of Hits and The Monkees Songbook. The latter was the work of Stu Philips who scored countless films and TV shows including, inevitably, 54 episodes of The Monkees.
Play count: A couple of times, but for research purposes only, your honour.
11. Family - Best of Family (Reprise) 1974
In January of 1969 I saw Family play live twice in Sheffield: at the University Students Union and then, two weeks later at the City Hall on a bill with Keith Emerson's band The Nice. 56 years later the memory of those concerts has barely faded. Roger Chapman, comparatively short-haired and smartly dressed amid the loon pants and greatcoats, gave his usual high-octane performance, singing like a man possessed, all the while bashing a tambourine to destruction against his leg, before tossing the wreckage into the crowd.
Then there was Charlie Whitney,
quietly impressive with one of the first double neck Gibsons in the country,
and Ric Grech, the epitome of cool on bass and violin, only weeks away from
quitting the band for a brief taste of the big time with Clapton and Winwood in
Blind Faith.
The band hailed from Leicester, so
it made perfect sense to show Chapman, Whitney and drummer Rob
Townsend in action on the front wearing the Leicester City football strip. The sleeve painting is credited to the mysterious Bryon Harvey, and it appears to be the
only album cover he gave his name to, as I can find no other information about him.
Leicester
City enjoyed a mediocre season 1974 / 75 finishing 18th out of 20 in the Football League First Division, then the
top tier of English football. They
reached the fifth round of the FA Cup and round three of the League Cup. Their
top goal scorer was the great Frank Worthington, and their average home attendance was 23,765.
Every track here is a gem, but “Burlesque,”
“The Weaver's Answer” and “In My Own Time” shine brightest of all for me.
The inner sleeve features the song
lyrics and one of Pete Frame’s family trees (perfectly named in this case) showing
five band line-ups from The Farinas in 1966 to the Family break-up in 1973.
This is an excellent album with an equally great sleeve. So not a guilty pleasure at all in this case.
Play count: I have all the Family albums, but apart from Family Entertainment, this one gets the most needle time.
.jpg)
