10 times vinyl record packaging got creative in the 70s | ALICE COOPER, ZEPPELIN, STONES, KISS
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- čas přidán 20. 08. 2024
- Working zippers, billion dollar bills and paper panties, the 1970s brought us some of the most clever and creative record packaging ever. In this episode, I run through 10 of my favorite examples. What are examples of record packaging from the 70s that you love?
#vinyl #records #1970s
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Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick with the newspaper was cool
Man! I was waiting to see jethro tull’s Stand Up with the pop up gatefold
@@masonmorgan9519 1969 though
@@norrieclark5217 good call 👍
Yes! Why wasn’t that included? Unless he didn’t have a real vintage LP of it that was complete. I can’t think of any other albums that top that as far as what was included on that album and the number of pages with the connect the dots, I think a crossword puzzle, etc.
The Steel Eye Span album “All Around My Hat” has a special optical illusion effect. The cover pics are distorted to look at from a normal perspective but if you look through pinholes provided on the lyric sheet, it allowed you to see the band correctly. I believe if you looked from the bottom out over the cover at an slight angle instead of it facing you, it can be seen that way too.
Growing up in the 60’s and 70’s was a magical time for teenagers. Who would’ve thought things would get no better.
Grand Funk Railroad album Shinin’ On album had a set of 3D glasses included on the cover. You could pop them out and look at 3D images on the jacket as well as inner sleeves.
My vote goes to Electric Light Orchestra's Out of the Blue. It was possible to build a flying saucer on an actual stand out of a cardboard insert. Pretty cool, I think.
Yes, I loved that one too!
Oh wow I can't believe never saw that one that is - cool - far out - and all that
I have that album complete with the unassembled saucer model all in excellent condition!
@@portsidebear Lucky you. As a teen, I assembled it as soon as I got home. It was on display on one of the loudspeakers for maybe a year. Being made out of cheap cardboard, it did not survive frequent dusting and moving. It eventually got tossed... Oh well... Live and learn.
Oh wow you've just jogged my memory about this, I remember it being in with the album my mum bought and she was like, ' I don't want all this rubbish!' I was only about 6 at the time so didn't really care!
One of my favorites is Triumph's Just a game album. Inside the gatefold, there was a board game you could play. It's pretty entertaining to see what some of the spaces you can land on say.
As a 70's kid I remember a couple of Grand Funk Railroad, custom records one shaped like a silver dollar coin, and the gold cladded cover with yellow disc of "Were An American Band" complete with a set of six GFR stickers that completely faded to white when exposed to light for a few months. Then there is Hawkwind's "In Search Of Space" with the folding wings album cover.
I believe the "silver dollar" was the E Pluribus Funk album. I had it on 8-track.
J. Geils Band- Bloodshot on red vinyl.
Shinin'On GRAND FUNK Vintage Vinyl Record Album with 3D designs and 3D glasses!
I have a copy of "X in Search of Space", complete with The Hawkwind Log booklet.
Another one of my favorites is Jethro Tull’s Stand Up- when you open up the gatefold sleeve, the band members would “stand up”…
The Monty Python Instant Record Collection is one that gets my vote, I can't remember the albums name but you could fold out the cover into a cube and put it on a shelf and showed the spines of records looking like a set of albums on the shelf.
Mott the Hooples Mott album was also pretty cool. One of their earlier albums had a velvet ball mask as a freebie
...also, monty python's "matching tie and handkerchief" which you could slide out to reveal Terry Gillian's inventive artwork surprise...
Great picks Frank. I also thought Thick as a Brick and Cheech and Chong’s Big Bamboo were pretty cool. We actually used the huge rolling paper that came with Big Bamboo. I wish that we hadn’t so the complete package would be preserved.
Another one is Bark by Jefferson Airplane. The album is wrapped in a brown paper bad with the JA logo printed in the style of the old A&P logo of the grocery store chain. The album cover itself has a picture of a fish with human false teeth wrapped with paper and twine. Also included is a lyrics sheet printed on what is supposed to be butcher paper.
To add to the Alice Cooper list, From The Inside. Great packaging! Also the first record I bought with my own money
It's one of the three greatest album recorded as a result of a rehab stay! Along with Iggy's "Kill City" (1977) and Courtney Love's "Nobody's Daughter" (2010)...
I love From the Inside! I was going to include it here, but I figured I'd save it for maybe a follow up.
Got it for Christmas 78 together with Yes Tormato....
Also worth a mention was the “Wings Over America” album, a gatefold triple LP (rare for its time), with great Hipgnosis artwork, the outer artwork resembling a touring jet plane, and all 3 albums having jackets resembling different stages of the passenger door being opened, 6 custom labels for each side of the LP set, and a large folded poster featuring the artwork found on the album’s inner gatefold.
I am going to have to find my copy!
That is a great cover. Should have won an award, if it didn't.
Sticky Fingers, with the zipper, was my first, and still favorite, Stones album.
Love Gun had some kinda paper gun inside on a thicker stock of paper.
There was an edition of the solo albums that each had a poster, but with edges that made it so that if you had all four they'd fit together like a puzzle.
Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here. I've got a reissue of that why he has a bunch of postcards in it. I don't know for sure if the originals had it.
Wings: Venus & Mars had a nice, large, double sided poster and some stickers too, and don't forget Pink Floyd 'Dark Side Of the Moon' came with two large posters, and several stickers too....
Alice Cooper 'Killer' LP came in a sleeve that opened up like a gatefold - but wasn't - it had a large double-LP size photo and calendar printed on it! The large shot of Alice on the calendar was of him being hanged during a live show!! I believe this ran for a couple of years at least, so later pressings had a different date on the calendar! If I remember right, mine is from 1972, which would have been ready for the start of the next coming year, as mine is an original 1971 press (UK).
People were very creative back then with album covers! 👍
@@stevesstuff1450 Hipgnosis made the best album covers. Both "Venus And Mars" and "Dark Side Of The Moon" are Hipgnosis produtions.
Because I was a teenager, I liked the fold-out mini poster of the nude bicycle race inside Queen's Jazz album.🤣👍
Money clip! The Zep 3 cover is also called a volvelle or wheel chart.
Thanks Frank! I loved the Traffic hexagonal cover for Low Spark of the High Heeled Boys
My dad had a Rolling Stones compilation with an ocatagonal cover - Through the Past Darkly, That's the only album I knew of like that.
2:55 - When Sticky Fingers came out. I went to the record shop and and very many of the albums had been ripped and unzipped. I had to search for one that wasn't violated. For those of you that don't know what a records store is, well it was a place that sold primarily record albums and 45 rpm single records.
There are so many album covers you didn't mention, like the Rolling Stones "Their Satanic Majesties Request", which was sort of their equivalent of the Beatles' "White Album". It had a 3D plastic photo on the cover.
Yes, you mean Sgt Pepper.
When I was at school the desks we used were the same as the Alice Cooper Sleeve.
There are two albums I can think of. The Return Of The Durutti Column by The Durutti Column just missing the 70s as issued in January 1980. The front cover was a 12" X 12" piece of Sandpaper. Other Record Sleeves got damaged. The second is Metal Box by Public Image in 1979. The album was issued in a 16mm Film Canister. Later editions were issued in a gatefold sleeve.
We had those same desks as well.
Thanks for clearing that up.. whilst watching this video I've been racking my brains to try & remember what band had a sandpaper cover, designed apparently to scratch other albums in the rack. 👍
@@merlin5476 No problem.
My favorite from the early 70's was Grand Funk Railroad's "E Pluribus Funk" with that coin cover. Also a killer album btw!!
I always liked Grand Funk Railroad's E Pluribus Funk album was very cool idea to make the cover shaped to look like a silver coin
Sweet - Give Us A Wink.😉 (By the way, and as stated on the back, Winking Will Make You Go Blind )Their 1976 album containing "Action". Similar to the Zeppelin III or Stones - Some Girls, the original, like I have has a pair of eyes on the outer and combined with the topload inner, when pulled up makes the right eye wink. Great vid Frank. Cheers man! 🤘🎶🤘
The Who Live At Leeds. Came to look like a press kit with a bunch of photos, clippings and a copy of the Woodstock contract. I managed to find a complete copy a few years back at a good price. Most are missing something. I have the two Stones albums and modern represses of the Zep albums.
I was blown away by the discovery that Leeds had a gatefold, a poster, lyrics, photos, memo and document mock-ups, I believed for the longest time all it was was just the MCA 2nd pressing bare bones LP until the 80's when I got the import and that had all the stuff plus the concept label.
The gatefold for Tommy folds out to be a pinball machine.
Someone took the reproduction Woodstock contract onto the tv show Pawn Stars and they actually bought it thinking it was the real thing. I believe they paid a few hundred dollars for it. The store owner Rick found out about it and was not very happy with the sales guy that bought it. It was on one of the episodes.
Don't forget Cheech N Chong! Their albums were REALLY creative! "Big Bamboo" (1972), "The Pigs" (73), "Wedding Album" (74) and "Sleeping Beauty" (76). Also check out Monty Python's "Matching Tie & Handkerchief" (73)...
I am going to have to add some of those to the collection!
@@Channel33RPMthe first UK pressing of "Matching Tie & Handkerchief" had a 'twin groove' on one side of the LP with the effect being that when you lowered the needle onto the record you'd get one thing but if you raised & lowered it at the same spot then something different would play. Essentially a 3 sided record on a single disc. Later pressings just had those 2 sets of tracks play normally with a single groove.
The Big Bambu album had a huge rolling paper, big enough to roll an ounce+ sized joint.
@@Channel33RPM make sure the rolling paper is present and complete if you get Big Bambu. Many of us don't have it anymore...
The Yes live album Yessongs from 1973 has a triple gatefold cover with four paintings by Roger Dean that accordions open and shut. It also came with a booklet with pictures of each of the band members.
I'm sometimes more nostalgic for the thrill of buying and opening a new album back then than I am for the actual music.
I loved Jethro Tull’s Stand Up album with the woodcut print art! And it was the VERY 1st album 13 year old me bought for myself. The 2nd album was I bought was Led Zeppelin III as a Christmas gift for my brother, which I had to buy again for me when he moved out. 😊
I have a copy of "Stand Up" with that cover. My favourite Tull track - Back to the Family - is on that album.
@@rosiemason-rk4cm Awesome! I wish I still had mine! I got married young and my then husband decided that I needed to grow up and listen to country and Western and that rock ‘n’ roll is for kids! Even though he was only 8 months older than me. I had my albums for a couple of years after we were married. Then he sold them all. We later broke up and then he talked me to getting back together. And he went along with some of the stuff I liked which included me buying Jethro Tull tickets in 1979. So we went to see them in Calgary where we lived at the time. It was phenomenal. I still love all the old bands I loved when I was young plus many new ones. Including Metallica, which I have tickets to see here in Edmonton in August 2024. And needless to say, my marriage never did last with that twit. And since 1979 I’ve seen Jethro Tull 3 other times.
GREAT album cover...but not from the 70's. Stand Up was 1969.
The artwork, lyrics and other writings were an essential part of the entire experience. Checking it all out while the music is playing for the first time, cleaning weed on gatefolds...
I used to have all those original album covers you featured, minus the KISS albums. I totally forgot that Muscle of Love came in a cardboard box. What a great trick that stain was at the bottom of the box. I remember going through at few copies of the album at the store before realizing all of the stains were identical.
The St. Cleave Chronicle cover of the early 70s release of Thick as a Brick is the cover I was always fondest of. I still love that album and wish I still had the original cover. I was only around 13 or 14 years old when it came out. I couldn't tell you the number of times I read every word of that paper.
Most of the covers you featured sucked me back to my teen years. Thanks for reigniting some very distant memories!
The 1st album I ever bought with my own money was "Billion Dollar Babies" I still love it to this day, and I wish I had saved the inserts. I got "Muscle of Love" for Christmas the following year (I could not believe Santa had sunk to that level), but I didn't preserve that packaging either - guess I was a fun-loving kid!
Hard to keep that stuff intact for sure.
Alice Cooper's, Billion Dollar Babies came with two inserts. One is the giant sized billion dollar bill. The second was a reproduction of a US 1 dollar bill four times the size of a real dollar bill. Two of my favorite album covers were from the Jefferson Airplane. From 1971 was BARK in a paper bag used to wrap fish in with the album cover of a fish; also had a lyric insert and a poem of 101 things to do with a paper bag. The second was their Long John Silver album in a cigar box (aka stash box).
I liked the cover for Alice's On the Inside with pictures of the inmates from the songs, the little opening door to "The Quiet room" with Alice in a straitjacket inside and the door flaps on the rear of the album that showed the inmates running to the door with their release papers.
I miss cool album covers.
For sure, Led Zeppelin's "Physical Graffiti" and "III" are at the top! I marveled over those endlessly as I listened to the albums! I've never seen Alice Cooper's school desk one -- that looks really cool too!
Both Bark and Long John Silver from Jefferson Airplane had great packaging. Bark came in a grocery bag with the band logo on the front. The LP cover was a fish head wrapped in butcher paper and there was an included "poster" with the lyrics on it. The cover of the LJS LP could be folded into a stash box, with loose marijuana printed on the bottom of the box. Don Juan's Reckless Daughter by Joni Mitchell had wonderful packaging. A beautiful gatefold with high quality, printed inner sleeves.
Such a fun video, Frank. Brain Salad Surgery by ELP is one you missed, but like you said... so many good ones from that era! Your channel is amazing, and keep up the good work.
Yes, that H.R. Giger cover predated his designs for the film "Alien". I bought two copies of the album so that I could hang the inner cover art on my wall.
Thanks!
i was always fascinated by the Thick As A Brick album cover by Jethro Tull, the broadsheet newspaper is very unique but also prone to damage!!
Living in the Past, Stand-up, and A Passion Play also have amazing album covers.
Man - Be Good To Yourself At Least Once A Day. One of my favorite titles, actually. A gatefold album, with a page inside folded such that it opened up when you opened the gatefold. Revealing a map about twice as tall as the album itself. We've all probably seen those tourist maps for areas, with the caricature drawings marking spots of interest? The map in this album was of that type, titled "Man's Map of Wales". The spots marked were places they played on a tour of Wales (where, I believe, they're from). Pretty cool map. I actually looked at removing it once, to frame it and put up on a wall. But, it's glued into the cover irrevocably.
Ambrosia - Somewhere I've Never Traveled. Their second album (first was their best). Looking at the front cover, you'd see an upside down triangle, from the top corners to the middle of the bottom edge. On the album cover, that triangle was flaps of cardboard. You could unfold them, insert tabs into slots at the edges of the cover, and it would form a pyramid, with one side open. There was a small note to the effect that the cover was designed in accordance with the Great Pyramids of Egypt. "Use as desired." Rumor had it in those days, that if you put, say, your pot inside a pyramid, it would get stronger. Or something like that. Cool pyramid, though.
Groundhogs - Who Will Save The World? Another gatefold album, this one had a flap at the bottom of the front and back. When the flaps were unfolded, it gave the cover the overall dimensions of an oversized comic book. Which it was. A superhero comic running on the front cover, both sides of the inside of the gatefold, and down the back cover. The bottom of the back cover even included the cliche ads for "X-ray specs", etc. Last panel of the comic had the superheroes resuming their secret identities, as a rock band. The final panel was a shot of them in concert. Oh, and it's also a very good album. "Earth Is Not Room Enough" is a great song. And where else can you find an ode to a roll of toilet paper? (Bog Roll Blues)
Armageddon - Armageddon. A 1975 album by former Yardbird Keith Relf and others from Captain Beyond, Steamhammer, etc. On the front cover, you see a scene of destruction, stumps of burned out trees, smoke rising in the background, etc. In the foreground are four guys (presumably, the band members?) sitting in a row, on the ground, cross-legged. One appears to be smoking something, holding it in a way that suggests it was a joint. Flip the album over, everything, including the men, are lumps of clay or stone. The men are in roughly the same positions, but you can see the "joint" being passed. You might say, they got "stoned".
I'll also mention, when you originally bought that Physical Graffiti album, that piece of white cardstock with the blinds pulled and the album name on one side was all you saw. It's actually one long piece folded in half, the albums in their sleeves with their pictures were inside that fold. So, from the front you saw the album title, on the rear you saw the closed blinds. Only after unpacking, did you discover the different options for the windows. Given each sleeve had pictures on both sides, you had several choices as to how you displayed it.
Elton John’s Madman Across The Water’s packaging was great with the album cover imitation of denim (the original version) and a nice lyric booklet with photos. It was my first EJ album I got in 1972 and always a favorite
Great Concept for a video. To this very day Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells is one of my most favorite album covers.
Another from the seventies that still stands out on my mind is Brain Salad Surgery by ELP. Totally cool cover. Great back story for it as well.
Did you ever see the Quadrophonic vinyl of Tubular Bells? Warning on the back to “store in 4 dry places”
@@mmcc8657 Yes, back in the seventies I did see the quad Tubular Bells in the stores. I didn't have quad equipment so no point in getting a copy.
Years later I bought a CD copy of Boxed. That album was a box set of Oldfield's first three LPs mixed into four channel sound. The CD version plays in quad on a 5.1 home sound bar. So many years after the fact, I was finally able to hear Tubular Bells in quadraphonic.
XTC’s GO 2 is well worth looking at. Just check out the front cover and know the theme is carried through the whole package.
Keith Moon's solo LP "Two Sides of the Moon" had a funny cover. It was just a shot of Keith sitting in the back of his limousine...but when you flipped the inner sleeve around Keith's face was replaced by a shot of him mooning out the window. Low-brow humor at it's finest.
@Channel 33 RPM. Here in the U.K., I used to work for company that sold printing machinery and visited all kinds of printers from 1977 through to 2001. You would not believe the production problems caused by these weird and wonderful album sleeves.The record sleeve printers and converters (i.e. the cutting/creasing/gluing/forming) could not always "machine process" these designs. So they had to have teams of hand workers adding the finishing touches - like each "Sticky Fingers" zip being glued in by hand.
In the mid 1980's, I saw a design prototype for a folded sleeve (which you call a "gatefold") for a 12" single disc. When opened the sleeve revealed a poster of the artist. The poster opened up like a flower's petals and the printers went through many hours of trial and error to get the creasing/folding/perforating of the poster to work correctly. They did get it right in the end, but it was expensive to produce.
Here in the U.K., I was told that there were only two (2) printing companies that had the special configuration of forming/folding/gluing machine to make the "gatefold" sleeves. These "gatefold" machines were running around the clock when a double album was about to be released.
The 3 panel roll over "gatefold" sleeve for Elton John's "Goodbye Yellowbrick Road" was produced in The Netherlands by Euro - Albums I vaguely recall.
Have you seen the album sleeve for The Faces album "Ooh La La"?
Keep up your good work! You and yours stay safe and well.
Ooh la la didn’t get too much attention in 73 . Good record!
@Jack Weseza. You may already know this. Apparently Rod Stewart didn't like it either! He was very disappointed with the tracks that made it on to the album.The story goes that Rod should have sung the title track, but didn't/couldn't be bothered to - show up for the session. So Ronnie Wood sings lead vocal on "Ooh La La". And it was a very short album, clocking only about 35 minutes (?) as I remember. Stay safe and well.
@@markmiwurdz202 Interesting. I didn’t know he was a no show . I was a senior in high school when it came out and it hardly got noticed . I just took it out this morning to give it a spin but haven’t got to it yet! I did check out the total time and it’s around 32 & 1/2 minutes! That’s why those older records sounded so good ! Take care Bro.
I had the “Lotus” album by Santana back in the day. it was a triple LP album with beautiful artwork and, if I remember correctly, a wall poster. wish I still had it.
Lotus has fantastic packaging. Quite lavish. Japanese pressing but of course the Japanese always went over and above with their pressings.
This is an awesome video!!! I have almost all of these albums! I checked my Rolling Stones "Sticky Fingers" copy and it's the original pressing...It never occurred to me about the zippers damage potential. I have 3 of the six "In Through The Out Door" covers. And i would like to mention that the first pressing of Kiss "The Originals" had the sticker and the booklet, but the gatefold was different... when you opened it up it had a bottom half diagonal cut cover where the albums inserted into. The records were in paper inner sleeves that were replicas of each of the three album covers. The second pressing was identical to the first pressing with the exception that the inner sleeves were printed on glossy paper this time. I don't know if they did a third pressing or not. I have never seen the copy that you showed before, but it looks much sturdier than the original pressings. Great episode, thank you!🤘
Was in Vegas about a year ago and the desk was still there! Very surreal to see in person
I'm 48 having a decent record collection and it was the best times late eighties early 90s. I love my vinyl it's so interesting. And I don't know if anyone else feels the same but I always felt like I was the only one to have it.
One of my favorite album covers is Ambrosia "Somewhere I've Never Traveled" folded open to form a pyramid and happens to be one of my all time favorite albums, excellent album.
John Lennon's "Walls and Bridges" with its cut gatefold flaps altering his facial expressions.
The '70s were great for imaginative album design. One of my favourites is the cover for "In Search of Space", released by UK rock band Hawkwind. The album features a die-cut cover that opens to reveal photos of the band and song lyrics. The album comes with "The Hawkwind Log", a newsprint journal that mixes scientific facts with astrology and metaphysical concepts, in the form of short entries that shift back and forth through time (sort of like a season of Doctor Who), including some news articles that may or may not depict real events. Some of the journal entries made their way into Hawkwind music recorded in the 1990s.
I have always wondered if that song was inspired by the work of R. D. Laing, The Politics of the Family in particular. His writings really took off among 1960s' counterculture.
Yep, I've got that one -- with the booklet.
Alice Cooper's KILLER lp is another gem,complete with a fold out of Alice ''hanging'' and a 1972 calendar. My copy of DARK SIDE OF THE MOON had a big poster of the band,some stickers(I think) and a poster of one of the Egyptian pyramids,colored to look green. Still have the pyramid poster somewhere. The 70s definitely was the era of fancy album covers and packaging. Some Jethro Tull lps definitely fit this bill.
Good ones!
Thick as a Brick, for example.
@@steveread4021 For sure. I think STAND UP actually does with the stand up figures.I think a friend of mine had a copy but not a stand up one.
pINK fLOYD WELCOME TO THE MACHINE CAME WITH STICKERS
I had that poster hanging over my bed as a kid - up till I left home
Another great album cover concept is Hawkwind's Warrior on the Edge of Time. On the front side of the gatefold you can see a warrior with a spear, sitting on a horse standing on the edge of a ravine, and in the background you can see the setting sun. On the backside there's the same image but mirrored and without the warrior. But if you open the gatefold and check the outer side again, it looks like female genitalia, and you may have an idea what the warrior actually is :)
The original 'Space Ritual' cover opened out into a huge 3 x 2 sized poster of information. One of the pictures was of a womans breast that was 12" record sized. I used to have it but sold it (regrettably) with all my records 5 years ago...
@@mangleman9112 just looked at my one & only just noticed , i thought it was a planet.
Spaceritual is also worth a mention
Yes well I also remember Wings' - Venus and Mars as a great album cover together with poster and stickers, also Wings Greatest with a poster included. Pink Floyd also had a great elaborate cover and package containing also stickers and a poster. Let's not forget the 'wish you were here' album package. Those albums were designed by Hipgnosis
Some of the Zep covers were the best....Love them all. I have to add....I love some of the STYX covers and RUSH moving pictures ....they were absolutely the best when you actually looked at them to see the hidden stuff.
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All the best Frank
Be safe
Rod
The crime of doing this video without mentioning one of the most impressive album covers; Captain Fantastic & the Brown Dirt Cowboy. And the Cheech and Chong records were just amazing to have as a kid growing up.
Wow, thanks for the flashback with the KISS records and all of the inserts. I had forgotten how good those packages actually were. Every time I bought a new KISS record, I couldn't wait to open it up and see what kind of fun stuff was inside.
Gotta love all those inserts.
I remember those and yes I had an interesting taste in music due to am radio. I went through a lot of phases.
The Kiss lps up and including Unmasked came with posters, cardboard guns, stickers, etc. They always gave fans something extra as a thank you.
ELO "Out Of The Blue" double record set. The cover folded open to reveal the whole ELO starship saucer on the outside and the interior of the ship on the inside. Each sleeve was printed the lyrics of the songs for each album. The bonus was a fold out poster, a mail in offer for ELO accessories and a perforated cardboard cutout to make a model of the saucer ship mounted on a stand!
i have the Billion Dollar Babies wallet and Muscle of Love cardboard carton (and the Led Zeppelin covers) Some others that came to mind were ELP - Brain Salad Surgery, Small Faces - Ogden's Nut Gone Flake, Jethro Tull -Thick as a Brick and Public Image Ltd - Metal Box. Fun subject!
Edit! - oops the Small Faces was 1968 not the 70's
"Metal Box" by Public Image Ltd (PiL). The records came in a round metal can (almost like old movie reels).
My original pressing of Dead Kennedys "Bedtime For Democracy" (1986) 12" album is cool. It's a gate fold & when you open it, the front & back cover exposes the complete album cover art. A very detailed political cartoon style animation with a lot going on. Also inside it contained a folded full size newspaper which contains clippings of "strange stories" Jello Biafra collected over the years.
Red Rose Speedway with book and Braile on back saying ‘We Love You Stevie’ for Stevie Wonder.
Such a fun time to be into music! There was never a creative CD package that got me to buy an album.
There was a Voivod CD that came with a 3D booklet and glasses that was pretty cool. But that's all I can think of, off the top of my head.
@@Channel33RPM Deluxe CD edition of Loaded by Velvet Underground came with plastic case that makes the smoke ripple as it comes up the subway.
Tool's 10,000 Days cd package included lenses to view the booklet which consists entirely of stereoscopic images.
Grand Funk's E Pluribus Funk and Shinin On. My copy of Shinin' On was pressed in clear vinyl with the addition of reflective glitter chips imbedded within. Playing the disc on a turntable with a strobe light within a dark room produces an effect of varied random colored flashes rising up from the platter like small searchlights. Cool effect.
The building used on the Physical Graffiti cover was used in the video "Waiting on a Friend" by the Rolling Stones
Hello Frank ! A couple that comes to mind is : Ten years after-”Ssssh” and Johnny Winter and-”Live”. Two with outstanding artwork is : Kool & the gang-”Spirit of the boogie” and The Jimmy Castor bunch-”It’s just begun”. Some of the covers back then had soooo thick cardboard too. Kool & the gang’s - ”Good times” has the thickest ever. Another feature is the gatefold with the opening in the inside middle fold. Kool’s ”Spirit” from above has that , and so does another from Jimmy Castor bunch’s - ”Dimension III”.
Manfred Mann's Earth Band's "The Good Earth" from 1974 had a cupon that actually granted you a piece (1 sq-ft) of land in Wales. No tricks. Some people still own a small piece of, what we mst assume is, good earth in Wales.
The Wailers had a special cover of Catch A Fire in the shape of a lighter. Some Girls had limited pink vinyl records too.
Also, is Parliament's "Motor Booty Affair" that had a gatefold cover and inside had a set of punch-out figures that could be attached to the image inside. Also , a German copy of Blue Cheer's "An Original Human Being" that unfolded 4 times so it ends up the length of 4 lps laying side by side. That picture was the lower half of a cartoon guy laying in the grass that went down to his feet.
So I got the Alice Copper album when I was 12 in 6th grade & got in so much trouble then when my MOM found the panties from the inside cover she thought they were real!!! lucky for me I had told my brother about them & they were made of a paper towel paper HOWEVER she did NOT find it funny !!! :) I still do!!!
Have read through the comments to check if all of the record covers I have or know of have been covered. As a (now retired) graphic designer I was always interested in creative covers, though that's never stopped me from enjoying great music with awful covers (perhaps that's another video!). Two great ones that have been missed are the first Roger Dean cover by dutch band Earth and Fire, their first self titled album, with the roots intricately cut out. The other is Curved Air's 'Second Album' with all the rainbow coloured quarter circles cut out which you could fold out and never get them to fold back correctly! The Jefferson Airplane albums Bark and Long John Silver are good too. Also, Warhol of course did a 'dummy run' of the Sticky Fingers cover with The Velvet Underground's first album a few years earlier with the peelable banana. Through the 70's I loved the covers but hated the imperfect vinyl format, so when the cd format came out I transferred. There are mini-lp versions (mainly Japanese) of nearly all of the covers mentioned in the video and comments. They've even managed to source the original mottled card stock used on the original vinyl version of Camel's Moonmadness. I do think there have been some superb cd packaging releases in their own right too, some Bjork ones and Steven Wilson's limited box set of 'The Future Bites' which lampoons the whole album packaging concept.
Awful covers would be a fun video!
I like what the Pet Shop Boys did with the CD jewel case for Very, the opaque orange and the dot pattern in relief. I'm not much of a listener for PSBs and orange isn't my favorite color but this was way ahead in design compared to everything else on the shelf, refreshing to see something truly creative and different.
Triumph's "Just a Game" was a gate fold with an actual gameboard inside about life in a rock band.
A few more to add from the 70's.
* Isaac Hayes - Black Moses the cover unfolds to a huge cross design
* Isaac Hayes - Live At The Sahara Tahoe the cover has door on the front that open to expose the liner images of Isaac performing
* Bootsy's Rubber Band - Bootsy? Player Of The Year has pop-out glasses in the inside of the gatefold. Designed by Mike Doud who is co-credited with Physical Graffiti.
* The J. Geils Band - Hotline is designed to look like a telephone, with the headset printed on the inner sleeve, so when you remove it "the phone is off the hook". Designed by Peter Corriston who is also co-credited with Physical Graffiti and most of the Cheech & Chong records mentioned by other commentors.
Rick James - Reflections, embossed silver lettering.
Grand Funk "Shinin' On" had a pair of 3-D glasses that could be punched out to view the cover clearly.
Dark Side of the Moon with the posters and stickers
Grand Funk Railroad- Shining On
Had a 3D cover and glasses
I don't think I was ever disappointed back then by the albums I decided to buy based solely on their covers.
Thanks for posting . All these albums were excellent as well as the great packaging 😎👍
Glad you enjoyed it
I just picked this up the other day at my record store, but Jefferson Airplane- Long John silver. Instant pickup to get into the band and cool cover, it’s a cigar box with a tons of cool things inside!
Zeppelin had it in their contract for the record label to pay for all album cover artwork. Thus their covers were among the most expensive ever produced. Like In Through The Out Door
Santana’s Lotus and The Faces Ooh La La ❤
Smart move on Zeppelin's part.
Santana "Lotus" has amazing packaging. Multi-folds and booklets etc. Opens up quite large.
Hipgnosis, founded Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell, were behind some of the 70's trippiest and innovative album artwork. Hipgnosis were responsible for album artwork for Pink Floyd, UFO, AC/DC Led Zeppelin, Scorpions, Black Sabbath, Styx and Peter Gabriel
Hipgnosis and Pacific Eye and Ear did my fav covers from the 70s, for sure.
Thanks for the video, loved it!!
I have to mention a more "obscure" album, by the band Farmyard( their first self tittled album) which originally was sold into a plastic bag where you could see the cover of the album printed... Lots of people threw the plastic to garbage, so now a days the originals with the bag intact are very expensive(as you can imagine)... Wah Wah records, made a reissue replicating the plastic bag cover(that's the one I own) and it's so cool!
I gotta say that the In Through the Out Door hidden cover thing p*ssed the hell out of me. It was a drag for collectors who wanted to be completists.
I worked in a record warehouse when that Muscle of Love record came out. If they didn't sell in the store and the unsold copier got returned to the warehouse, chances were about 50/50 that they'd get smashed flat before getting out of the warehouse and into a store again.
The original copies of Todd Rundgren - A Wizard, A True Star had some nice angles and curves cut into the outside edges of the cover.
Small Faces - Ogden's Nut Gone Celebrated Flake Tobacco was a classic of 60's psychedelia and cover design. It was cut as a circle that folded open into five seperate circles with photos and artwork. A total PITA to shelve. Grand Funk's E Pluribus Funk and XTC's Big Express used round covers too.
Man - Be Good To Yourself At Least Once A Day had a pop up cover kind of like Jethro Tull's Stand Up, but the Man cover folded open at the top and bottom to reveal a beautifully illustrated 24"x24" map of Wales with national landmarks and the band's favorite places.
Ambrosia - Somewhere I've Never Travelled had a front cover that folded into a pyramid. Surprising that Pink Floyd didn't get there first.
I imagine the Muscle of Love records were getting crushed all the time... I wonder what percentage of cartons have survived to this day?
I still need one more version of In Through the Out Door to complete my 6....
Great video. Grand Funk ,E Pluribus Funk while we're at it.
I think Todd Rundgren deserves a LOT of recognition on many of his records cover designs. Something/Anything, A Wizard A True Star, & Todd (self titled) LPs are good examples of unique packaging.
Hawkwind "In Search of Space" Wild packaging
Not forgetting Space Ritual and Warrior on the Edge of time which also had interesting fold - out sleeves.
Alice Cooper's album "Killer" is their best album cover. It opens up to reveal Alice hanging by a noose against a black bkgrnd that is also a calendar.
That is a good one! I was close to showing it. May be good for a part 2. Thanks for watching.
Narrowly missing the 70s was an album from the Bonzo Dog band in 1969 called Tadpoles. It had a die-cut cover where the image would change when you pulled out the inner sleeve. One person's eyes moved, musical notes went by, etc.
I had the Schools Out and Billion Dollar Babies album back in the day..great concepts👍
There was Split Enz LP I recall too that reacted from exposure to a blacklight while it was spinning, shooting coloured lights all over the walls and ceiling🤩
Yeah the Split Enz LP was laser etched on one side. I have a UK 45 of " History Never Repeats" which is also laser etched. Didn't know about the lighting effect though. I should check that out.
@@peterx1957 just like styx Paradise Theatre laser etched special edition
Don't hate me, but believe it or not, The Partridge Family had very inventive cover concepts: 1st album looked like an old family photo album, 2nd was a "groovy" calendar, 3rd was supposed to look like a 70's teen magazine, the 4th was "Christmas Card" and included a removable enveloped Christmas card inserted into the front cover, the 5th was called "Shopping Bag" and had a gatefold which opened and revealed an actual plastic shopping bag inserted in a slot, the 6th album had a real crossword puzzle on the cover, the 7th album cover looked like a sheet of lined school paper, and the 8th looked like a "cork" Bulletin Board with pictures and notes tacked on. They were cover art only (except for "Christmas Card" and "Shopping Bag" which included the props). Maybe not the most respected "band" to come from the 70's, but they really were consistent in maintaining quality thematic covers for all of their original releases, when they could have just put their faces front and center on all of them.
Loved buying LPs in the late sixties and early seventies and perusing the cover during the first listen. One of my all time favorite cover photos was Be Bop Deluxe, Sunburst Finish.
Someone else mentioned The Who - Live at Leeds. I was lucky enough to be at the recording and bought my copy (with all the inserts) from the Student Union shop and got the cover date stamped.
Another 1970 record with cool packaging is Curved Air's Air Conditioning. It was a picture disc - no cover or sleeve just the info incorporated in colours baked into the vinyl itself.
Elo out of the blue had cool packaging with great art on the outside and inside of the gatefold depicting the members manning the spaceship. It included printed inner sleeves, a large poster with all band members and a cardboard cut out sheet to build a cardboard model of the spaceship
The first album by The Tubes (1975) didn't have any fancy cutouts or anything , but the picture on the front made it look like the album was ripped open. (The back cover was very intriguing, too, especially to teenage boys like myself.)
The band Ambrosia's second album *"Somewhere I've Never Travelled"* (produced by Alan Parsons) folded out to formed a pyramid.
The Wailers “Catch a fire” (1973) has a great zippo design that opens like a zippo lighter. And “Rastaman vibration” has a burlap cover that is “great for cleaning herb” 😃
That Wailers album cover was so fragile it began coming apart after a few repeated openings. Now it's worth big money cuz none survived.
I was going to say the same thing about catch a fire great looking zippo
I have the Rastaman Vibration burlap copy it's a gem to own and is not cheap to purchase if u find a copy
Grand Funk Railroad .... Shine On .. album .. was in 3D with pop out 3D glasses ...i still have the album in mint condition .. as well as Alice Cooper..Schools Out ..
Im soooooo glad i grew up in the 70s
I simply cannot believe that Elton John's 70's albums were given no recognition here. No single album of his was as wacked out as these I guess, but in general they always had nice booklets with plenty of great pics and Bernie's superb lyrics. A notch above that was Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, with superb and cinema-like photos, artwork and thematic imagery. Even above that was Captain Fantastic, with incredible cover art, a big poster of the cover, individual photos and not one, but TWO superb books detailing the history of Elton and Bernie.
Glenn O'Brien was the model on Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers. O'Brien wrote for Warhol's Interview Magazine and founded TV Party on public access television.
Hakwinds Warrior on the edge of time opened out to form the warrior's shield.
Also another Alice Cooper album was the brilliant "From The Inside" with the door opening on the inside cover to reveal Alice in his padded cell.
Queen's "Jazz" album had a real cool cover and very nice poster that came with it.
I'll have to check if mine has the poster. Thanks for watching.
I would have to mention Horslips debut album “Happy to meet Sorry to part” with it’s representation of a concertina.
Jethro Tull’s Thick As A Brick needs some love here
Wow that was a great vid Frank. Loved all those cool album artworks from the 70's. I love it when all the gimmics and free gifts are still in tact. Not a Kiss fan, but boy they gave their fans value for money !! Keep on spinnin !!
I like how Kiss mimicked the cover photo of Meet The Beatles for their debut album.
I loved the water color inner sleeve of the "In Through the Out Door" album. Reminded me of the books I used to get as a kid. Just needed a brush and water.
That's why I love albums. They try to do it with CDs, but not enough room for an album cover you could take out and open up.
XTC did some fun things with 3" CDs. They presented the whole Oranges and Lemons album as three 3" CDs packaged in a box that looked like a playing cards box. The "King For A Day" CD 4-song single came out in a crown shaped box with a slide out insert that held the 3" CD. My copy of it has cat tooth holes at the base of the crown. XTC was too close to the floor.
"No Earthly Connection," the 1976 studio album by Rick Wakeman, featured a anamorphic image of Wakeman that is corrected with a mirror sheet supplied with the album.