Recently in Album Art Flashback Category

In February 1987, Prince released the title track as the first single from his album Sign "☮" the Times (right). The double album resulted in three U.S. top-ten hits, Sign "☮" the Times (#3), U Got the Look (#2), and I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man (#10).

The cover of the single Sign "☮" the Times (below) featured a photograph of singer and dancer Cat Glover holding a large heart-shaped cut out over her face. The fact that the model's face was hidden led to a rumor that the model was actually Prince in drag.

I recall that there were several factors that led people to believe that the model was Prince: the shoulders were too muscular, the chest too flat, and there seemed to be something dangling in the shadows just underneath the skirt. A couple of my friends bought the single just because they thought the model had to be Prince.

After the rumors and controversy over the cover for the single, the album cover art was somewhat of a disappointment. It features a confusing collage with a blurry image of Prince in the bottom corner and the words "Two Disc Set" in an ugly red font. The cover of the single will always be the first thing that comes to my mind.

Over the past few years, The Star Spangled Banner has been recorded by Jennifer Hudson, Jordin Sparks, and Beyoncé live during the Super Bowl. The resulting singles are all great versions to play on the 4th of July. It takes a special talent to sing The National Anthem and not many artists are brave enough to take the challenge.

In my opinion, the best version of The Star Spangled Banner was recorded in 1991 by Whitney Houston at Super Bowl XXV. Her Super Bowl performance is often recognized as one of the best of all time and one of the most notable moments in television history. Houston was definitely in her prime. The single also included America the Beautiful.

The single was repackaged as a charity release (right) benefiting the 9/11 first responders in 2001. The 2001 version features a simple illustration of an American flag. I prefer the original 1991 cover with Whtney in her patriotic tracksuit.

Edward Scissorhands has been a trending topic on Twitter this weekend due to a rumor that the film will be remade starring Robert Pattinson in the title role. Most of the tweets reveal that people are outraged at the idea of remaking the film. I find it difficult to believe that it has been 20 years since its release.

The music for the film was composed by Danny Elfman. Many consider Edward Scissorhands to be the best work Elfman has done during his many collaborations with Tim Burton. Perhaps they should have released a 20th anniversary edition of the album. It seems as if there would be a great deal of interest.

The cover art for the album is a variation of the movie poster, showing a profile of star Johnny Depp and his menacing scissor fingers. The melting Pepto Bismol-colored border is a remnant of tacky late 1980s graphic design.

Tubular Bells is the 1973 debut album by British musician Mike Oldfield. The album is noteworthy for a number of reasons. It was the first album released by Virgin Records. It is one of the top-selling album in U.K. history. Also, it has one of the most interesting album covers of the 1970s.

The cover was designed by the late photographer Trevor Key, who went on to photograph notable album covers for artists such as New Order (right), Roxy Music, and Phil Collins. Keys often worked with the legendary album cover designer Peter Saville.

The design was definitely ahead of its time. Unlike many of the album covers of the era, it still looks fresh and contemporary today.

I remember the first time I heard Minnie Riperton's Lovin' You. I was riding home on the school bus and the bus driver had the radio turned up. When Riperton hit her memorable high note, everyone on the bus got quiet. No one had ever heard anything quite like it.

Lovin' You appears on Riperton's 1974 hit album Perfect Angel. The single made it to the top of the charts in April 1975. Sadly, Riperton passed away following a battle with cancer in 1979. Many people today are familiar with her daughter Maya Rudolph, who is a cast member of Saturday Night Live.

The photograph used for the cover of Perfect Angel was taken by legendary music industry photographer Barry Feinstein. During his career, Feinstein photographed over 500 album covers for notable artists such as Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, and Miles Davis.

I recall that the photograph of Riperton on Perfect Angel was controversial. She appeared wear a pair of bib overalls without a shirt. She was also holding an ice cream cone that was melting all over her hand. That was considered racy in 1974.

The album Easter by the Patti Smith Group is often referred to as "the one with the hairy armpit." Released in March 1978 on Arista Records and produced by the legendary Jimmy Iovine, it was the band's first major commercial success, in large part due to the single Because the Night (right).

Because the Night was co-written by Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith and reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #5 in the British chart. In addition to Because the Night, the album includes the title song and several others with religious imagery. The cover art for the single features a photo of Smith holding her breast.

The controversial photographs were taken by Lynn Goldsmith. It is doubtful that the photographs contributed to the success of the album. The album photo has been parodied numerous times over the years.

On April 23, 1983, the single Come On Eilleen (right) by British pop group Dexys Midnight Runners gained the distinction of preventing Michael Jackson from have two consecutive number one hits on the Billboard chart. The quirky song is forever sandwiched between Jackson's Billie Jean and Beat It.

The song was a number one hit in the United Kingdom and won the award for Best British Single at the 1983 BRIT Awards. It was also chosen number one on VH1's 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s.

The song is the tenth and final track on album Too-Rye-Ay, which was the group's second and most successful album. Too-Rye-Ay was released in August 1982 and has been categorized in the New Wave genre.

The cover for the album and the single were created by graphic designer Peter Barrett. The album art features an illustration of founder and front man Kevin Rowland. The single features Rowland and musician Helen O'Hara. The 1996 reissue of the album features a green border around the original album art.

In 1995, Annie Lennox released her second solo album. Medusa featured covers of songs that were all originally recorded by male artists. Four singles were released from the album, No More I Love You's, A Whiter Shade of Pale, Waiting in Vain and my personal favorite Something So Right (right).

The artwork for Medusa features a black and white portrait of Lennox with her name inked onto her forehead in what looks like old fashioned typewritter lettering. The black and white image was quite an interesting choice considering that Lennox's eyes are an amazing shade of pale green.

Medusa was re-released later in 1995 as a deluxe version with an additional CD of live tracks and a new version of Something So Right as a duet with Paul Simon, who originally wrote and recorded the song. I prefer the original album version without Simon.

Image by Fritz Liess via Flickr

The year was 1978 and King Tut mania was sweeping the nation. My twin brother and I skipped school just to see the King Tut exhibit at the L.A. County Museum of Art. What we didn't know was that a class from our high school had also made the trip and we ran into several faculty members the minute we walked through the entrance.

The exhibit was worth the risk of detention. The teachers even overlooked our skipping school for the event.

My interest in King Tut was rekindled this week with the airing of King Tut Unwrapped on the Discovery Channel. In addition to memories about the 1976 to 1979 exhibit, I remembered the song released by actor, comic, ann musician Steve Martin.

King Tut by Steve Martin and The Toot Uncommons became a huge hit after Martin performed the song on Saturday Night Live. The Toot Uncommons were actually members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. The single reached #17 on the Billboard chart.

The single was recently released by Rhino Records as a Digital 45. Like many Digital 45s, the artwork that comes with the MP3s is substandard. I have created a better image using other examples found online.

In 1982, German pop group Trio had an international hit with Da Da Da I Don't Love You You Don't Love Me Aha Aha Aha (typically shortened to Da Da Da). Like the lyrics of the song, the album art for Trio's debut album was very simple. The cover for the German version of the album (right) included the address and telephone number of the band's publicist, which was once commonly seen on promotional albums.

The English version of the album replaced the contact information with drawings of three faces, which are presumed to be the members of the band. While this album cover seems like is was created in minutes using a magic marker, it really does suit the musical style of the band. Many of their songs were limited to three cords and had very simple and repetative lyrics. Trio disbanded in 1984.

In 1997, Da Da Da was used in a popular Volkswagon commercial and the song experienced a brief revival. It has been covered many times over the years.

In February 1986, British rock band Public Image Ltd (PIL) released their fifth studio album. The album cover concept was inspired by the labels of generic or “no name” products that began being sold in grocery stores in the late 1970s.

The concept had been used four years earlier by San Francisco punk band Flipper. The Flipper album (right) used the “yellow label” generic product label and featured a barcode. The Flipper album cover doesn’t really work because it did not hold true to the standards of the generic product label. Rather than simply placing the word “album” on the yellow cover, the word “generic” and the band’s name was also included. The inclusion of the band’s name and pointing out the obvious by actually putting “generic” on the cover results in an epic fail.

Later in 1986, Flipper released a live album called Public Flipper Limited: Live 1980-1985 (right) in retaliation for PIL’s use of the generic brand concept. Unfortunately, the cover for that album also fails as a parody. No attempt was made to imitate the distictive PIL logo or a previous PIL album cover (many of which have notable designs). If Flipper had parodied PIL’s Metal Box album in some way, the effort would have been worthy of applause.

The PIL cover used the more familiar white label with a blue band. The three release formats were labeled accordingly — album, compact disc, and cassette. The music video for Rise opens with a generic screen that reads “video” to coninue the concept through to that medium as well.

In 1985, the new wave band Baltimora had a smash dance hit with the single Tarzan Boy. The song was the first single from the album Living In The Background (right). Tarzan Boy made it to #13 on the U.S. chart and #3 in the U.K. The album charted at #49 in the U.S.

Both the single and the album have at least three different sets of cover art. The one that many people may be more familiar with features comic book characters. They are similar to the art direction of the music video for Tarzan Boy.

Tarzan Boy is often featured on ’80s retrospectives as an example of New Wave dance music. The music video has had over 7 million views on YouTube. The song is often mistakenly attributed to Limahl.

On January 31, 1981, American rock group Blondie hit the number one spot on the Billboard chart with The Tide Is High. The song had been released as a single in October of 1980 and appears on the band’s fith studio album Autoamerican (right).

The cover art for The Tide Is High is somewhat unique. It is one of the few cases in which a detail of the album art has been used for the cover of a single. The album reached the number seven spot on the U.S. chart and the second single Rapture also became a number one hit.

The painting that appears on the cover was done by Martin Hoffman. I do not have any additional information about him.

I thought I would be appropriate to have a New Years Day theme for my first blog post of 2010. So, I created a composite of the cover for U2’s 1983 single New Year’s Day. The song is the third track on the band’s album War (right) and was the lead single.

The cover art for War and the previous album Boy have always creeped me out a bit. There seems to be a weird pedophilia vibe going on that I just don’t get. The cover art for New Year’s Day also has a photograph of a semi-nude boy. (U2 fans, please don’t jump down my throat.)

New Year’s Day has been named by Rolling Stone as one of the top 500 songs of all time. It was written in support of the Polish Solidarity movement.

This Album Art Flashback is a look back to an album recorded last New Years Eve. Barenaked Ladies performed live in Detroit and did a rather unique version of Auld Lang Syne. I’ve posted the video and the album art. Happy New Year! I’ll be taking tomorrow off from blogging. Have fun and be safe.