Tops, Unicorn, Urania Records

The only two records on Tops that I have ever seen for which the covers were remotely interesting.  The only Unicorn record I have ever seen.  Two laps on Urania, another decent classical label from the 1950s.  I especially like the Slavonic Dances one, and that it exists in two color variants.  If these were postage stamps, one of these covers would be worth a fortune.

Vox records in the 1950s, everything I have collected

A few generic designs from their earliest days.  A wonderful use of a still from the movie with Robbie the Robot.  But mostly some really great, fun designs.  The Silvano Tintori designs are among the best designs to my taste that I have ever seen.  All from the 1950s, the silver age of record cover designs.  By the time I was cognizant of Vox, early 1970s, they were a discount label.  A fall from a mighty position.

Everything I have on Westminster

This is everything I have seen on the Westminster label that I liked.  Westminster was a successful company in the 1950s.  The earliest of these, the generic one, is 1950.  The last is 1957.  The company sold to ABC, which then reissued some of the music.  The Haydn London looks like a Maas cover.  The Pergolesi is by Joe Weitz, whose work for some other labels resembles Steinweiss’.  The Ferrante and Teacher is a still from the cult film Forbidden Planet.

Various covers pre-1965, labels A… and B…

As I said in the post about Zondervan and Word, I will buy a cover if I like it for some reason.  These covers have nothing else in common.  Two of them are generic – I often acquire a cover that is completely generic like this Angel and the dull one by Prokofiev.  The Audio-Fidelity is the only one of theirs that I bought for the cover and kept long enough to scan.  Passport to China has  a cover by Reid Miles.  If one collected covers because they were by Reid Miles, one would be competing with all the Blue Note collectors who like hard bop jazz, and the cost to get them would be astonishing.  Reid Miles’ early work is wonderful, and no one cares about it.  Finally, the last three on Boston records make American Recording Society look like a successful label.  These are all the Boston Records I have ever seen.  I don’t much like them, and picked them up only because the designs are by a cousin of mine, Jacob Landau.  I went to a show of his work at the State Museum of Art in Trenton, New Jersey.  He showed a few of his covers.  I don’t much like his paintings either.  I think art should be beautiful.

 

The next few ARS-Peter Piening designs

Not just the next few, but all the remaining ones I have.  I may be a completist, and I may have collected these for 20 years, but I have still seen very few of them.  And bought all the ones I did see.  Again, some are 10 inch and some 12 inch lps.  These are numbered from 20 to about 114.  I imagine that was the end of the label.  My guess is they worked on grant money, and never made much from sale of these records.  I have seen Piening designs from the 1960s on other labels and not been impressed.  Here, it was the right designer for the right label at the right time.

American Recording Society and Peter Piening

In my introduction to this blog, I stated that I was a completist on certain designers and on certain labels.  One of the labels I mentioned was American Recording Society.  This was an early 1950s label that specialized in contemporary American composed music composers.  All of the signed covers are signed by the designer Peter Piening, and I think he did almost all of the unsigned ones as well.  ARS catalogue numbers are very simple: ARS 1, ARS 2, ARS 3, etc., and the numbers do not distinguish between 10 inch and 12 inch disks, but I have done so in the names I gave the files.  These are the ones I have between 1 and 14.  Taken as a whole, some wonderful designs.  Some of these I have the original design and a redesign.  I don’t have any idea how often that happened.

Next: a collection of 1950s designs

The next section of my collection of record covers is this: designs I like that don’t fit any other pattern I have shown. In other words, these are covers that aren’t by a particular designer I have already mentioned, and that aren’t on a label that I particularly like. This post is Zondervan and Word – religious labels. Most designs on these two companies are remarkably vernacular. But these few I really like. Word is a big label, 1000s of releases over a long period. Most of those are serviceable, one can tell what kind of music it is, but no one would hang it on the wall. These few covers, from an early period, are reminiscent of designs on more major labels of the period, and are reasonably beautiful.

The last Grand Awards: some reissues

These are various reissues of Grand Award music from the 1950s.

Grand Award Odds and Ends, and a Steinweiss

A Steinweiss on London that I don’t think I ever posted. Grand Awards numbered in the 500s, 600s and a 900, and 3 samplers. Children of Paris is a wonderful boxed set, lots of Tracy Sugarman illustrations.

Grand Award Records 400s

The next few Grand Awards, the last ones I have with catalog numbers in the 400s. A wide range of illustrator: Tracy Sugarman, Caspar Pinsker Jr, S Neil Fujita, the first appearance of Charles E Murphy, Geismar, Hoffman, Jerry Smith. As usual, the music is not to my taste. But the humor of Dayton Allen is still pretty good.