First Draft

Since it’s Oscar week, we present a 1956 album by two-time Academy Award winner Jack Lemmon.

The cover is hokey as well as dog-eared but what’s not to love about STEREORAMA?

Here’s the whole damn album via the YouTube playlist format:

After hitting it big with Surrealistic Pillow, Jefferson Airplane were eager to show off their chops as a live band. That’s how Bless Its Pointed Little Head came to be.

The band’s live sound was fuller, edgier, and rocked harder than their previous studio albums.

I’ve always dug the dissolute feeling of the front and back covers. Bassist Jack Casady worked hard, so he was entitled to tie one on.

Here’s a scan of a beat-up back cover:

Looks like the Airplane had a long night, y’all.

Here’s the whole damn album with additional tracks via Spotify:

A friend recently asked why I’d never featured a Moody Blues cover in this space. I didn’t have a particularly good answer. I’ve never connected with their music, but that’s true of many other artists whose covers I’ve posted.

In Search Of The Lost Chord is one of the moodiest Moody Blues covers ever. The album was released in 1968 and has cover art by Philip Travers.

Here’s the whole damn album via the YouTube:

I knew Robert Clary from watching Hogan’s Heroes reruns as a kid. He played the lovable Louis Le Beau who, in the manner of all comedic Frenchmen, was a swell cook forever bribing the inept guard Sergeant Schultz with food.

It wasn’t until I reached adulthood that I learned there was much more to Clary. He was a Holocaust survivor and a helluva singer.

We have two covers this week: the weird Hogan’s Heroes album led me on a Clary quest. I found 1955’s Meet Robert Clary, which has a similar vibe to some early Beatles covers. Oui, oui, oui.

Here’s the Clary album via Spotify:

I’ve had the Duke on my mind since the last Friday Cocktail Hour so let’s segue from Satin Doll to At The Bal Masque:

Actually, Satin Doll is on this 1958 album. Despite the swell cover, At The Bal Masque is regarded as lesser Ellington, which is why I couldn’t track down the whole damn album. Here are a couple of tracks from it:

Note the misspelled title and inferior re-release cover. Woe is me, bop.

Spooky Tooth was an eclectic band that experimented with a variety of styles. They flirted with prog and hard rock but never quite stuck the landing. They’re now best known for their cool name and the success of two members: Mick Jones with Foreigner and Gary Wright as a solo artist.

1974’s The Mirror was the band’s last studio album until 1999. I’ve always been fond of the cover because it evokes Rene Magritte. It makes me want to wear a black suit and put on a bowler hat.

Here’s the whole damn album:

The lunar theme continues with the ultra-Sixties cover for Bobby Womack’s first solo album.

In other words, dig the crazy lunar phases on this 1968 release.

Here’s the whole damn album via Spotify:

Oscar Peterson recorded a series of songbook albums in the late Fifties and early Sixties. They all had swell covers but this one is my favorite. The artist was David Stone Martin who had over 500 album covers to his credit.

I like this cover scan because it’s old and gritty much like me:

Here’s the whole damn album via Spotify:

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Oscar Peterson?

I still don’t associate flying saucers with Boston, the city. I do, however, associate them with Boston, the band.

I give you the cover of their first album. Paula Scher and Roger Huyssen did such a wicked awesome job that there’s an article about in in the Atlantic.

Here’s the whole damn album via the YouTube:

It’s hard to top Hipgnosis for memorable album art. This 1971 Climax Blues Band album cover brings to life the venerable saying “put a sock in it.”

You’re probably confused about the band’s name. In the early days, they were Climax Chicago before settling on Climax Blues Band. That story seems anticlimactic, doesn’t it?

Here’s the whole damn album via Spotify:

Galactic is one of the most interesting and eclectic bands to have come out of New Orleans. The critics all called Carnivale Electricos a concept album, who am I to argue? I don’t feel like it.

I tried to find out who did the album art but struck out on both the Google and Twitter. Suffice it to say that it’s a swell cover.

Here’s the whole damn album via Spotify.

After the Bearles broke up, Ringo Starr wanted a hit album. In 1973, he got one with the help of producer Richard Perry and his former bandmates.

Here’s the whole damn album via Spotify:

Inspired by the last Saturday Odds & Sods, I slid John Hiatt’s Stolen Moments into the CD player for first time in several years. I hadn’t forgotten how good the album is but I’d forgotten who did the cover photography, Robert Frank.

Frank was a legendary photographer and filmmaker who came to national attention in 1958 with his book, The Americans. It was a photo essay with text by Jack Kerouac. The book became an instant classic.

I’m not sure how Frank wound up shooting pictures of John Hiatt in 1990, but the originals are now in the Robert Frank collection at the National Gallery of Art. In a word: fancy.

Here’s the whole damn album via Spotify:

I’m on the record as not caring for most Christmas music. One Christmas album I *do* like has a bad title and a cheesy cover but the contents are damn good: Merry Christmas…Have A Nice Life by Cyndi Lauper. I refuse to include the happy face but I forgive her for it.

Not only is Ms. Lauper one of the finest singers in creation, she wrote a bunch of swell songs for this 1998 album. I wonder, however, if her Santa is sober. You never can tell.

 Here’s the whole damn album via Spotify:

Even though I prefer CDs to vinyl, I rarely post a CD cover in this space. The best thing about LPs are the covers. This 2006 album by the great funk bassist Bootsy Collins is an exception to the rule. I live for exceptions to the rule. I find them exceptional.

The whole package is swell but I’m sticking to the Bootsy in a snow globe cover because I’m feeling lazy. For the rest, get thee to Discogs.

Here’s the whole damn album via the YouTube:

A Very Special Christmas was released in 1987. It’s the first of a series of holiday albums benefitting the Special Olympics. It’s noteworthy for cover art by the late, great Keith Haring.

Here’s the whole damn album.

Yeah, I know. This is a single cover but it’s the Kinks, dammit. I’m still trying to uphold my blogger’s creed: there’s a Kinks song for every occasion.

I wasn’t able to find out who did the artwork but it’s pretty darn swell:

Here’s the single in two videos:

The B-Side rocks almost as hard:

I usually like to post food-related album covers the day before Thanksgiving. I went searching and wound up having breakfast with Jason & the Scorchers. I passed on the petrol.

Here’s the whole damn album via Spotify: