The Strawberry Alarm Clock – Incense and Peppermints album art
Top Billing is a top-heavy all-caps slab serif made at Photo-Lettering sometime in or before 1965. No designer is credited, but it was probably drawn either by Ed Benguiat himself, or under his guidance. Top Billing comes in two styles, a Spurred one (which we use for the sample), and a plain one.
The latter can be seen on the cover of Incense and Peppermints, the debut album by psychedelic rock band Strawberry Alarm Clock, released in 1967 on UNI Records, including the titular hit single. The designers elongated the bottom parts of selected letterforms, counterbalancing their top-heaviness.
The cover design is credited to Lazarus (2)/LePrevost and features a photo of the six band members taken by Ed Caraeff (who was 17 at the time!), assisted by Rodney Bingenheimer. The clothing is by Sat Purush, an East Indian boutique clothing shop in Westwood, California, specializing in handmade kurtas. The portrait is framed by a striped pattern and topped by Art Noveau-like flourishes, including the strawberries from the band’s name.
Text on the back cover is set in Futura.
Detail
For the 50th anniversary of the album’s release in 2017, the band reenacted the iconic photo, again with clothing by fashion designer Cathy Scarms of Sat Purush. The photo was taken by Robert Jacobs.
From left to right: Howie Anderson who replaced Ed King, original drummer Gene Gunnels, original drummer and lead vocalist Randy Seol, original bassist George Bunnell, original keyboardist Mark Weitz, and honorary original member Steve Bartek. You can watch a video about the photo shoot on YouTube.
