A Night at the Beachcomber by guitar virtuoso John Adomono was recorded at the International Market Place, Honolulu, Hawaii, and released by Decca Records in 1961. From his bio at Discogs:

“John played alone, but most people thought there were five or six players on his records,” remembers Lu Woolley, his promoter and booking agent. “People were absolutely wowed by him. Nobody played like him.”

Adomono’s secret weapon was the Ecco-Fonic, a cutting-edge tape-echo machine. Alongside DeArmond’s Tremolo Control, it was one of the first stand-alone effects for the guitars and Adomono was one of the early testers, promoters, and endorsers.

On the uncredited cover, Adomono’s name is shown in red letters from the fett weight of Volta. The wide Clarendon with the superb figure–ground organization was designed by Konrad F. Bauer and Walter Baum and first cast by Bauer in 1956. The typeface used for “Guitarist fantastique” has German roots, too: it’s Berthold’s Akzidenz-Grotesk, known in the US under the name Standard. The bold condensed style is Akzidenz-Grotesk extra, added to the family by Günter Gerhard Lange in 1958.

[More info on Discogs]

From Wikipedia:

At the end of 1970, the First Edition had their seventh Top 40 hit with the Kin Vassy-penned “Heed the Call”. Another song about the need for brotherhood, it was seen as an uptempo counterpart to the balladry of “Tell It All Brother.”

[More info on Discogs]

King Solomon is an album by Solomon Burke, released in 1968 on Atlantic Records. The album continued Burke’s run as one of the premier voices in soul music, blending gospel, rhythm & blues, and deep southern soul. It features standout tracks like “I Wish I Knew (How It Would Feel to Be Free)”, “It’s Just a Matter of Time”, “Party People”, and “Keep a Light in the Window”.

The cover was designed by Loring Eutemey. It features Baby Teeth for the album title, supported by what appears to be Antique for the heading text.

[More info on Discogs]

Doin’ Our Thing is a 1968 album by Booker T. & the MG’s, released on Stax Records. The album showcases the band’s signature blend of instrumental soul, R&B, and Memphis groove, featuring tracks like “I Can Dig It”, “Expressway to Your Heart”, and “The Beat Goes On”. As one of the most influential instrumental groups of the era, Booker T. & the MG’s continued to refine their tight, rhythmic sound on this release.

The album cover was designed by Loring Eutemey, a frequent collaborator with Atlantic and Stax Records, featuring a photo by Peter Hujar. The title is set in Davison Display.

[More info on Discogs]

Track names and credits on the back are set in two weights of Helvetica. Backliner photo by Bill Kington.

This design for San Diego indie rock band Pelican Club’s second album, Lover Boy, uses Neon Bines in a highly manipulated way for the title. The typeface for the band name is extra bold Futura PT in all lowercase.

The album design uses type to illustrate the playful, dynamic nature of Pelican Club’s music, evoking the bold typefaces traditionally used in music posters.

Condensed Title Gothic No. 11 in red and blue and with inline images for a best-of compilation by Pérez “King of the Mambo” Prado (1916–1989), released in 1960. Tony Wilds reviewed Big Hits by Prado for AllMusic:

Big Hits actually is a powerhouse anthology: the first definitive, stereo collection of mambo hits. All were re-recorded for stereo in “new arrangements” as the jacket advertises. A couple originally were recorded in stereo, e.g., “Patricia” and “Why Wait,” but were not available in stereo, even as late as 1960. The most desirable selections are “Guaglione” and “Paris”; the latter may have been non-LP until this (Francis Bay covered it to even greater effect). Overall, the presentation is not as strong as it could be. A later issue has the tunes in different order and with the trademark organ mixed higher. Still, Big Hits is easy to find and very worthwhile.

[More info on Discogs]

The large grot caps on the back cover appear to be Plain Gothic No. 6011. Watson Wylie’s liner notes and the track list are set in News Gothic. Additional fonts include Franklin Gothic and Century Expanded.

Single cover for Pelican Club’s “Laura Call Me Up”, created in 2024 for the digital release. The title uses layered Mexcellent to create dimension. “Pelican Club” uses Dunbar.

The Dock of the Bay is Otis Redding’s seventh studio album album, and his first posthumous release. The album was issued in 1968 under Volt Records, a subsidiary of Stax Records. This album includes one of his best known songs, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”. The album art, designed by Loring Eutemey uses Stencil typography.

[More info on Discogs]

Benguiat Zenedipity is a variant of Benguiat Serendipity with flared bottom halves. A condensed style of this 1960s display typeface was used for the cover of The Intruders Are Together, with a customized heart-shaped counter in O and letterforms that serve as mask for the photograph.

The debut album by the Philadelphia soul group was released in 1967 on Gamble Records. Founded in 1965 by Kenneth Gamble and Leon A. Huff as Excel Records, the label was renamed in 1972 and later merged into Philadelphia International. See the FunkMySoul blog for more info about the Intruders and their debut album.

[More info on Discogs]

The liner notes and track names on the back cover are set in Memphis.

Soul Men is the third album by soul duo Sam & Dave. It was released on Stax Records in October 1967 with cover art designed by Loring Eutemey. The typography uses Folio Extra Bold. The album introduced the smash hit single “Soul Man,” which soared to No. 1 on the R&B Singles chart and secured the No. 2 spot on the Hot 100 Singles chart.

[More info on Discogs]

This contribution is being compiled on Donika Venkova’s seventy-sixth birthday of 19th November 2023 and features her eponymous debut LP from half a century ago.

Her name for the front cover is set in Futura Black, in Latin script in the top right-hand corner and in Cyrillic script in the bottom left-hand corner. It would appear that the initial Д in “Доника” has been adapted from the Latin A, with the cross bar whited out and with a pair of “feet” added. Further thereto, the Cyrillic И is a Latin N flipped vertically, the rest of the name consisting of glyphs shared with Latin script. The “BTA 1639” is, like the main subsidiary text on the rear cover, set in Edel-Grotesk and also the track-listing has been set in an X-shaped form by means of indentation. Credits and other small text on the back are in Literaturnaya.

This occasion has been celebrated with a post at “Girls of the Golden East”.

[More info on Discogs]

Compilation album by Sérgio Mendes & Brasil ’66 released by A&M Records in 1970 in their Greatest Hits series. It opens with the group’s cover version of “Mas que Nada” which, according to Mendes, “was the first time that a song in Portuguese was a hit in America and all over the world.” It here is misspelled as “Mais que Nada”.

The series design features bold outlined Clarendon caps with color fill and a (custom added?) monolinear heartline. “Sérgio Mendes & Brasil ’66” as well as the song names use Pretorian.

1971 release with different colors

1969 release by the Lester Lanin Orchestra which was formed in the 1930s and led by Lester Lanin (1907–2004). According to the title, this big-band jazz/easy listening album is an attempt at “narrowing the generation gap”, featuring adaptations of recent hits like the Beatles’ “Ob La Di, Ob La Da” and (1968) “Aquarius” from the musical Hair (1967). The cover design tries to appeal to a younger audience as well, embracing a flowery hippie aesthetic complete with multicolored blossoms, a rainbow, a butterfly, and a dove.

The typeface is Milton Glaser’s Baby Teeth, set on a curve and used in the counterless Opaque style. While “Lester” features the alternate E with a short middle bar, the title has the same form but with tiny apertures as found in the Line style.

Design by Michael Mendel, with art direction by Sid Maurer and illustration by Sandy Hoffman.

[More info on Discogs]

Project developed in the course Decoding Identities by Aprender Design.

Trópico is a Spotify playlist that celebrates the timeless power of MPB. The playlist’s design seeks to amplify the experience with the musical style, recognize the impact, national scope, originality, authenticity and musical warmth of the genre, in addition to exalting artists in the quest to celebrate and perpetuate their works.

Arthur with alternating letter colors in combination with LaSalle, another Filmotype release, on the cover of Holiday In South America, an album of Latin music credited to “Pedro and His Amigos”, released by International Award Series in 1965. The track names are set in Futura Demi Italic, which was carried by Filmomaster as F44.

[More info on Discogs]

Source: www.isfdb.org The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. License: CC BY.

The covers of all 27 titles as compiled by the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

SF Rediscovery is a series of trade paperback editions of novels and anthologies by science fiction writers such as Philip José Farmer, Robert Silverberg, Harry Harrison, and E.C. Tubb. Between 1974 and 1977, a total of 27 books were published by Equinox, an imprint of Avon Books. This probably makes it the most extensive use of Eightway, a shaded all-caps grotesque designed by Milton Glaser and George Leavitt.

All book covers feature the Shaded Southwest style, that is the variant with a shadow to the bottom left of the outlined letterforms. This treatment is echoed in the (custom) SF logo as well as the border around the cover art. The last ten books additionally show the series number in the top left corner, revealing that the Eightway typeface also comprised numerals.

Scans of individual covers courtesy of Cadwalader Ringgold.

[More info on ISFDB]

Source: www.flickr.com Scan: Cadwalader Ringgold. License: All Rights Reserved.

#1, Strange Relations by Philip José Farmer. Cover art by Vincent Calabrese.

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#2, The Syndic by C.M. Kornbluth. Cover artist unknown.

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#3, The Reproductive System by John T. Sladek. Cover art by Jack Gaughan

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#4, Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys. Cover art by William Maughan.

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#5, The Man in the Maze by Robert Silverberg. Cover art by Michael Presley.

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#6, The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad. Cover art by Bob Haberfield.

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#7, Inside Outside by Philip José Farmer. Cover art by Jacques Wyrs.

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#8, Omnivore by Piers Anthony. Cover art by Bill Maughan.

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#9, The Great Explosion by Eric Frank Russell. Cover art by Chris Foss

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#11, No Blade of Grass by John Christopher. Cover art by Michael Presley.

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#12, A Mirror for Observers by Edgar Pangborn. Cover art by Stanislaw Fernandes.

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#13, Bill, the Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison. Cover art by Michael Gross.

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#14, Ultimate World by Hugo Gernsback. Cover art by .

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#15, City Under the Sea by Kenneth Bulmer. Cover art by Bill Maughan.

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#16, The Space-Born by E. C. Tubb. Cover art by Vicente Segrelles.

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#17, The Humanoids by Jack Williamson. Cover art by Michael Presley.

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#18, The Judgment of Eve by Edgar Pangborn. Cover art by Patrick Woodruffe.

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#27, Black Easter by James Blish. Cover artist unknown.

1967 single of “Foxy Lady” b/w “Manic Depression” by the British-American psychedelic rock trio. “Foxy Lady” was the opening track of the original British version of the Are You Experienced LP. This is Polydor’s German sleeve that also was used for Scandinavian and Italian markets. No designer is credited. Printed by Ludwig Fr. Noltemeyer, Braunschweig.

[More info at Discogs]