The History of Rhythm & Blues vinyl record series is a 1960s compilation of various R&B records from various eras. The first volume covers the roots era (i.e., 1947-1952).

Two swashy typefaces from PLINC are used for the main title: PLINC Bookman Swash and West Behemoth Italic Swash.

[More info on Discogs]

PLINC’s West Behemoth Clarendon (1960) came accompanied by two italic styles; the plain Behemoth Italic, issued before 1965, and Behemoth Italic Swash, added around 1966. It’s distinguished from the earlier version not only by swash forms for capitals and several lowercase letters, but also has no entry strokes and less pronounced exit strokes. As of 2025, only the former has been digitized.

The latter can be seen on the cover of this compilation album by guitarist Gábor Szabó. It’s used in stacked and interlocked lines, with lowered caps on some.

[More info on Discogs]

Freedom Means.... is an album by The Dells, released in 1971 on Cadet Records. The male vocal group formed in 1952 in Harvey, Illinois, and remained active until 2012.

The cover design by Maurer Productions features West Behemoth Italic Swash, one of two italic styles accompanying Dave West’s upright Behemoth Clarendon. It’s used with several of its swash alternates and a four-dot ellipsis.

[More info on Discogs]

Detail of the typography

Wilson Pickett’s Hey Jude is an album released in 1969 by Atlantic Records. It features Pickett’s cover of The Beatles 1968 single “Hey Jude”.

The album cover was designed by Loring Eutemey, with typography set in the Italic Swash style of West Behemoth, a typeface designed by Dave West for Photo-Lettering.

[More info on Discogs]

The Raw Pearl is a book written by Pearl Mae Bailey and published by Harcourt, Brace & World in 1968.

The Raw Pearl is a most unusual book to come from a famous entertainer, singer, actress. Most such books are either ghosted or written ‘with the collaboration of.’ This book was written by Pearl Bailey. The result, instead of a slick formalized autobiography, is a fresh and vivid human document. The voice is Pearl Bailey's voice: witty, informal, honest, and magnetic. One reads the book with a sense of listening to Miss Bailey…

See also the 1973 paperback of Talking to Myself, which likewise features a black and white photographic background and the title set in West Behemoth Italic Swash with its multiple biform alternate glyphs and swashes.

Later (post-1970) printing with a black-and-white jacket front

In 1970, Harcourt, Brace & World changed their name to Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Talking to Myself is a book by Pearl Mae Bailey that was first published October 1, 1971. Shown here is the 1973 paperback edition by Pocket Books.

The inimitable Pearl is in rare form in Talking to Myself. This is a free-swinging book that follows literally its title though it will be an unusual reader who doesn’t decide pretty soon that Miss Bailey is talking to him too. Crammed with anecdotes and with highly independent opinions about contemporary life, this book at first seems, however lively, to have little unity. But the further one reads, the clearer it becomes that there is a hidden order to the whole work. Miss Bailey discusses with obvious delight, sometimes with passion and sometimes with humor, the state of the nation, the American family, the conflict between the generations, the entertainment world and the perils of fame,and the perennial themes of birth and love and hate and death. She is often uproariously funny, she is full of compassion, and at times strikes profoundly into the human soul…

See also the first-edition book jacket for The Raw Pearl (1968), which likewise features a black and white photographic background and a title set in West Behemoth Italic Swash with its multiple biform alternate glyphs and swashes.

“Old Fashioned” (No. 166) features two Western-style typefaces that probably originated at Filmotype in the 1960s. They’re both shown in an undated c.1974 Filmomaster specimen, as Van Horn and Quincy. The latter is also known as Amanda.

Covers for various clip books of line art issued in 1968 by Harry Volk Jr. Art Studio, Pleasantville, New Jersey. See the previous post about the clip books issued in 1955 for more information on Harry Volk Jr. Art Studio.

The bottom lines use Alternate Gothic Compressed and Univers.

“Holidays” (No. 167) ft. Gonzales Jeanette with a custom star dot that echoes the fuse.

“Expressions” (No. 168) ft. Reklame. This old German typeface was adopted by Photo-Lettering and shown in their 1971 catalog as Reclame. The punctuation is from Pistilli Roman, see the comments.

“Strength” (No. 170) ft. West Behemoth with tight and overlapping spacing and the monocular g.

“Telephones” (No. 171) ft. Filmotype Gamma.

“Religion” (No. 172) ft. Baker Chalone.

“Entertainment” (No. 174) ft. Norton Vaudeville.

“Contests” (No. 175) ft. Eurostile Bold Extended.

“Atmosphere” (No. 480) ft. Playbill.

“Direct Mail” (No. 481) ft. Univers, Venus Extended, and Franklin Gothic Wide.

“America” (No. 482) ft. Egyptienne Bold Condensed.

“Summer” (No. 483) ft. Chwast Art Tone on an angle.

“Marine” (No. 484) ft. Kalligraphia.

“Western” (No. 485) ft. Bookman Swash Bold Italic

“Autumn” (No. 486) ft. Staudel Xenotype J.

“Science” (No. 487) ft. Britannic.

“Fall & Winter Sports” (No. 488). This narrow grotesk looks a lot like an outlined version of Schmalfette Grotesk, or maybe PLINC’s adaptation Swiss Gothic, but it seems the ampersand doesn’t match. Any insights are welcome. The same outlined style appears on Volk covers from 1964 and 1974, while the “Law & Order” booklet from 1966 uses the similar Permanent Headline.

“Transportation” (No. 489) ft. Permanent Headline.

“Christmas” (No. 490) ft. Inserat-Grotesk.

“Couples” (No. 492) ft. Whimzitype 3600. Illustration by Tom Sawyer.

“Groups” (No. 494) ft. Futura Light.

“Insurance” (No. 495) ft. Permanent Massiv. The small text on this cover is set in Helvetica.

“Occupations” (No. 497) likewise shows light caps from Futura. Illustration by Tom Sawyer.

“Women” (No. 499) ft. Smoke in all caps.

“Money” (No. 500) ft. more Futura Light.

“Spring & Summer Sports” (number unknown), ft. Eurostile.

“Register and Vote” from the Paste Pot & Scissors subseries (No. PP 105), ft. Pacella Monitor and Franklin Gothic. The small type at the bottom is in Eurostile.

“Announcers” from the Paste Pot & Scissors subseries (No. PP 107), ft. Photo-Lettering’s West Behemoth Italic Swash with swash alternates and overlapping glyphs.

“Luck” from the Paste Pot & Scissors subseries (No. PP 108), ft. Mansard (with contour), another face available from Photo-Lettering. It might also be Jim Dandy, a contoured variant of Slim Dandy by Lettergraphics.

“The Year” (No. PP109) ft. more all-caps Smoke, here with its peculiar Y.

“Clichés” (No. PP110) ft. Palette on an angle as well as an early use of PLINC’s Ballard.

“Borders” (No. PP115) ft. Clarendon caps.

Hi Records, 1972

The debut album of Otis Clay (1942–2016) from 1972 combines big green type with a photograph by William Cantrell. The swashy letterforms are from West Behemoth Italic — possibly with some customizations like shortened ascenders of h or l, for a tighter setting. The glyphs included in this sample demonstrate how close the knockoff Stymie Black Italic (or Flair) is to Dave West’s design. The differences here are mainly in the counters of e or v. Also, the copy didn’t include a y with diagonal as shown here.

The cover was designed by Farmlett, Barsanti & Wood Inc., a design firm founded in 1966 by Tony Barsanti (1931–2018) and Harry Farmlett (1932–2016). Located in Manhattan on 208 Fifth Ave., it wasn’t too far away from the Photo-Lettering office on 216 E 45th St.

Fat Possum reissue, 2013

String Quintet in G Major played by The Dvořák String Quartet feat. František Pošta, Double Bass. Cover by Josef Kalousek, with art by Sandy Hoffman, 1967. The sprawling swash letters in the treetop represent an early use of Dave West’s Behemoth Italic. [More info on Discogs]

The covers for this series of records with music composed by Antonín Dvořák and released by Crossroads Records in the 1960s were art directed by Sid Maurer and illustrated by Sandy Hoffman.

Kudos to Jive Time Records for scanning and sharing these great record covers!

Symphony No. 6 In D Major, by The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Karel Ančerl. Six lines of Hobo caps with tiny diacritical marks — note the háček neatly tucked between the legs of A. Hobo is also used for the “Romantic National” logo on the left. [More info on Discogs]

String Quartet In G Major Op. 106, played by The Vlach Quartet, 1966. Not often does Times look so classy.

The cover of Aretha Franklin’s eleventh studio album from March 1967 — including “Respect” — represents an early use of the Italic Swash style of West Behemoth, designed by Dave West for Photo-Lettering. While the non-swash Behemoth Clarendon Italic 11 was shown already in Alphabet Thesaurus Vol. 2 from 1965, this swash variant appeared only in Vol. 3 (1971), as Behemoth Clarendon Italic Swash. It’s distinguished by swash forms for the capitals and several lowercase letters including d g h k l n r t v y. Unlike the swashless variant, it has no entry strokes and less pronounced exit strokes on a i m etc.

West Behemoth was revived by Martin Wenzel for the digital PLINC reincarnation. This version includes the italic, but unfortunately not the — apparently more popular — swash italic. Among digital fonts, Tutti Paffuti NF is probably the closest option. Nick Curtis based his interpretation on Stymie Black Italic, which seems to be an anonymous knockoff of West’s design that appeared in catalogs by Typeshop (1973) and Lettergraphics (1976, as Stymie Black Italic Flair).

Stereo release

Back cover

Color variant for World Record CO.’s pressing (SLW-1629), Taiwan

Cover concept and art direction by William S. Harvey, with photography by Joel Brodsky. The type is West Behemoth Italic Swash. Something about the cover design was not quite right, it seems. Maybe the image of the broken mirror was too sinister? Maybe the type was too small? In any case, one year later, Elektra re-issued the album under a new name, The Road To Cairo, with a new cover by Elaine Gongora.

The sleeve for the French single release of the opening song, “The Road To Cairo”, features the same typeface for the artist’s name. The title appears to be in outlined caps from Grotesque No.9.

“The first music for easy listening ever recorded on the Moog”

Discogs contributor philbeard:

Brain-destroying all-time great moog masterpiece, featuring very original arrangements of a load of hackneyed old standards, which are transformed into still-ahead-of-their-time-sounding lysergic trips, cut ’n pasted together with the precision of Double Dee & Steinski. Just for a start, check out the low-slung unheralded jeepbeat classic interpretation of “Flight of the Bumblebee” … I’m being entirely serious!