The Zombies – Odessey & Oracle album art
Odessey & Oracle is the second (and last) studio album released by UK rock band The Zombies. Despite a lack of immediate success, the album proved in influential in later years. Band name, artwork and album title were painted by Terry Quirk. Apparently the lettering was considered so much part of the artwork that all releases after the first pressing had the band name and title typeset in Gothic.
From Billbard.com:
Part of its legend is the cover, a painting done by Terry Quirk, a friend of Zombies bassist Chris White. Although classic in its own right and inarguably gorgeous, the cover illustration features a noticeable gaffe: Odyssey is misspelled “Odessey”. At the time, several of the Zombies maintained the misspelling was intentional, but in recent years, the band admitted it was a mistake they caught by the time the record had gone to print.
On his own website, Terry Quirk explains that the hidden meanings that fans have found over time in the strange spelling of the title make no sense:
I ended up spelling odyssey wrong, so that’s my claim to fame. There’s lots of theories online about why it’s spelt wrong, but there’s no conspiracy.
