Nick Nicholas – Honky Tonk Piano Party 1 and 2 album art

We’ve seen an album by British pianist Nick Nicholas here before, featuring the elusive Gadget. Two years later, in 1975, Nicholas followed up with the two-part Honky Tonk Piano Party. The covers represent two interpretations of the same theme, both with a photograph by Frank Youngs (from the same shoot?).

For the type, designer Jack Levy went all in on the party theme with a huge helping of Stilla Caps. Zoom in on the details: this time, the dash isn’t a repurposed tilde, but rather made from the right part of the ampersand?! H got a gratuitous ball terminal (because there can’t be too many ball terminals in Stilla), and both numerals were customized (the numerals drawn by François Boltana are non-ligning which makes them a little boisterous when used in all caps).

The secondary typefaces are Albertus and Kabel, respectively. The former is used with two extra-wide W’s that appear to be pieced together from V’s – did Levy run out of the required letters on his dry transfer sheets?