Stephen Kroninger - Illustrated Record Sleeves

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Illustrated Record Sleeves

posted:March 14, 2012

Album covers are one of the lost arts of the previous century. Their 12 inch by 12 inch format was ideal for illustrators to present their work to a wider audience. Often the contents of the record and the cover art were inseparable in the mind of the consumer. Looking at the cover art for a favored album immediately starts the recording itself playing in one's head. I don't know of a comporable format for illustrators in today's market. I skipped a lot of musical genres since many of those covers have been collected in books (see links at the botton of this page).
The lps here are from my own collection. My records now mostly take up up closet space. My turntable has been gathering dust for over a decade.
In previous posts I spotlighted the record sleeve art of Gary Panter and Cal Shenkel. I started this post some time ago and kept coming back to it. lt got a lot larger than I originally intended it to be. Very few of the records depicted here made the transition to cds and of those that did fewer retained the original artwork. The popularity of digital formats has made the association between the graphic arts and recordings all but disappear..
I trust there's something of interest to be found here for all designers and illustrators. Think of it as a box of records.

I'll begin with a few Jack Davis covers that don't appear in the new anthology Jack Davis: Drawing American Pop Culture: a Career Retrospective.

Jack Davis 1964

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Jack Davis (1965)

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Jack Davis (1958)

Jack Rickard (1966)

Tomi Ungerer (1964)

Everett Aison (1961)

Federico Fellini (1973)

John Alcorn (1974)

uncredited (1973)

Charles Gehm (1975)

Jouineau Bourduge (1975)

Guy Peelaert (1976)

Farmett, Barsanti & assoc. (1969)

Saul Bass (1980)

Leo Kouper (1959, rereleased 1970s)

Ajay (1949)

Frank Tashlin (1946)

uncredited (1949)

uncredited (1946)

uncredited (1952)

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Ed Nofziger (1956)

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uncredited (1954)

uncredited (1986)

William S. Harvey (1956)

Robert Armstrong (1977)

Emory Douglas (1969)

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Mark Beyer (1989)

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Mark Beyer (1989)

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uncredited (1951)

uncredited (1952)

Shel Silverstein (1959)

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Ray Gonsalves/Smith-Clippinger & Assoc. (1960)

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Norman Rockwell (1960)

Alexander (1961)

Dick Hendler (1965)

Frank Frazetta (1966)

Basset Hand Graphics (1969)

Warren Linn (1971)

Mort Drucker (1971)

Gilbert Stone (1972)

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Bill Hickson (1976)

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Mike Byron (1976)

Nick Taggart (1978)

Promotional pinback

Harvey (1964)
A website featuring 197 album covers by Harvey. Throughout the 1960's Harvey produced paintings for the covers of Savoy Records and their subsidiaries Sharp, Regent, and Gospel. Most were gospel albums, but there were also a few jazz and one blues cover.

uncredited (1962)

Leo and Diane Dillon (1960)

Volume 2

Fritz Eichenberg (1965)

Fritz Eichenberg (1969)

Hiram Ash (1956)

uncredited (1965)

Robert Osborn (1967)

Al Hirschfeld (1953)

Fritz Eichenberg (1958)

Russo (1963)

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Russo (1964)

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uncredited (1959)

uncredited (1957)

Antonio Frasconi (1957)

Antonio Frasconi (1952)

uncredited (1961)

Sally Stillman (1973)

David Levine (1964)

Leo and Diane Dillon (1962)

Leo and Diane Dillon (1959)

Leo and Diane Dillon (1961)

Joseph Low (1957)

John Solie (1975)

Art Director: J. J. Stelmach

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James McMullan (1988)

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Keith Haring 1985

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Alan Saret (1973) Philip Glass: Music In Similar Motion/Music In Fifths

Milton Glaser (1979)

Sol Lewitt (1974)

Milton Glaser (1980)

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Joe Davis (1981)

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John Cage (1978)

uncredited (1960) for more of this type Project Thirty-Three

Saul Bolasni (1955)

Tom Allen (1957)

Ben Shahn (1958)

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uncredited (1962)

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Paul Davis (1976)

Linne? (1958)

Tom Allen (1964)

Wattley (1954)

Carroll (1963)

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Milton Glaser (1969, rereleased 1977)

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Milton Glaser (1978)

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William Stout (1981)

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Robert Crumb (1978)

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R. Crumb: The Complete Record Cover Collection gathers every album sleeve he’s done to date, along with tons of posters and other music-related ephemera.