Roy Milton and his Solid Senders!  “Them Their Eyes” b/w “Little Boy Blue”  “Cartoon Label” Records (1946)  Will Alexander illustration

(27 votes, average: 4.26 out of 5)

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“Let’s Put the Lights Out”  Columbia Records  (1947)  Jane Russell    At the age of 25 in 1946, Jane Russell was a big movie star without many movies to justify her status. She had been signed to a seven-year contract by Howard Hughes at 19, and Hughes had spent nine months shooting her first film, The Outlaw, a western that was more about her cleavage than about its nominal subject, Billy the Kid.  That got it in hot water with the Hays Office, and years went by while Hughes tinkered with the picture, then fought to get it released properly. Meanwhile, he had tens of thousands of photographs taken of Russell and lent her out for one other film, Young Widow. While she was waiting around for her movie career to take off, she got an offer from bandleader Kay Kyser to appear on his radio show, and after hearing her he signed her to a 12-week contract and even took her with him to Columbia Records for a couple of sides.  As The Outlaw finally neared a New York opening, Columbia signed Russell on her own for this album, originally released on four 78s in 1947.  The eight original tracks are bedroom ballads that she coos in a drowsy voice dripping with sex.  The sentiments are well represented by such titles as “Do It Again” and “Love for Sale,” and on two songs, the title track and “Two Sleepy People.”

(40 votes, average: 4.55 out of 5)

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Dugaree Doll  Mitch Miller and The Sandpipers  (1955)   “Matt,  I just saw your recent post of Dungaree Doll on Peter Pan Records, and thought that perhaps you might be interested in another version, another record company, another speed. This one’s a 6-inch 78 on yellow plastic.   Your site is simply the best time-killer-when-I’m-supposed-to-be-working that any human being has ever devised. ”    — Glenn

(26 votes, average: 3.42 out of 5)

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The first cover courtesy of Alex Steinweiss:  “Smash Song Hits by Rodgers & Hart”  Columbia Records

A sampling of Alex Steinweiss early album cover designs.

A Taschen book of Steinweiss covers and life of work.

Alex Steinweiss, 1947   Photo William P. Gottlieb

Described as the father of record cover design, Alex Steinweiss, died Sunday at the age of 94.  In 1939, after designing hundreds of packages, posters and catalogues for Columbia, Steinwiess convinced Columbia Records’ to let him “design” the first true record cover. Until then, 78s were sold in generic brown sleeves.   He designed over 850 album covers for Columbia, London, Decca, and Everest Records, developing a trademark style and influencing cover artists and designers throughout the remainder of the century.

I wonder what he would have thought of LP Cover Lover.

(42 votes, average: 4.69 out of 5)

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Columbia Records presents Danny Kaye   An album of four 78 RPM 10″ records   in a gatefold jacket.   (Circa 1953)   Includes eight songs:   C91-6The Fairy Pipers and The Babbitt and The Bromide. C91-2 Minnie the Moocher and Let’s Not Talk About Love C91-7 Eileen and Dinah C91-4 Anatole of Paris and Farming

(30 votes, average: 2.80 out of 5)

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Decca Records for Children   “Unbreakable DECCALITE”   Frank Luther “The Three Billygoat’s Gruff”

(39 votes, average: 3.15 out of 5)

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A rare example of illustrator Jim Flora’s work on this Columbia Records 78RPM 10″ record album, “Come to the Circus”

(39 votes, average: 3.82 out of 5)

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IKE QUEBEC   “TENOR SAX”   BLUE NOTE Set 102.   Ike Quebec (ts) Roger Ram Ramirez (p) Tiny Grimes (g) Milt Hinton (b) J.C. Heard (d)   WOR Studios, NYC, July 18, 1944   Songs include: Topsy/Cup-Mute Clayton/If I Had You/Hard Tack/Sweethearts on Parade/Dolores     Three 78 RPM Recordings – Record #’s 510, 515, 516.

These sides were released “for the jukebox market” in the late fifties as 45′s by Blue Note records and lead to new session work and some brilliant albums as a leader in 1961 -62.   His comeback was cut short by lung cancer in 1963.

(49 votes, average: 3.73 out of 5)

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James Moody BE BOP “Tomorrow’s Music Today”   Metronome Records (From Lp cover lover, Mika)

(23 votes, average: 4.30 out of 5)

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