George Harrison   “All Things Must Pass” Apple Records   (1970)   (I got my copy that year.)   A triple album with the #1 hit “My Sweet Lord,”   “Isn’t It A Pity,” and many other beautiful songs.   Album design and photography:   Tom Wilkes.

Wilkes was partner in a Long Beach advertising firm when he became art director for the 1967 Monterey International Pop Music Festival for which he created all of the graphics and print materials, including the festival’s psychedelic poster that was printed on foil stock.   Music producer Lou Adler, who produced the landmark music festival with singer John Phillips, said Wilkes “caught the spirit of the time” with his festival graphics.   The Monterey pop festival “catapulted” Wilkes’ career into the music industry, his daughter said, beginning as art director at A&M Records.

During his heyday, Wilkes designed or provided the art direction or graphic design for scores of album covers, including designing the covers for the Rolling Stones’ “Beggars Banquet,” Neil Young’s “Harvest,” Eric Clapton’s “Eric Clapton,” Joe Cocker’s “Mad Dogs & Englishmen” and George Harrison’s “Concert for Bangladesh” and “All things Must Pass.”

As he did with many of the albums, Wilkes also shot the cover photo of Joplin for her 1971 “Pearl” album, which shows the flamboyant singer lounging on a settee.   (Their photo session was the night she overdosed.)

In 1973, Wilkes won a Grammy Award for best recording package for the Who’s rock opera “Tommy,” as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Choir.

Wilkes passed away in 2009.   He was 69 years old.

(67 votes, average: 3.90 out of 5)

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“Takin My Time”   Bonnie Raitt’s third LP released in 1973.   A personal favorite.   And what a cast of players!   Bonnie, Freebo, Lowell George, John Hall, Milt Holland, Jim Keltner, Taj Mahal, Earl Palmer, Van Dyke Parks and Ernie Watts.   Produced by John Hall (see the story below)   Art direction: Tom Gamache, Sandy Kroopf   Cover photo: Michael Dobo

In an interview given in 1982, Raitt would reveal that “Takin’ My Time is one of my favorite records to listen to, although I started out with Lowell George producing it, and he and I got too close to be able to have any objectivity about it. That’s the problem when you’re a woman and you get involved with the people you work with – and I just don’t just mean romantically. It becomes too emotional. It’s hard to have a strong woman telling the man her ideas when, in fact, the man wants to take over the situation. So that album had a lot of heartache in it. At the time it was a difficult one to make, but now I like it.”

(42 votes, average: 3.45 out of 5)

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Two by Bijelo Dugme   Yugoslav Rock

(76 votes, average: 4.18 out of 5)

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Elvis covers Dylan: The soundtrack to “Spinout”   Elvis Presley’s 22nd movie.   RCA Records (1966)   Dylan once said that Presley’s cover of “Tomorrow Is A Long Time” was “the one recording I treasure the most.”   The song originally appeared on the album, Spinout. According to Ernst Jorgensen’s book, Elvis Presley: A Life In Music – The Complete Recording Sessions, it was recorded at RCA’s Studio B, Nashville, in late May, 1966.

According to  Jorgensen’s’ book,    Presley got into  the song via  Charlie McCoy, who had previously  participated in the  Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde sessions.   McCoy played the album Odetta Sings Dylan before an Elvis session, and Presley “had become taken with ‘Tomorrow Is A Long Time’.” Although it had been covered  by other artists, Dylan had not yet released a version.

Scotty Moore, Chip Young, and McCoy  grabbed their acoustic guitars, while Bob Moore played electric bass.    A tambourine was then added. “By take three, they had completed a gorgeous – and for Elvis, extraordinarily long – five-minute master.

“Elvis’ discography also includes covers of these Dylan songs ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right’, ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ and ‘I Shall Be Released’.

“When I first heard Elvis’s voice, I just knew that I wasn’t going to work for anybody, and nobody was going to be my boss … Hearing him for the first time was like busting out of jail. I thank God for Elvis Presley.” -Bob Dylan

Dylan had this to say about Presley’s death:

It was so sad. I had a breakdown! I broke down… one of the very few times I went over my whole life. I went over my whole childhood. I didn’t talk to anyone for a week after Elvis died. If it wasn’t   for Elvis and Hank Williams, I couldn’t be doing what I do today.

“My mouth feels like Bob Dylan’s been sleeping in it.”   -Elvis Presley

On his recovery from a serious 1997 illness Dylan told the world, ‘I really thought I’d be seeing Elvis soon.

(45 votes, average: 2.64 out of 5)

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The Iveys   “Maybe Tomorrow” b/w “And Her Daddy’s A Millionaire” on Apple Records (1969)

Mal Evans (the longtime “roadie” for The Beatles and an employee of their Apple Records label) took up The Ivys cause and they were finally signed on 23 July 1968, as the first non-Beatle recording artists for the Apple record company.   “Maybe Tomorrow” (a Tom Evans song and the Iveys first single) was released worldwide late in 1968.   It reached the Top Ten in a number of European countries (#1 in Holland) and Japan, but only climbed to #67 in the U.S. and failed to chart in the U.K.   In October 1969, while the release of “Come and Get It” pending, the band and Apple Records agreed that a name change was now critical. “The Iveys” were still sometimes confused with “The Ivy League”, and the name was considered too trite for the current music scene. After much debate, the group changed their name to Badfinger. Other suggestions had included: “The Glass Onion,” “The Prix”, and “The Cagneys” from John Lennon, and “Home” by Paul McCartney. The name Badfinger had been suggested by Apple’s Neil Aspinall as a reference to “Bad Finger Boogie”, an early working title of Lennon/McCartney’s “With a Little Help from my Friends”, the idea alleged by Neil Aspinall that Lennon had composed the melody on a piano using only one finger, after having hurt his forefinger.

(62 votes, average: 3.10 out of 5)

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Bobby Dylan   “Mixed Up Confusion” / “Corrina, Corrina”   CBS Records   (1966)   Produced by John Hammond   I think that this was originally recorded and released by Columbia in 1962.   Too many variations of Dylan releases to comprehend.   Nice cover photo though.   And the songs… well they hold up just fine!

(62 votes, average: 3.39 out of 5)

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Them on a British Decca EP (1965)  “Don’t Start Crying Now/Philosophy/Baby Please Don’t Go/One, Two Brown Eyes”

(65 votes, average: 3.68 out of 5)

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The Beatles Capitol Single 2056   “I Am The Walrus” / “Hello Goodbye”   (1967)   Produced by George Martin   Found a cool site that includes this 45 as one of the greatest 200 “two-sided hits” of all time.

(66 votes, average: 3.55 out of 5)

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The great Roy Orbison “In Dreams”   Monument Records (1963)

(57 votes, average: 3.16 out of 5)

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“Talk Talk” (Turn On) The Music Machine   Original Sound Label (1966)

(53 votes, average: 3.75 out of 5)

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