band-aid-40, Paul Weller, Peter Blake, Uncategorized

Two New CDs with Peter Blake Art and Some Other Covers.

Leave a comment

I have a pretty impressive collection of record and CD covers with Pweter Blake’s art. Over the years I’ve managed to get many of them signed by Sir Peter and just before Christmas I got hold of two more CDs beautifully signed by Sir Peter. My agent popped round to Blake’s home with a few CDs and asked Chrissy if she could ask Peter to sign them. Chrissy knows that signed items can go for quite large sums but this time she took them to her husband who signed them beautifully.

Paul Weller’s 2024 album “66”.

I really like this cover. It’s traditional signwriting and I like to dabble in signwriting myself as I’ve had a longterm love of typography. Peter Blake studied tyypogrpahy at Gravesend College and many of his album covers show his expertise with various forms of type. The inspiration for Paul Weller’s cover came from the fact that Weller’s 66th birthday was the day after this album was released and Weller wanted the album called “66“. Blake delved into his collection of old signs and found a butcher’s sign advertising something for 6d (six old pence) and copied the typeface.

Blake has published several series of prints of various alphabets and even published boooks of them. Other typefaces that Blake has used include some victorian lettered tiles that he has used on several covers, the first being Paul Weller’s Stanley Road. There have been many since. Type sourced from old alphabets appeared on Madness’ 2012 album Oui Oui, Si Si, Ja Ja, Da Da. However, the typeface Blake obviously likes best is hhis own handwriting! It stands out on the Madness cover but appeared as early as on the Who’s Face Dances album. Other styles he has used include rubber stamped and stencilled letters.

Band Aid 40’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” CDEP.

The Band Aid 40 cover is one of my favourites as it is a prime example of Blake’s recycling. In 2010 he made two series of prints, one said “I Love Recycling” and the other “I Love London”. When I met Him and Chrissy at the opening of the exhibition of these prints I showed my collection of Blake’s record covers at the Galllery and he gave me a set of these prints.

The Band Aid 40 cover is a recycled Blake design from 1959-60. Originally a painting called Valentine (for Pauline Boty) that he gave to his lover Pauline Boty.

Valentine (for Pauline Boty)

These two CDs covers have what I consider the best examples of Peter Blake’s autograph. I haven’t seen better placed signatures before–and I have many examples in my collection, He usually signs LP covers with smaller signatures, sometimes almost invisible, like on this 1983 album cover.

Gershwin – Signed album cover. Blake’s signature is visible just above the “ux Montmartre”

Perhaps the rarest cover with Peter Blake’s art is the 1990 promotional EP I’m Frank by the Manchester band the Fall that was only released in America. How the Fall (or their American record label, Fontana) came to use Blake’s 1981 Nadia painting is a mystery.

Peter Blake’s 1981 painting Nadia on the cover of the Fall’s “I’m Frank” EP.

And if there is one cover in my Peter Blake that is really special, it has to be my copy of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, signed by both designers Jann Haworth and Peter Blake.

I’ll tell more stories about Peter Blakes record and CD cover art in a book that I hope will see the light of day sometime soon.

Uncategorized

Pete Townshend and his friend Peter Blake.

Leave a comment

The story that I was told was that Peter Blake met the Who at a Ready Steady, Go! television show in 1965 and that Pete Townshend and Blake became friends then. I’ve always believed it. But now, while researching my book about Peter Blake’s record cover art, I decided I’d better read Townshend’s 2012 autbiography “Who I Am”.

He delves deeply into his early years and his time at Ealing Art College and the formation of the Who. He mentions that the College was quite near to “his hero” Peter Blake’s studio but then goes on to describe his difficulty in deciding whether to continue at art school or devote himself to music and the Who. We all know which won.

Fast forward to the late summer of 1978 (probably in late August) and Pete states that he met his hero, the pop artist Peter Blake for the first time together with Ian Dury and was pleased to note that they, like him, liked a drink or two. Only days after his meeting with Peter Blake, Keith Moon dies on September 7th of an overdose of sleeping tablets.

In 1980 the Who started recording “Face Dances”, their eleventh album, having recruited Kenney Jones, ex the Faces, as their new drummer. Townshend had worked with Jones previously so he knew he was up to the job. Townshend says “I persuaded my friend Peter Blake to do the artwork for Face Dances, due for release in March 1981. It would be the first record cover he had designed since The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper”. He decided to ask twelve British artists each to produce a portrait of one member of the band. Ron Kitaj and Richard Hamilton—heroes of mine along with Peter himself—were among those who contributed. The album was released to limp reviews, though sales were good.” Pete had obviously not been following Blake’s career in album cover art!

So, rather than just casually asking “his friend” Peter Blake to design the album cover, Townshend had “to persuade” his hero to do the job. Luckily, he was extremely pleased with the result with portraits by Ron Kitaj, Richard Hamilton and Blake’s own contribution.

Well, I had to rewrite my introduction to the chapter on the design of the “Face Dances” album cover. I was surprised to note that Townshend doesn’t mention Richard Evans’ contribution in view of the fact that he would let Evans design cover for the promotional double LP for “Face Dances” called “Filling in the Gaps”. An interview with Pete Townsshend.

Otherwise, I didn’t find “Who I Am” particularly interesting. Lists of Townshend’s drug-taking and infidelities and his attempts to leave the Who became boring. But I’m grateful for the fact about his first meeting with Blake and how the “Face Dances” cover came about.

Record cover art, Peter Blake's Rwecord Cover Art, Record colecting, Guitars, Teenage Cancer Trust

Peter Blake’s Cover for Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes’ “Going Home” Single Revisited.

Leave a comment

This single was made to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust and Knopfler put together a stellar crowd of international guitarists for the re-recording of Knopfler’s “Going Home (Theme from Local Hero)”. Knopfler named them Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes and features a line-up of some of the greatest guitarists and musicians in history[1]. The track was recorded was recorded in late 2023 and early 2024 at British Grove Studios in West London with additions from the various contributors recorded in their own studios. The recording, produced by Knopfler’s long-time musical partner Guy Fletcher, was condensed to the nine minute track on the record. The guitar intro, played by Jeff Beck, turned out to be his final recording before his death on 10th January 2023.

I haven’t been able to find out how Blake became involved in this project but given the charity connection and Roger Daltrey’s and Pete Townshend’s involvement I would hazard a guess that Pete suggested that Blake provide the cover art.

Roger Daltrey has been an Honorary Patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust, founded by Dr Adrian Whiteson and his wife, Myrna. Daltrey has organised concerts in support of the trust and this charity single was released in aid of the trust and Teen Cancer America. I don’t know how Mark Knopfler became involved in the trust, but he decided to re-record his hit from the 1983 film “Local Hero” with a galaxy of guitar heroes, starting with Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton and Albert Lee, and many others. Daltrey plays harmonica and Ringo Starr, and his son Zak play drums. I got my copy of the U.K. version as soon as it was released

I had no idea that Peter Blake had designed two cover variations. The one for the U.K. and European release shows a collage of the guitarists in front of Hanks Music Store (located in London’s Denmark Street) while the cover version released in the U.S. shows the same guitarist collage but in front of Rudy’s Music Store in SOHO, New York. Interestingly, the US version has a circular “Who cares” sticker in the left upper window that doesn’t appear on the UK version. I only found out about the U.S. version eighteen months after it had been released and it’s now quite hard to find..

Both the U.K. and U.S. singles were single-sided with an etched B-side and both versions were manufactured in the Czech Republic.

[1] The complete list of all 66 participants in the “Going Home” recording:
Joan Armatrading, Jeff Beck, Richard Bennett, Joe Bonamassa, Joe Brown, James Burton, Jonathan Cain, Paul Carrack, Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder, Jim Cox, Steve Cropper, Sheryl Crow, Danny Cummings, Roger Daltrey, Duane Eddy, Sam Fender, Guy Fletcher, Peter Frampton, Audley Freed, Vince Gill, David Gilmour, Buddy Guy, Keiji Haino, Tony Iommi, Joan Jett, John Jorgenson, Mark Knopfler, Sonny Landreth, Albert Lee, Greg Leisz, Alex Lifeson, Steve Lukather, Phil Manzanera, Dave Mason, Hank Marvin, Brian May, Robbie McIntosh, John McLaughlin, Tom Morello, Rick Nielsen, Orianthi, Brad Paisley, Nile Rodgers, Mike Rutherford, Joe Satriani, John Sebastian, Connor Selby, Slash, Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr and Zak Starkey, Sting, Andy Taylor, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Ian Thomas, Pete Townshend, Keith Urban, Steve Vai, Waddy Wachtel, Joe Louis Walker, Joe Walsh, Ronnie Wood, Glenn Worf, Zucchero

The WHO - Face Dances

The Cover of the Who’s “Face Dances” Album.

4 Comments

.Richard Evans (born 1945) is a designer who began his career with the legendary design group Hipgnosis before starting his own company. He has designed record covers for many bands including Robert Plant, Van Morrison and World Party. But he is best known for his covers for the Who and Pete Townshend, including “Who’s Missing”–with it’s nod to Peter Blake’s “Got a Girl” painting and its companion “Two’s Missing”

The first Who cover he worked on was their 1981 “Faces Dances” LP. This was the first Who album after Keith Moon’s death and the band had recruited former Small Faces drummer Kenney Jones to replace him. Pete Townshend met Peter Blake on the set of the television show “Ready, Steady, Go!” in 1965 and they became friends, which is how Townshend came to ask Blake to design the cover for what would be the Band’s nineth album. Evans also designed the cover for “Filling in the Gaps” the promotional album for “Fasce Dances”, a recording of Pete Townshend discussing the album.

Blake’s four-by-four square layout with four individual portraits of the band members has become a classic cover. Blake got fifteen of his artist friends to each paint one band member.

 Gavin Cochrane took a photo of each member of the band, which the 16 artists used to paint on 6 in × 6 in (150 mm × 150 mm) canvases the portraits of each member of the band for the front cover , although it seems that Jo Tilson based his painting of Kenney on Blake’s portrait  rather than the photograph.

Gavin Cochrane’s photos of the Who members that the artists used to paiint the cover portraits.

Pete Townshend on the top row, painted by Bill Jacklin, Tom Phillips, Colin Self and Richard Hamilton.
Second row: Roger Daltrey by Michael Andrews, Allen Jones, David Inshaw and David Hockney.
Third row: John Entwistle painted by Clive Barker, R. B. Kitaj, Howard Hodgkin and Patrick Caulfield.
Bottom row: New member Kenney Jones painted by Peter Blake, Joe Tilson, Patrick Procktor, and David Tindle.

Richard Evans provided the graphic design of the back cover that featured Clive Barker’s 1967 sculpture of a gold-plated, bronze paintbox. Barker had been one of four pop artists shown in a joint exhibition at Robert “Groovy Bob” Fraser’s Duke Street gallery in 1967 together with Peter Blake, Jann Haworth and Colin Self. I suppose the paintbox was on show there and Blake acquired it. Evans had Blake write the portrait credits on a card and he designed the paint tubes creating a typeface reminiscent of the one Windsor & Newton used on their paint tubes. Once again, Gavin Cochrane photographed the paintbox at his studio with Blake and Evans in attendance.

The ”Face Dances” album has become a classic Who album and has been reissued several  times. The 2021 reissue included four prints of the cover portraits.


One of the limited edition prints.

The prints included in the 2021 re-issue of Face Dances.

Uncategorized

Robert “Groovy Bob” Fraser Remembered.

2 Comments

Does anyone remember art gallery owner Robert Fraser any more? Well, I do. I have been researching Peter Blake’s record cover art and discovered that Robert Fraser was more than just an advisor suggesting to Brian Epstein that a fine art cover would last longer than a Fool(ish) psychedelic cover. It transpires that “Groovy Bob” as he was known to his friends was a central figure in what Richard Hamilton called “Swingeing London”. Fraser’s Duke Street Gallery was more than just an art gallery. From 1962 to 1969, Fraser put on ground-breaking exhibitions, introducing Pop Art before anyone else. The gallery was a meeting place for artists, musicians, film makers and trendsetters. Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Marianne Faithfull, John Dunbar were regular visitors. Fraser helped start McCartney’s art collection, taking him to Paris in 1965 to buy a Magritte painting!

The Duke Street Gallery closed in 1969 but Fraser opened a new gallery in nearby Cork Street in 1983 and ran it until 1985. Fraser died in January 1986—one of the first celebrities in England to die of Aids.

In 1999, Harriet Vyner, who had become friends with Groovy Bob in the eighties, published her book “Groovy Bob: The Life and Times of Robert Fraser”—a book of interviews and impressions from artists and gallery regulars about Robert, his business and his feelings and what the gallery meant.

The sheer number of artists who exhibited at Fraser’s galleries  is impressive; ranging from the cream of American Pop Art, like Andy Warhol, Jim Dine, Ed Ruscha, Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, as well as emerging British Pop Artists, including Richard Hamilton, Derek Boshier, Colin Self, Peter Blake, Clive Barker  and Bridget Riley.

So, tuned in as I was to Groovy Bob’s influences on both art and music I was intrigued when I discovered that there was an album called “Robert Fraser’s Groovy Art Club Band”—a limited edition double LP released on the occasion of a group exhibition at London’s Gazelli Art House from 11th January to 23rd February 2019 called just “Robert Fraser’s Groovy Art Club Band” with contributions from Clive Barker, Peter Blake, Derek Boshier, Brian Clarke, Jim Dine, Jean Dubuffet, Richard Hamilton, Keith Haring, Jann Haworth, Bridget Riley, Ed Ruscha and Colin Self. The gallery even produced the album recorded by David G. A. Stephenson and Josh Stapleton and a hard cover book.

I found a copy for sale on Discogs and immediately ordered it. Cover art by Derek Boshier, it was released at the pre-opening on January 10th, 2019.

Each of the fourteen tracks is dedicated to one artist with the first track called “Groovy Bob”, so you know who that’s about. The second track, “From Sir With Love” is Peter Blake’s. “Jim Dine’s Toolbox” is next, and then “Dubuffet or Not Dubuffet”, followed by “Slip It to Me” which is a reggae paean to Richard Hamilton. “Optical Tactical” celebrates Bridget Riley. No prizes for guessing who “I Want to Hang Out with Ed Ruscha” is about. Then it’s “Clive Barker and His Midas Touch” that celebrates Barker’s burnished bronze sculptures of everyday articles (like the paintbox on the back cover of the Who’s “Face Dances” LP that he made). “Leopard Skin Nuclear Bomber” is a Clash-like rocker that references Colin Self’s 1963 “Leopardskin Nuclear Bomber” sculpture. This is followed by “ Keith Haring’s Pop Shop” and thereafter “Samo”, which was Jean-Michel Basquiat’s street art tag in the early days. After “Samo” there’s “Dangerous Visions of Brian Clarke”, followed by “An Englishman in L.A.” , a reference to Derek Boshier, who lived in the City of Angels until his death in 2024. The final track is a song about Jann Haworth and her mural S.L.C. Pepper (Salt Lake City Pepper), Haworth’s hometown, where her new version of the Pepper cover addresses the lack of representation of women and people of colour in the original Sgt. Pepper line-up.

The album is on Spotify, so you can give it a listen.
Don’t hold your breath, but there’s much more to come from my research into Peter Blake’s record cover art that this post is a tangential part of.

R.I.P. Derek Boshier 1937-2024.

Uncategorized

A Valentine Lost: Peter Blake’s Pattern of Heartbreak.

Leave a comment

When Sotheby’s offered Peter Blake’s painting “Valentine (for Pauline Boty)” for auction in 2019, they described the two artists as “inseparable.” The work sold for £287,500—a significant sum for what appeared to be a simple valentine. But this wasn’t just any love token. It was evidence of a relationship that would shape Blake’s emotional life and set a pattern of loss that would haunt him for decades.

Robert Fraser opened his famous art gallery at 69 Duke Street in London in 1962 and attracted the cream of pop art artists to the gallery’s roster: Richard Hamilton, Derek Boshier, Peter Blake, Colin Self and Jann Haworth. Fraser’s gallery attracted visitors from the world of film, music and art. He was the first to show American pop artists such as Andy Warhol and Jim Dine in London. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were gallery regulars—Robert Fraser helped Paul McCartney build his art collection.

There was one English pop artist who wasn’t represented by Groovy Bob Fraser. She was Pauline Boty (1938-1966), a polymath: pop artist, poet, radio programme host, actress and dancer. You could have seen her bopping to the music on TV’s “Ready, Steady, Go”. She studied at the Royal College of Art from 1958-61 alongside Peter Blake, David Hockney and Derek Boshier.

Wikipedia describes her as “the heartbreaker of the sixties art scene. Talented and outspoken, she was loved by countless men…” Boty and Blake became inseparable. Between 1959-60, Blake painted a valentine for her, simply titled “Valentine (for Pauline Boty)”.

Peter Blake: Valentine (for Pauline Boty), 1959-60.

There’s Lewis Morley’s famous photograph of Pauline holding the Valentine painting.

Boty and Jann Haworth were the only two women among the pop artists at the time. Haworth, like Blake, was represented by Robert Fraser and had solo shows at his gallery as well as a joint exhibition with Peter Blake, Derek Boshier and Colin Self.But Boty’s romantic life was complicated. She was having an affair with TV director Philip Saville (who was already married) while involved with Blake. Then in June 1963, after a whirlwind ten-day romance, she married literary agent Clive Goodwin. Blake—and Saville—must have been devastated.

Blake’s response was swift. Just one month later, in July 1963, he married the other female pop artist, Jann Haworth, whom he had met at a party while she was a student at the Slade School of Art. Another whirlwind romance. The newlyweds immediately left for an extended honeymoon in California, where Jann’s father, Academy Award-winning art director Ted Haworth, lent them his Stingray sports car. They drove to Malibu listening to the Beach Boys, and Ted got Blake access to a film studio storeroom filled with props from the Elizabeth Taylor film Cleopatra. They were still in California in November when President Kennedy was assassinated.

Pauline Boty’s remarkable artistic and acting career ended abruptly when, in 1965 while pregnant, she developed a malignant tumour. Boty refused abortion and treatment as it would harm the foetus. Her daughter Katy was born on 12th February 1966, and Pauline died on 1st July, aged only 28. The “Valentine” painting passed to her husband Clive Goodwin until his death in 1977. It was later acquired by art collector Muriel Wilson (1933-2018), who donated it to the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester along with many other works from her collection.

Blake and Haworth remained together for sixteen years, founding the Brotherhood of Ruralists in 1975. But in 1979, history repeated itself. Haworth met author Richard Severy and left Blake. Devastated, Blake left Somerset and the Ruralists and returned to London. He was reported to have been unable to work for almost a year after this separation—a testament to how deeply the loss affected him.

When the Valentine painting came up for sale at Sotheby’s in 2019, it was featured in an article titled “Unrequited Love and Peter Blake’s Pop Art Valentine.” But the image had clearly stayed with Blake. Sixty-five years after its creation, it reappeared on the cover of Band Aid 40’s 2024 single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”—suggesting that his feelings for Boty, and that moment in time, had never entirely left him.

There’s another possible legacy of Blake’s relationship with Boty that art historians may have overlooked. Boty was herself an accomplished collage artist. While the textbooks credit Joseph Cornell and Kurt Schwitters as Blake’s influences in collage, perhaps the woman who was ‘inseparable’ from him during those formative years played a more significant role than history has acknowledged. It wouldn’t be the first time a male artist’s female partner influenced his work without receiving credit.

Blake met artist Chrissy Wilson in 1980, soon after returning to London, and they married in 1987 after his divorce from Haworth was finalized in 1981. They are still together after more than 40 years—perhaps Blake had finally found lasting love.

Haworth and Severy remained together until Severy’s death..

Uncategorized

A New Way to Picture Record Covers

Leave a comment

The art of Luzzatticovers.es

A few days ago I sumbled across a Facebook post asking after the title of a record sleeve that I sort of recognised but it looked strange.

Recognise it? It’s obvioulsy Aretha Franklin’s “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You” but with all the detaiil removed. AN Internet seach followed and turned up the creator Luzzatti.es, who has reimagined a wide range of covers thst he sells on his website for €50 each. He produces limited editions of 50 prints each 30 X 30 cm)s (11,7 x 11,7 inches).

Eduardo Luzzzatti is a graphic designer based in Valencia, Spain, who says this project is his way of paying tribute to the designers, photographers illustrators and artists who created the covers of some of our favourite albums.

He has 430 covers on his site! Obviously I immediately serched for covers by artists I collect–Andy Warhol, Peter Blake, and Klaus Voormann. Yep1 They’re are some there.

Screenshot
Screenshot
Screenshot

Screenshot
Screenshot

I think these minimalistic cover versions are really clever. While anyone who knows their cover art will recognise these covers there will be others who just see astract immages. Some work better thsn others–the White Light/White Heat cover doesn’t really lend itself to Luzzatti’s treatment. I’m not so happy with the Sgt. Pepper cpover eother, but the Sticky Fingers, VU & N and Revolver covers work well.

Uncategorized

Ninety-three and Still Going Strong–A New Peter Blake Record Cover.

Leave a comment

I’ve spent several years researching Peter Blake’s record cover art and found three covers that I had no idea Blake had contributed. I have now a list of thirty-six covers released over 58 years. That must be some kind of record!

Here’ my list of all I’ve been able to find to date.

  1. The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – 1967
  2. Pentangle – Sweet Child – 1968
  3. Chris Jagger –The Adventures of Valentine Vox the Ventriloquist – 1974
  4. Roger McGough – Summer with Monika –1978
  5. The Who – Face Dances – 1981
  6. Landscape – Manhattan Boogie Woogie – 1982
  7. Daniel Blumenthal – Gershwin / Grofé – Rhapsody in Blue / American in Paris / Piano Concerto in F – 1983
  8. Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas? – 1984
  9. David Sylvain — A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil — 1986
  10. Ian Dury – Apples and Apples / Byeline Brown – 1989
  11. The Fall – I’m Frank –1990
  12. Eric Clapton – 24 Nights and Wonderful Tonight – 1991
  13. Paul Weller – Stanley Road – 1995
  14. A Stranger Shadow – Colours – 1995
  15. Various Artists — Brand new Boots and Panties – 2001
  16. Robbie Williams – Swing While You’re Winning – 2001
  17. Brian Wilson – Getting’ in Over My Head – 2004
  18. The Who — Live at Leeds – 2006
  19. Various Artists – John Peel: Right Time, Wrong Speed 197-1987 – 2006
  20. Eric Clapton – Me and Mr. Johnson – 2006
  21. Oasis – Stop the Clocks and Champagne Supernova – 2006
  22. The Blockheads – Staring Down the Barrel – 2009
  23. Brian Wilson & Peter Blake – That Lucky Old Sun – 2009
  24. Ben Waters – Boogie 4 Stu: A Tribute to Ian Stewart – 2011.
  25. Madness — Oui Oui, Si Si, Ja Ja, Da Da — 2012
  26. Paul Weller – Dragonfly — 2012
  27. Eric Clapton — I Still Do — 2012
  28. Eric Clapton Madison Square Garden — 2012
  29. Eric Clapton 70th Birthday Celebration — 2012
  30. John Cooper Clarke — The Luckiest Guy Alive — 2018
  31. The Who – WHO — 2019
  32. Eric Clapton — The Definitive 24 Nights — 2023
  33. Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes — Going Home (Theme from Local Hero) — 2024
  34. Paul Weller – 66 — 2024
  35. Band Aid 40 — Do They Know It’s Christmas? — 2025
  36. Hot Chip — Joy in Repetition

Peter Blake’s latest cover, by thr band Hot Chip, uses his watercolour painting of one of his mechanical, wind-up minkeys that repeatedly plays cymbals when started.

This double album of the band’s greatest hits was releaased on Friday 5th September 2025.

That’s quite impressive. Most, if not all, of his recent covers have been done for friends and the Hot Chip cover is no exception, being done as a favour to frontman Alexis Taylor, Blake’s friend.

Uncategorized

KAWS—Record Cover Art

2 Comments

Brian Donnely (born 4th November 1974 in Jersey City, New Jersey) is an American artist and designer iiving in Brooklyn. Took the artist name KAWS purely because of the way the letters appeared while still a teenager. He moved to New York where he began his career s a graffiti artist. He has graduated to fine art, paintings, sculptures and prints including record cover art.

I got a email recently offering me the chance to pre-order a record with a KAWS designed cover and that gave me the idea to try to find as many KAWS covers as I could. Searching the webb I have thus far found seventeen cover designs, the earliest from 1999 and the most recent to be released in July 2025.

So, here we go.

Number 1.

The Propellerheads—Take California and Party–12″ single released on the Wall of Sound label in 1999.

Number 2.

Cherie—Cherie—CD released on the Ape Sounds label. Cherie is a Japanese moodel, singer aand songwriter. This is her second CD, released in 2002. Guy Minnebach pointed out the tiny text above Cherie’s mask that says ”Peel slorly and see.” Now where have we seen that before? Of course! Beside the banana on the cover of the Velvet Underground & Nico! So KAWS is here directly referencing Andy Warhol! You can peel off the mask to reveal Cherie’s face.

Number 3.

DJ Hasebe—Tail of Old Nick EP–Limited edition six-track 12″ EP released in 2002 on the Sweep Inc / WEA Japan labels.
DJ Hasebe is a Japanese DJ, hip hop artist and producer born 1971. This EP has become rare and very expensive.

Number 4.

DJ Hasebe—Old Nick 2-track promotional sampler, released 2002 with an outline version of the KAWS figure on the label.

Number 5.

DJ Hasebe—Old Nick Radio Show–CD released in May 2002 by WEA Japan.

Number 6.

Towa Tei—Sweet Robots Against the Machine:–12″ released on the Rhjythm Republic label in 2003. Towa Tei is a producer, remixer, DJ, artist and creative director, born Yokohama, Japan, in 1964.

Number 7.

Various Artists compilation–Heavy Volume 2–Single-sided LP in abook with KAWS’ reimagination of various record covers.

Number 8.

Kanye West—808s & Heartbreak–2LP + CD–Rock-A-Fella Records, 2008. Kanye West, born 1977, probably needs no introduction, having being married to Kim Kardasian between 2014 and 2022. He currently uses the name Ye.

Number 9.

Clipse–Til the Casket Drops–12″ LP–Get on Down Records–2009. Clipse are a gangsta rap duo ade up of No Malice and Pusha T formed in 1992. This was their third album.

Number 10.

Screenshot

The Scotts—The Scotts--7- and 12-inch singles with coloured vinyl or as picture discs. Released on Travis Scott’s Cactus Jack label. Travis Scott and Kid Cudi formed The Scotts in 2020 for this single release.

Number 11.

J-Hope—Jack in the Box–Single-sided 12″ LP–Released by Bighit Music in 2022. J-Hope, born in 1994 is a South Korean hip hop, rap and dance pop star.

Number 12.

Kid Cudi—Man on the Moon: Trilogy–Box Set 3 x reissue 2LPs–released by Republic Records in 2022. Kid Cudi, born 1984, is Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi and also uses the moniker Kud Cudi.

Number 13.

Snoop Dogg—Doggy Style–12″ LP. This is a 2023 reissue of the album originally released in 1993, released with reimagined cover art as part of Interscope Records 30th anniversary celebration.

Mumber 14.

Kid Cudi—Insano–2LP–Released 2024 by Republic Records.

Number 15.

Clipse–Let God Sort EM Out–LP–released July 2025 on the Interscope label. Clipse return after a sixteen-year hiatus with a new album. To my mind the finest KAWS cover design so far.

Uncategorized

Ed Ruscha’s Record Sleeve Art.

Leave a comment

Here’s another artist whose record cover art I don’t really collect. But as you probably know by now I do have a penchant for Pop Art and I put Ed Ruscha in that class. However… I did pick up the Beatles’ Now and Then / Love Me Do single on seven- and twelve-inch vinyl, so I have the beginnings of an Ed Ruscha collection.

Yesterday (18th May, 2025), I went to Stockholm’s Wetterling Gallery to see the Ed Ruscha exhibiton Figure It there and was honoured to be given a guided tour by Björn Wetterling himself. He also dug around for a copy of the exhibiiton catalogue which is housed in a twelve-inch record sleeve. Thus I have two Ed Ruscha record covers, so I decided to see what other covers he has made.

First off, there’s Paul McCartney‘s 2020 album McCartney III, which wasn’t designed by Ruscha but he provided the typography on the front cover. Photography was by Mary McCartney, so Paul kept that in the family.

  1. The first cover Ruscha painted was for Mason Williams ‘1969 album Music.

2. Ruscha did the title on the cover of Talking Heads‘ 1992 compilation album Sand in the Vaseline. The cover art, however, is credited to Frank Olinsky and Manhattan Design.

3. Van Dyke Parks released a seven-inch single in 2011 called Dreaming of Paris / Wedding in Madagascar (Faranaina) and used a photo of Ruscha’s Paris print on the cover.

4. The two remaining memebers of the Beatles, with the help of AI reworked John Lennon‘s demo of Now and Then and in 2020 released it as a single on seven-, ten-, and twelve-inch vinyl coupled with a Giles Martin remastered version of the Beatles‘ first single Love Me Do. This time Ruscha designed the cover.

5. In 2023, Interscope Records celebrated its thirtieth anniversary and invited several “fine” artists to reimagine the cover art of many of the label’s back catalogue. Damien Hirst reimagined twelve of Eminem‘s covers and Richard Prince reimagined Nine Inch Nails‘ The Downward Spiral cover. Ed Ruscha reimagined 2Pac‘s All Eyez on Me album from 1996. There were two versions; a picture disc version in a ‘limited’ edition of 500 copies and a black vinyl edition of 100 copies that included a giclee print of the cover art signed by Ruscha. The picture disc edition sold for USD 100 and the 100 copy edition for USD 2,500!

6. Dead End. This is the cover from the Wetterling Gallery‘s recent Ed Ruscha exhibition. The Dead End print looks like it’s made of metal but it is actually a multi-layered print on hand-made paper. The typeface is Ruscha‘s typical Boy Scout Utility Modern with its squared off, geometric letter forms. Insted of a record, there is a card insert along with the actual catalogue.

I haven’t been able to find any more Ed Ruscha covers so I might be tempted to try to collect the few that I don’t actually have.

Record sleeve art by artists I collect