The Golden Age of Wacky Classical LP Covers — Westminster Gold
July 24th, 2008 | 8:11 am est |
For a period of about six years, during the early to mid 1970s, the cover art on LPs released on the budget Westminster Gold label (part of ABC/Paramount Records) had a kind of silliness not seen before or since. The covers, which featured photographs and photomontages by Christopher Whorf, could be outrageous, sexually suggestive, or just plain inscrutable, but they were definitely attention-getting, and unlike anything else likely to be seen on classical records. 
Uncle Dave Lewis remembers, “These album covers were all done by Christopher Whorf. Lalo Schifrin once told me that the record companies liked him ‘because he could produce an album cover for about the equivalent of about two dollars.’ Lalo detested Whorf’s concept for one of Schifrin’s albums, titled There’s a Whole Lalo Schifrin Goin’ On.” [The Schifrin album was released on Dot Records, not Westminster Gold.]
There are far too many gems among the covers to fit them into a single blog. They can be sorted into broad categories, and this introduction to an ongoing topical series of Westminster Gold covers offers some of Whorf’s wackiest work — his Just Plain Inscrutable covers.
This album of Beethoven Piano Sonatas (the Moonlight, Appassionata, and Pathétique) looks like it ought to mean something, but what?
Whorf must have had something against Brahms, who inspired two of his more cryptic and unappealing covers. Fried eggs and bacon? Dead fish garnished with parsley, wrapped in a music manuscript?
What could the connection be between a bag of cutlery and Dvorak’s Piano Concerto?
Dvorak’s Overtures and Slavonic Dances …???
Maybe the “Good Luck Ludmilla” banner could be the artist’s commentary on the singer’s performance?
What IS that thing, and what does it have to do with French Orchestral Miniatures by Milhaud, Satie, Poulenc, and Ibert?
It’s obvious that this cover is referring to the album’s contents — piano music for two players — but the plastic chattering choppers and keyboard corn are just weird.
Future blogs will look at other categories of covers by Whorf, including the Clever and Genuinely Insightful, the Visual Puns, and the Lewd and/or In Questionable Taste. Stay tuned for more!
I absolutely adore Christopher Whorf’s work. As a graphic designer I can’t tell you how much I would love to be able to pieces like that for some of my clients but, alas, no one gets to be creative anymore.
It’s hard to tell because the scan is blurry, but I think the thing on the “French Orchestral Miniatures” cover might be an old-fashioned seltzer bottle. Maybe the music was particularly effervescent?
Yeah, it’s a seltzer bottle.
It is hard to get good acid anymore.
Yes, the WG covers are flat out nuts. The cover to Saint-Saens’ “Organ” Symphony features a squeeze bulb and a radiator (!), but the one that really caught my eye back in the Music Den store in the Nanuet Mall was this one ca. 1973:
http://doublebassblog.org/2008/04/worlds-greatest-classical-music-album-cover.html
Then there were the London Orphic Egg releases, which had the word “Head” in the title, i.e., Mussorgsky’s Head:
http://recordrelics.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=1811199
Brian Phillips
Whorf.Walkue HAS to be the COOLEST THING EVER!
these covers are a riot.
Though I would love to take the credit for the all the WG covers, most were the demented-sense-of-humor of my older brother Peter Whorf. We worked together often, especially at A&M (take a look at his Herb Alpert “Whipped Cream and other Delights” package, or almost any A&M record). WG was a series on “bought” classical music masters, that really had no way of competing with the likes of CBS’s or Capitol’s Angel’s classical recordings. So why not do “crazy” packaging? Remember, records were $4.95 each in stores, so if we could get you to pick-up one or two extras on impulse (or flashy covers), we had done our job. These packages were fabulous fun to do, and quite frankly, the recording artist wasn’t around to bitch. Thanks for looking back at the 60’s-70’s music scene and getting what we were up to. - Christopher Whorf
Who says Brahms and breakfast don’t mix?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u8-stngXKs&feature=related
it’s a seltzer bottle.hard to get good acid anymore.
You know, if you’re going to lift a dozen or so pictures from another web site (westminstergold.com) you could at least give the guy some credit.
Christopher, I have been trying to track down you or your brother to ask a question about your father’s paintings. How can I get in touuch?