LPs: Asian Girls

Lets’s stay on the Asian girl group tip for a bit longer (after yesterdays 5,6,7,8′s post). I don’t know anything about any of these groups - except Pink Lady (who had a short-lived American variety TV show in the 1980′s - Pink Lady and Jeff). The rest are a mystery, consigned to the cut-out bins of Asia. These are from all over Asia, some Japanese, some Thai, some Korean, some Filipino, all cool. The last 2 may not be girl groups, I just really like the design. Thanks again to www.lpcoverlover.com

The Stylers

The Pinky Chicks

Soul Sauce  – The Idaly Sisters wit X-Periment

Pink Lady

Dara Puspita

Duang Dao

The Vampires

Sakura and Rita

The Travellers

The Stylers

LPs: The Isley Brothers

The Isley Brothers were hot! Over the 4 decades they performed together they changed line-ups many times, but always remained a combination of 6 brothers and one brother-in-law. Starting out as a doo-wop trio in the 50′s they progressed to one of the hottest and best disco outfits of the late 70′s. The disco years, though financialy lucrative to the Isleys, found them in a series of progressively flamboyant and downright odd costume choices. These guys were big – and tough, and looked completly out-of-place in sequins and feathers – especially O’Kelly Isley (he being the biggest). Starting from 1981 and moving backwards to their 1959 LP and biggest hit – Shout!, you can see the change, for good or bad.

Inside You - 1981

Winners Takes All - 1979

Showdown - 1978

Showdown - Back Cover

Harvest for the World - 1976

Harvest... Back

The Heat is On - 1975

Live it Up - 1974

3 + 3 - 1973

The Brothers Isley - 1969

Shout - 1959

The Motown Anthology

Lps: Great Design – Sexy Covers

WARNING – Slight Nudity. I don’t quite know when these were popular – early 60′s most likely. What I do know is that the designs of these were absolutely great. Great use of image, cool type placement and nude women – OK!. My guess is that as most of these are Japanese, they were a tad more relaxed about the depiction of nudity and allowed them openly in their record racks. Nothing overtly sleezy or porn-y, these simply helped sell the slightly boring music of the day – a lot of these are compilations of hit songs by orchestras like Nelson Riddle or Bert Kaempfert. I really don’t remember seeing any vinyl in the US with these kinds of covers – perhaps a pin-up or 2 (Bettie Pages’ Bunny Yaegger photos were on a couple of LPs) but nothing like these. It also seemed smaller labels could get away with it – check out the Chakachas LP on Blue Elephant. Thanks again to www.lpcoverlover.com

 

LPs: Actors on Vinyl

If you’re a talented, successful actor, why on Earth make a fool of yourself with an LP of your off-key warblings? Vanity. That’s why. If you were making enough money, you could do anything, a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g! Sure there were some good ones, Brigett Bardot’s LPs are kind of fun, and Williams Shatner’s is unintentionally hilarious. But Telly Savalas? Adam West? Ted Cassidy as TV’s Lurch? And who the fuck is Skippy? John Travolta (Battlefield Earth) had a No 1 hit single with “Let Her In”, Eddy Murphy (The Klumpps) did pretty well with “My Girl Likes to Party All the Time” and if anyone can explain David Hasseloff’s musical popularity, I’ll listen.

Burt Reynolds - Ask Me What I Am

Leonard Nemoy Presents Mr. Spock's Music From Outer Space

Telly Savalas - (Star of 70's TV show Kojack)

Robert Mitchum - Calypso is like so...

Vincent Price Presents Great Paintings by ... (?)

Honor Blackman - Everything I've Got (The ultimate Bond-Girl, Pussy Galore - Goldfinger)

Sophia Loren - (Hot Italian sex symbol/actress)

Brigett Bardot - (French sex symbol and protector of baby seals)

Tony Perkins - On A Rainy Afternoon - (Norman Bates - Psycho)

Franck Gorshin - 45 (The Riddler from 60's TV show - Batman)

Adam West - Miranda 45rpm (1960's Batman)

William Shatner - The Transformed Man

Ted Cassidy - The Lurch

James Dean - Excerpts from his 2 movies

Skippy - (Star of 60's Australian TV show)

Jack Kerouac - Blues and Haikus (Author - On the Road, et al)

Roddy McDowell Reads the Stories of H.P. Lovecraft

Jayne Mansfield - Snicksnack, Snuckelchen

LPs: Do they know it’s Christmas time? Christmas Vinyl

Justin Bieber’s got 1, Jessica Simpson has 2. Jesus man, even the Beatles, they have 7. Elvis has 2,  The Stones, oddly enough have none. Sure everyone knows the classics – Nat King Coles – The Christmas Songs, Bing Crosby’s – White Christmas. Everybody and their dog have recorded a Christmas LP at some point. There’s a good chance though that most of these won’t be in your collection. My favorites are the LPs from Asia – a country I don’t really associate with Christmas. All of these though are great. I’d love to here X’mas A Go Go or Christmas with Rico. Special thanks to lpcoverlovers.com.

Xmas A Go Go

Christmas with Melis

Les Chaussettes Noir

Space Age Santa Claus by Ross Christman (?!)

Merry Christmas

Santa, watch you claws - x-rated comedy by Jimmy Pelham

Thore Skomans - Klappa pa!

The Cousins Celebrate Christmas

Santa Claus A Go Go - Olgay Tony

Christmas with Heavenly Melody

La Trifulca - What are they throwing at each other?

The Rumbles Ltd. - The Wildest Christmas

Eartha Kitt - Santa Baby (Not that Madonna shit)

White Christmas

Hurra por Santa Claus

Victor Santos

Christmas with Rico

LPs: Gay

Before anyone get their feelings hurt, remember this is all about good and bad design. It seems that anyone and everyone could make a record about anything – and we’re all better for it. The days are gone for anything remotely like Alix Dobkin’s 1975 lesbian folk LP  – “Living w/ Lesbians” or the Camp Records lable that gave us “I’d Rather Fight Than Swish” and “Stanly the Manly Tranvestite”, all parody songs replacing existing lyrics w/ gay referances – sort of the queer Wierd Al. My favorite of these is the Mike Terry ” Live at the Pavillion Theatre – Glasgow”. It takes some balls to perform in a dress, looking like Mike and in Glasgow of all places. Finally, if you can’t figure a way to come out to your parents, Jose Angel has the perfect solution; record an LP that proclaims “Mother I’m a Christian Homosexual”.

Jose Angel - Mother I'm a Christian Homosexual - Alix Dobkin - Living w/ Lesbians ft. The Lesbian Power Authority

Adult Comedy on Camp Records

Queen of the Road - Hector Nicol - Valeria - Transvestite

Mike Terry - Live

Rae Bourbon - Let Me Tell You About My Operation - Liz Renay - Up Your Ass

Zeki Muren - The Slavic Liberace (?)

Stanely the Manly Transvestite - A Date w/ Noel McKay