Beach Boys vs. Beatles Album Covers

[Bean Bag]

For the Beatles album covers, I never liked Magical Mystery Tour.  It's just ugly.  Lose the large orange border, cropping just the photo in the middle would have been better.




Even cooler than that, would be this photo.  Now that's a pic that fits.  It's how I imagine the music.  First thought when I saw this -- why didn't they use this!?!




...And to be a little controversial, I'm not a huge fan of Revolver's artwork.  Yes, I love the black n' white.  And yes, all very iconic.  But I don't care much for the collage -- which looks more like artwork from the back or inside.  Just the portraits might have been better.  That said... the portraits are also just a little bit creepy.  While they're cool, they're also a little ugly.

[Bean Bag]

I like Brian & Bruce in bushes. The music surrounds land, sea and air. The group portrait drawing really captures the likeness of each band member. This has always been one of my favorite album covers.

I always thought it was Paul McCartney in the bush on the left.  For me, the back of Friends is the winner.  First thought when I flipped it over and saw this was, "woah."  Maybe a tad cliche, but man does it work.

[Bean Bag]

But I love 20/20. Including the inside gatefold.  The snellen eye chart came in very handy!  

Well, that 20/20 cover shot does capture the mood!  Sort of like a dated class photo -- awkward and embarrassing.  The eye chart pic is cool though.


You know what might have worked in an ironic sort of way?  A picture of a drag strip.

The Beach Boys 20/20


But, lose the dude, and put her starting the race.

[KDS]

I like Brian & Bruce in bushes. The music surrounds land, sea and air. The group portrait drawing really captures the likeness of each band member. This has always been one of my favorite album covers.

I always thought it was Paul McCartney in the bush on the left.  For me, the back of Friends is the winner.  First thought when I flipped it over and saw this was, "woah."  Maybe a tad cliche, but man does it work.

The Friends back cover is in line with what I thought should've been the front cover for TWGMTR.  I have to believe that, going into it, The Beach Boys likely knew it was going to be their final studio album.  A setting sun on the Pacific would have been very appropriate.

At least the music inside is good. 

[filledeplage]

But I love 20/20. Including the inside gatefold.  The snellen eye chart came in very handy!  

Well, that 20/20 cover shot does capture the mood!  Sort of like a dated class photo -- awkward and embarrassing.  The eye chart pic is cool though.


You know what might have worked in an ironic sort of way?  A picture of a drag strip.

The Beach Boys 20/20


But, lose the dude, and put her starting the race.

Nah! They were the class of the "summer of 68/69!" 

It's just "automatic!"  

[Bean Bag]

The Friends back cover is in line with what I thought should've been the front cover for TWGMTR.  I have to believe that, going into it, The Beach Boys likely knew it was going to be their final studio album.  A setting sun on the Pacific would have been very appropriate.

At least the music inside is good. 

Yes, a sunset would have fit on TWGMTR, but almost too much so.  A little too preloaded.  I do like the TWGMTR cover artwork -- but it suffers from what I feel most modern album artwork suffers from -- a lack of dimension and/or depth.  Everything created on a computer is flat.



In the end, this pattern would have made a nice liner image.  But for a late career cover -- this is actually above par.  Most late-career covers blow. Blow bad.

[Misterlou]

The Beach Boys actually had a pretty good share of "cool" covers.  The weirdness is that they would have a series of great covers...and then along comes a WTF cover.  I feel that from Safari to ASL they had some pretty decent covers that reflected the music pretty well.  Then there's Today, which features an oddly cropped photo of the group with a really clunky cover design.  Summer Days has a very cool cover, even if it's missing Al.  Party is ok, works for the type of album that it was.

But then there's PS, which I will go ahead and gloss over, since that cover has been thoroughly discussed on this forum.  Yeah, it coulda been so much better!

Smiley, WH, and Friends have some great artsy covers, IMO.  But then we have 20/20 with it's cheap, rushed looking design, as if nobody felt like putting a lot of thought into their last 60s album for Capitol (at least for the cover).  And then there's Sunflower, which baffles me as to why they couldn't come up with a cooler design.  There's no excuse for that!

I don't really care for the ASL cover; Today is an albatross in cross purposes to the music on that album, especially side two, a precursor to PS... and I have no words to describe what must have been going through the minds of the designers of that cover (PS). It couldn't have been less hip at the time but has sort of, in a weird way, become iconic, but to think what they could have done.

If Pet Sounds has an "OK" cover, then what makes you think Today would have a better cover due to the precursor to Pet Sounds status that you give it? The guys at Capitol didn't have a crystal ball in their offices. At the time they had no idea that side two of Today was a glimpse into the future. Hindsight is great 50 years down the line, but back then I doubt they were even looking past the current album cover they were working on.

I don't really think Pet Sounds is an "OK" cover, I've just learrned to live with it, kind of like one learns to live with a dent in the fender of their car. As I said, it could have been so much more. I wasn't implying that Capitol should have known the future in terms of what was to follow the Today album, but rather meant that the Today album cover is such a boring cover, and the complete opposite of cool, unlike the music inside. But the worst BB cover, IMO, even worse than Pet Sounds? The Beach Boys' Christmas Album. In one word: dorky.

[Bean Bag]

Nah! They were the class of the "summer of 68/69!"

It's just "automatic!"  

While I really like my drag-strip/w girl idea (making one now!) -- a good compromise could be a yearbook metaphor.  Maybe crop their mugs off the cover and make it a mock yearbook.

[KDS]

The Friends back cover is in line with what I thought should've been the front cover for TWGMTR.  I have to believe that, going into it, The Beach Boys likely knew it was going to be their final studio album.  A setting sun on the Pacific would have been very appropriate.

At least the music inside is good. 

Yes, a sunset would have fit on TWGMTR, but almost too much so.  A little too preloaded.  I do like the TWGMTR cover artwork -- but it suffers from what I feel most modern album artwork suffers from -- a lack of dimension and/or depth.  Everything created on a computer is flat.



In the end, this pattern would have made a nice liner image.  But for a late career cover -- this is actually above par.  Most late-career covers blow. Blow bad.

We're all entitled to our opinions, but to me, this cover is average at best.  I agree with you it would've been a better liner image. 

[Compost]

Is Al praying for sales on 20/20?

[KDS]

Is Al praying for sales on 20/20?

Al's actually praying that 46 years after the release of the record, people on internet message boards won't spend a ton of time and energy arguing over whether or not 20/20 is a true Beach Boys album or some kind of hodgepodge/compilation/etc. 

He may also be praying that Charles Manson doesn't notice that Dennis reconfigured Cease to Exist. 

[onkster]

Maybe what we need is a board contest here: don't like a cover? Make a better one! And we all vote on the results.

[drbeachboy]

The Beach Boys actually had a pretty good share of "cool" covers.  The weirdness is that they would have a series of great covers...and then along comes a WTF cover.  I feel that from Safari to ASL they had some pretty decent covers that reflected the music pretty well.  Then there's Today, which features an oddly cropped photo of the group with a really clunky cover design.  Summer Days has a very cool cover, even if it's missing Al.  Party is ok, works for the type of album that it was.

But then there's PS, which I will go ahead and gloss over, since that cover has been thoroughly discussed on this forum.  Yeah, it coulda been so much better!

Smiley, WH, and Friends have some great artsy covers, IMO.  But then we have 20/20 with it's cheap, rushed looking design, as if nobody felt like putting a lot of thought into their last 60s album for Capitol (at least for the cover).  And then there's Sunflower, which baffles me as to why they couldn't come up with a cooler design.  There's no excuse for that!

I don't really care for the ASL cover; Today is an albatross in cross purposes to the music on that album, especially side two, a precursor to PS... and I have no words to describe what must have been going through the minds of the designers of that cover (PS). It couldn't have been less hip at the time but has sort of, in a weird way, become iconic, but to think what they could have done.

If Pet Sounds has an "OK" cover, then what makes you think Today would have a better cover due to the precursor to Pet Sounds status that you give it? The guys at Capitol didn't have a crystal ball in their offices. At the time they had no idea that side two of Today was a glimpse into the future. Hindsight is great 50 years down the line, but back then I doubt they were even looking past the current album cover they were working on.

I don't really think Pet Sounds is an "OK" cover, I've just learrned to live with it, kind of like one learns to live with a dent in the fender of their car. As I said, it could have been so much more. I wasn't implying that Capitol should have known the future in terms of what was to follow the Today album, but rather meant that the Today album cover is such a boring cover, and the complete opposite of cool, unlike the music inside. But the worst BB cover, IMO, even worse than Pet Sounds? The Beach Boys' Christmas Album. In one word: dorky.

Decorating a tree is on a Christmas album is dorky? It can't be the clothes they are wearing, can it? That was a decent up to date style for 1964. Or is this a in hindsight 2015 observation?

[Hot Rod]

I also really love the TWGMTR cover. It has a High LLamas-/Heavy Blinkers vibe that I really like

[Bean Bag]

We're all entitled to our opinions, but to me, this cover is average at best.  I agree with you it would've been a better liner image.  

Yes, you're probably right -- average at best.  It didn't strike me, but it was pleasant.  But I'm kind of weighing it against what it could have been.  I was expecting something embarrassing -- so I liked that it was subdued (although too subdued) yet still stylish.

But yes, nothing spectacular.  





They really could have had some fun with this...

[Bean Bag]

Decorating a tree is on a Christmas album is dorky? It can't be the clothes they are wearing, can it? That was a decent up to date style for 1964. Or is this a in hindsight 2015 observation?

Yeah, I like this one.  Classic.  It's a Christmas album.  It's the mid-sixties.  Innocent, perfect.  Santa on a surfboard, now that would have been dorky.

[NHC]

Can't think of a BB album cover I don't really care for, except perhaps Love You, which just doesn't amount to anything. Most of them are great,in fact. Love the suggestion above for TWGMTR! Beatles, I never really thought about those too much.

[drbeachboy]

My least favorite album cover is 15 Big Ones. While the concept is fine for 1976 and all, the pics used are just God-awful, except for Dennis. I can't believe the Boys let that get by them.

[Bean Bag]

Can't think of a BB album cover I don't really care for, except perhaps Love You, which just doesn't amount to anything. Most of them are great,in fact. Love the suggestion above for TWGMTR! Beatles, I never really thought about those too much.

I like that it's original, and kind of like a quilt that grandma made - which fits with the quaint-nature of the music.  But not sure how "successful" it is in a classical sense.  It's unique, though.

[Bean Bag]

My least favorite album cover is 15 Big Ones. While the concept is fine for 1976 and all, the pics used are just God-awful, except for Dennis. I can't believe the Boys let that get by them.

It's ugliness is its appeal, for me.  The connotation that they're "athletes," Olympic or otherwise, is met with the reality that they smoke 6 packs a day.  



Love it!  

[drbeachboy]

I don't know, Brian's hair needs a washing. Al's pic might as well be a bust. Mike & Carl both look like they need to take a crap. Dennis' pic is great. I can't figure out why Dean or whoever didn't mess his up too.

[Bean Bag]

 

[KDS]

I think the Xmas album cover is a good cover for such an album.  It's green, shows the boys in sweaters decorating a Xmas tree.  

[Komera]

My least favorite album cover is 15 Big Ones. While the concept is fine for 1976 and all, the pics used are just God-awful, except for Dennis. I can't believe the Boys let that get by them.

It's ugliness is its appeal, for me.  The connotation that they're "athletes," Olympic or otherwise, is met with the reality that they smoke 6 packs a day.  

From Dean's Kittyhawk Chapter 1 (Spelling and grammar intact, btw... which drives my perfectionism bonkers!):

I was always frustrated by the fact that we as recording artists were more often than not, not in control of our own imagery.  Jan and I did gain control over what we wanted to do musically but when it came to the visual packaging of what we were creating musically we were constantly told by our record company, "You create the music, and we will independently create the graphic arts because we are professionals at packaging".  Say what?  This just didn't make any sense to me at all.  Jan and I were making conceptual music, what in the world did some fifty year old farts in the art department that were use to designing Julie London albums know about specialized concept albums.  You guessed it, absolutely nothing.  The music we were making was all about very visual things that most of the young people of that day were very interested in.  Our music needed to be complemented by very strong visuals, our album covers should have been the supporting cast and they were, in my humble opinion, not even close.

I take that to mean that at least in the 60s (and obviously anytime before) musicians didn't even have say over their printed material unless it was specifically in their contract, and also that this was something of a rarity since print was usually the last thing on a young, emerging musician's mind.  Hence sixty thousand different pictures of the boys holding a surfboard, regardless of what songs were featured.

Let's skip ahead to Chapter 2:

With my new business card in my hand plus a sample of Jan & Dean and a Mamas & Papas souvenir concert book that I had designed with my graphic design professor while still at USC, just before Jan's accident, I went to see my old buddy, Brian Wilson.  Brian's mother and father in-laws lived on Sierra Bonita Street, right down the street from my design studio.  Mae Rovell, Brian's mother-in-law was a great cook so I figured that even if I got turned down for any graphic design work I would end up with a great meal.  I don't know if my pitch worked or if he just felt sorry for me, but he gave me my first design job, and I got the home cooked meal as a bonus.  I designed a trade ad to advertise The Beach Boys follow up to "Good Vibrations" which was a song called "Heroes and Villains".  I turned in the original art work, (which looked a lot like the "Sergeant Pepper" album cover by the way), to the record company and I eagerly waited to see my first design job appear in Billboard Magazine.  It never appeared and why was that?, they said they lost it....... something smell fishy here?  This was my first little wake up call, illustrating to me that record company art departments wanted nothing to do with freelance graphic designers if they could help it.  This art department counted on Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, being way to busy writing, arranging, singing and producing hit records to follow up on something so trivial as a missing "Heroes and Villians" one color trade ad and they guessed right.

In shorter words- if it ain't in the contract, screw the musicians and take advantage that musicians are busy people.

The first half of Chapter 5 is about 15 Big Ones.  (The second half is about Pacific Ocean Blue.):

My old friends The Beach Boys left their old record company, Capitol Records and found a new home at Warner Bros Records.  While they were at Capitol they had blessed little control over their packaging.  Starting over with a new company they could make all sorts of new demands, not the least of those demands, asking for more control over their imagery and packaging.  They were now free to call me.

The first package we did together was to coincide with The Beach Boys 15th anniversary.  The folks at Warner Bros suggested the title of Fifteen Years of Gold or something like that.  I thought that sounded to pompous, to serious to corny.  My idea was to down play the 15 years part, be more humble but still make the point.  So I suggested the title "15 Big Ones" and suggested putting 15 songs on the album.  Mike Love thought that we should take into account that it was a Olympic Year and that we should try to incorporate the five interlocking Olympic Circles somehow.  Sounded like a really cool idea to me.  I sketched it out in full color.  The five Olympic rings screamed to be done like neon and I had always wanted to create a logo for The Beach Boys that looked like neon, kinda like the neon that you would see at the typical drive in hamburger joint.  I had always loved the Bobs Big Boy logo and it was made in neon.  Seemed like a perfect fit to me, The Beach Boys and Bobs Big Boy.

Gwah!  My fingers twitch every time I have to type "a" instead of "an".

Can't think of a BB album cover I don't really care for, except perhaps Love You, which just doesn't amount to anything. Most of them are great,in fact. Love the suggestion above for TWGMTR! Beatles, I never really thought about those too much.

I like that it's original, and kind of like a quilt that grandma made - which fits with the quaint-nature of the music.  But not sure how "successful" it is in a classical sense.  It's unique, though.

This one is also one of Dean's designed covers.  But none of the chapters actually talk about it.  It's just in the portfolio and gallery.

I suspect this is nothing new to some of you.  But judging from some of the posts in this thread, it'll be new to a few.

[drbeachboy]

I get the design; neon, Olympic rings, etc.. I don't get why they used the photos that were used. Again, except for Dennis' photo, the rest are terrible. I can't even imagine who approved using those photos, let alone Dean using them in the final product.