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 The Byrds Sweet Heart of the Rodeo LP Vinyl Record Album Columbia 9670 $19.99 Time Remaining: 29d 12h 46m Buy It Now for only: $19.99 |
 RARE VINYL ALBUM THE STANLEY BROTHERS THE CLICH MOUNTAIN BOYS COLUMBIA LP $0.99 (1 Bid) Time Remaining: 1h 3m |
 CHICAGO COLUMBIA KGP 24 TWO RECORD ALBUM LP SET $0.99 Time Remaining: 1h 8m |
 SIMON GARFUNKEL SOUNDS OF SILENCE COLUMBIA STEREO 1965 ALBUM LP VINYL $7.99 Time Remaining: 29d 23h 10m Buy It Now for only: $7.99 |
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 PERCY FAITH ORCHESTRA MALAGUENA CUBA 33 CL 1267 ALBUM COLUMBIA RECORDS $0.99 Time Remaining: 1h 8m |
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 Rare 12 RECORD 78 RPM ALBUM BLUEBIRD CAPITOL DECCA COLUMBIA RCA VICTOR $33.33 Time Remaining: 19h 29m |
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 Rare 10 RECORD 78 RPM ALBUM MGM COLUMBIA DECCA RCA VICTOR BLUEBIRD DOT $22.22 Time Remaining: 1d 6h 55m |
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 Burl Ives The Wayfaring Stranger NM LP Columbia 1955 Classic Folk Album 26 Songs $3.99 Time Remaining: 22h 45m |
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 VIVALDI Isaac Srern DAVID OISTRAKH Eugene Ormandy Record Album COLUMBIA MS 6204 $5.24 Time Remaining: 2d 20h 42m Buy It Now for only: $5.24 |
 RPM 33 Vinyl Album of Robert Goulet The Wonderful World Of Love by Columbia 1963 $0.99 Time Remaining: 23h 50m |
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 BERNSTEIN CONDUCTS Beethoven Symphony No 4 8 COLUMBIA Album LP $9.99 Time Remaining: 2d 9h 43m |
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 THE GREAT SONGS OF CHRISTMAS ALBUM 3 COLUMBIA 88656 GOODYEAR LIMITED $2.49 Time Remaining: 21h 41m |
 JOHNNY MATHIS Sealed 2 LP SET First 25 Years Silver Anniversary Album COLUMBIA $21.00 Time Remaining: 27d 1h 56m Buy It Now for only: $21.00 |
 COLUMBIA ALBUM OF RICHARD RODGERS ANDRE KOSTELANETZ VOL 1 2 VG LP VG COVER 313 $7.00 Time Remaining: 1d 6h 25m |
 The Wagner Album COLUMBIA MASTERWORKS Audiophile vinyl record 2 LP NM $6.99 Time Remaining: 4d 20h 38m |
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 LP VALEJerry TILL CS 9757 Columbia Records Vinyl 12 Record Album VG EXC $3.95 Time Remaining: 21h 50m |
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 ON YOUR TOES COLUMBIA ML4645 LP Theater Record Vinyl Album Show Tunes $7.99 Time Remaining: 7d 17h 22m Buy It Now for only: $7.99 |
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 Vintage Record Album Collection Vinyl RCA Victor Columbia MGM Mercury Decca $0.99 Time Remaining: 2d 22m |
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 Album By Fritz Reiner Strauss Don Juan on Columbia $4.79 Time Remaining: 27d 11h 11m Buy It Now for only: $4.79 |
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 Earth Wind Fire Spirit 1976 Columbia Record Album LP Soul Funk Excellent $2.49 Time Remaining: 28d 3h 58m Buy It Now for only: $2.49 |
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 10 Inch Album By Les Brown Dance Parade on Columbia $4.79 Time Remaining: 27d 11h 11m Buy It Now for only: $4.79 |
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 The Flock Self Titled 1970 Psych LP Album VG++ VG+ Columbia CS 9911 360 Sound $14.80 Time Remaining: 26d 2h 7m Buy It Now for only: $14.80 |
 Columbia 13845 Various Artists A Christmas To Remember SEALED ALBUM $4.99 Time Remaining: 6h 42m |
 LP KEMPJohnny JUST ANOTHER LOVER album 44 05368 record 1986 Columbia vinylVG $7.90 Time Remaining: 1d 7h 21m |
 10 Inch Album By JJ Johnson Kai Winding Jay And Kai on Columbia $6.39 Time Remaining: 27d 11h 11m Buy It Now for only: $6.39 |
 WEATHER REPORT BLACK MARKET ALBUM PROMO LP 1976 COLUMBIA PC 34099 FUSION VG+ $11.99 Time Remaining: 2d 5h 47m |
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 Johnny Cash Ride This Train record album Columbia LP CL 1464 $12.00 Time Remaining: 2d 5h 58m |
 LP WORLDS FAVORITE HYMNSThe VariousColumbia C 32246Vinyl Record 12albumEXC $20.00 Time Remaining: 1d 7h 17m |
 Disco House Album Sale Maxwell Lifetime 2001 Columbia 44 79640 Vinyl 12 Elect $9.75 Time Remaining: 7d 20h 1m Buy It Now for only: $9.75 |
 Paul McCartney Tug of War Album on Columbia 1982 $7.99 Time Remaining: 2d 7h 54m |
 Billy Cobham BC Vinyl Jazz LP Record Album Columbia Records FREE SHIPPING $6.99 Time Remaining: 18d 7h 9m Buy It Now for only: $6.99 |
 BILLY JOEL STREETLIFE SERENADE ALBUM VINYL 1974 COLUMBIA PC 33146 FOLK ROCK VG+ $3.99 Time Remaining: 2d 5h 43m |
 PERCY FAITH usa LP GEORGE GERSHWIN THE COLUMBIA ALBUM Jazz SEALED UNPLAYED 2 LPS $42.00 Time Remaining: 1d 1h 22m |
 c1985 Barbra Streisand The Broadway Album Columbia Records $0.99 Time Remaining: 7d 23h 42m Buy It Now for only: $0.99 |
 THE DIVINE SARAH VAUGHAN THE COLUMBIA YEARS 1949 1953 GATEFOLD ALBUM 233LPs $6.99 Time Remaining: 4d 18h 52m Buy It Now for only: $7.99 |
 BARBRA STREISAND THE BROADWAY ALBUM LP COLUMBIA ORIG $5.00 Time Remaining: 6d 11h 26m Buy It Now for only: $5.00 |
 Julio Iglesias SOY Columbia stereo lp album KLS 60009 $0.75 Time Remaining: 4d 19h 49m Buy It Now for only: $0.99 |
 PERCY FAITH MUSIC OF CHRISTMAS VOL 2 COLUMBIA LIMITED EDITION RECORD ALBUM $2.99 Time Remaining: 1d 23h 15m |
 OH CAPTAIN COLUMBIA AOS200 LP Theater Record Vinyl Album Show Tunes $1.99 Time Remaining: 7d 17h 21m Buy It Now for only: $1.99 |
 8228 SKU Various Great Songs Of Christmas Album 6 LP Columbia Special Produ $3.89 Time Remaining: 2d 9h 33m |
 AEROSMITH Get Your Wings LP 1974 Album Columbia Records GD+ GD+ $11.95 Time Remaining: 23d 3h 47m Buy It Now for only: $11.95 |
 3 RECORD ALBUMS DAVE BRUBECK QUARTETTIME CHANGES CL 2127COLUMBIA 6 EYE VG $19.99 Time Remaining: 3d 6h 35m |
 LP VALEJerry STANDING OVATION Columbia CL 9073 album record 12 33rpm vinylVG $3.95 Time Remaining: 1d 7h 19m |
 Enid Mosier LP album Hi Fi Calypso Etc Columbia 6 eye $7.99 Time Remaining: 2d 7h 22m Buy It Now for only: $7.99 |
 Columbia 35445 Lynn Anderson From The Inside SEALED ALBUM $6.99 Time Remaining: 6h 39m |
Alex Steinweiss - Creator Of Album Cover Art
At age 23, the "Godfather" of album cover art, Alex Steinweiss accepted a job to design promotional materials for Columbia Records. What would happen next would revolutionize the music industry, specifically vinyl records, when he invented the illustrated album cover. A rather obvious, but brilliant, idea was to create a titillating graphic package that would, not only protect the record, but advertise the artist and the music contained therein (prior to this, records were sold in plain, undecorated wrappers).
"Records used to be relegated to the back of the stores that sold refrigerators and stoves. You'd go to the counter and ask for the title you wanted," recalled Steinweiss. "I needed to shake up the industry, we had to do something like European poster art to draw the attention of the buyer."
And "shake up the industry" is just what Steinweiss did. Starting in 1939 with his first covers, for a collection of Rodgers & Hart's Musical Hits, Columbia executives saw the sales of the illustrated albums skyrocket, including one by more than eight hundred percent. Soon after that 78 rpm albums were adorned with decorated covers and displayed in store windows.
A new medium was born, album cover art became the norm and attracted established artists and inspired many new artists to enter the arena. It allowed the record company and the artist to promote a visual image and identity with the music.
So who was Alex Steinweiss? Let's explore his life in detail. Steinweiss grew up in Brooklyn's Brighton Beach area and he attended the Abraham Lincoln High School from 1930-1934 and that is where he started his graphic designing career. In a program taught by Leon Friend, Steinweiss and his classmates were known as the "Art Squad," designing school publications, posters and signs. When he was seventeen, Steinweiss' work was showcased in PM Magazine. He received a scholarship to Parsons School of Art and graduated in 1937. His first job was as an assistant to Joseph Binder, a position that lasted almost three years, before receiving a call about a new position at the newly formed Columbia Records. He designed all the covers for Columbia between 1939 and 1945, a period in which he developed and honed the graphic art of album cover design. In the period between 1945 to roughly 1950, he still did cover design for Columbia, but he was not the sole designer. He also began "freelancing" and began designing covers for other record companies.
As a freelance designer with such record labels as RCA, Decca, London and Everest, Steinweiss was considered peerless. Using his own unique format of blending eye-catching illustrations, vivid color schemes and playful typography, Steinweiss created album covers for such musical greats as Louis Armstrong, Bela Bartok, Count Basie, Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Kate Smith and many others.
His album covers are considered iconic and he designed them as miniature posters with a distinct personality for each cover. His signature font, the "Steinweiss Scrawl," first appeared around 1947 and his style and album cover design is synomonous with the Golden Age of Jazz, Classical and Popular music that was dominated by RCA, Columbia, Decca, Victor and London record labels.
In the 1950's, Steinweiss added photography to his album cover design palette. His use of strange, garnish colors, inventive lighting techniques and numerous visual puns and reference points only added to his unique style of cover design and has made him an icon in the music industry. By his own admission, Steinweiss claims to have designed more that 2,500 album covers.
His later work, from 1960 through around 1973, was working with the Decca and London record labels. It was during this period that he developed die-cut designs and collage. He retired to Sarasota, Florida around 1974 and remains semi-active, having designed at least one book cover and several CD covers as well as having designed liquor bottles, posters, pamphlets and titles for TV shows.
All of us owe a hearty thank you to Alex Steinweiss and his contributions to album cover art and music. Can you imagine no art work accompanying a vinyl record? I can't, and it is a great thing that Alex Steinweiss couldn't either.
About the Author
Author Robert Benson writes about rock/pop music, vinyl record collecting and operates
http://www.collectingvinylrecords.com
, where you can pick up a copy of his ebook called "The Fascinating Hobby Of Vinyl Record Collecting." Contact Robert at robert@collectingvinylrecords.com
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