"Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas" LP Artwork: What Were They Thinking?

that concept was reserved for Ella Fitzgerald wishes you a steamin' christmas.

 

I did find some links to Christmas unicorns, but they still don't explain the connection or symbolism.

http://www.aliexpress.com/popular/christmas-unicorn.html
http://www.spreadshirt.com/bright-christmas-unicorn-C3376A11255727
http://first-draft.com/2013/12/04/album-cover-art-wednesday-ella-wishes-you-a-swinging-christmas/

 

Sufjan Steven's Christman Unicorn song from his Silver and Gold Christmas boxset says a Christmas Unicorn is a symbol of original sin http://music.sufjan.com/track/christmas-unicorn

 

I did some research and I believe the original track lineup on the album, prior to conductor Frank DeVol's input on creating more a cohesive album, explains, at least in part, the cover art.

Original track listing:

1. "Jingle Bells"
2. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
3. Rudolf the Psychedelic Unicorn
4. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
5. "Sleigh Ride"
6. The Christmas Song
7. What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?
8. Good Morning Blues
9. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
10. Winter Wonderland
11. Frosty, The Snowman
12. "White Christmas"

 

13. Unicorn Song

 

As soon as I saw your pic, I thought of another album's front cover that had to be his (or so I thought):



I have this Jon Hendricks album only on a CDr nicely made by a friend. I checked it carefully, yet couldn't find the name of the artist responsible for the cover. But I just looked it up on the web, and sure enough, it is another Grant.

So is this one:

 

I like this artwork, but then again I like modernism in its varying forms.

 

The unicorn cover is indeed from the original USA American LP release (1960). The fourth cover (HMV) is British and usually dated 1960, though further confirmation might be needed.

As for the other two, it's just as Hot Ptah said: the second is a 1988 Polygram CD cover, the third a Polygram 1982 LP reissue cover. I have never seen that 1988 pinkish cover on LP.

In 1993, Mobile Fidelity re-used the third cover for one of its audiophile "24kt gold plated" editions.

There's also the 2002 Verve Master Edition, which uses the original USA 1960 cover and comes with bonus, previously unissued tracks from the sessions.

The fifth cover is from 2012, and is by one of the various Public Domain companies that have re-released the album in Europe and Australia. This particular label swiped the bonus tracks from the Verve Master Edition and also added a couple of songs from earlier holiday singles by Ella.

 

I'm afraid that you might have never seen this one, from another original Ella album from the same period?

I too like the Gene Grant artwork. Won't be going crazy over it anytime soon, mind you, but it's pleasant to the eye, and intriguing to the mind ... Of all four covers by Grant, I like the one for the Jon Hendicks album the best, and I like the one for Ella's album the least. But even that unicorn cover is okay with me.

I agree that the covers of the reissues are bad in different ways. And in similar ways, too: all of them are, to a greater or lesser degree, lazy pastiches. Overused photos of Ella are tacked-on to scenarios or diagrammatic designs that bear no relation to the original context in which the photos were taken/used. The one that bothers me most is the re-drawing used for the 1982 Polygram reissue LP. It cheapens the original to the nth degree.



And 100% with Recordbulimic on all the points above.

 

I can agree that the cover looks bizarre, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say that it does nothing to evoke a sense of the album’s contents. Think of the already quoted statement of purpose, which appears in the back cover: “mindful that Christmas albums normally emphasize the religious and the solemn, Ella chose in this to stress the festive aspect of the season …” Doesn’t that animal in the album’s front cover look festively colored to you? It does to me; his body reminds me of various Christmas accessories that have a similar look. And he is very much in the spirit of the season, what with his peaceful and friendly offering of a flower? (Unless he’s eating it ... but I don't think so.) Oh sure, he is an unicorn -- not a reindeer, not even a donkey -- but just because the poor beast was begotten in immemorial times, predating St. Nick and Jesus Christ, there’s no need to discriminate and cast him aside. If Mr. Unicorn wants to join in on the festivities (gingerly showing up with a floral peace offering), let him in! Christianity has gained another convert!

Seriously -- the point is that the drawing might be bringing something appropriate to the table, after all (“the festive aspect”) ... however tenuously.

Here's another point.

Would it help if you were to think of this album not so much as a Christmas piece but as a (not-fully-realized) children’s songbook? To me, the album’s drawing looks like child’s work, and the album’s tracks are similarly imbued in a child-like spirit. By many accounts, Ella remained a child through her entire life, and adored children. For these reasons, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn one day that the album grew out of a desire on Ella’s part to record a LP of children’s songs (as had been done by some of her peers, such as Nat King Cole years before and, about half a year earlier, June Christy). Were we to pursue this line of thought, we could speculate that Verve might have shifted the project’s direction from a children's songbook to a topic more immediately marketable — i. e. , Christmas (and romance).

Still not convinced? That’s okay. I have not fully convinced myself, either. I was just throwing ideas out there …

Actually, I can think of a third point that, as far as speculative explanations go, would carry far more weight. Will hopefully get to it later today, since I've run out of time for the time being.

 

Here is the third speculative scenario. This will be long and meandering, but I promise that I will get to the darn unicorn in the end!

Most everything that pertained to Ella's career was conceived and decided not by Ella herself but by Norman Granz. He was her manager and the founder of Verve Records, the label on which she recorded this LP. Among the decisions to be made was, naturally, the direction of her albums — from their general concept to the selection of tracks. We do have reports indicating that Granz was the one who picked the tracks in some cases, or the one who, in other cases, asked selected individuals to do so on his behalf. Unfortunately, we do not have specifics in the case of Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas. It seems safe to assume, though, that the pattern held for this album as well. It is similarly reasonable to expect him to have had a hand in the selection of album artwork, too.

Actually, more than a hand. In the 1940s, Granz personally recruited illustrator David Stone Martin to draw front covers for the albums on the impresario's various labels (Clef, Norgran, Verve). Martin’s work is said to grace over 200 of the covers on those labels, including at least a couple of Ella items.

Here is something else of import about Granz: he was a huge art collector and admirer of modern, abstract painting. He even became friendly with Pablo Picasso, and gave the name “Pablo” to the last of the record labels that he set up. (That was in the 1970s.) Probably at Granz' request, Picasso once did a lithograph of Ella, too.

By the late 1950s, Granz/Verve was also commissioning artwork from artists such as Henri Matisse and Bernard Buffet. (Their work was used on other Ella albums.) A look at this commissioned album artwork from the late 1950s suggests a general leaning toward relatively fresh and new (contemporary, abstract, cubic, modernist) styles.

In the November 7, 1960 issue of Billboard Magazine, Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas is named Album Cover of the Week. The magazine shows a photo of the front cover itself, and describes it as “wild modern design.”

Main points made so far: Verve’s label owner Norman Granz is likely to have been responsible for the choice of this album’s artwork. His admiration for modern and abstract art is evident in the artwork of other Verve albums, and possibly on this album, too. Along with the man’s own tastes, a PR strategy could have been behind the selection of the album's so-called wild modern design. The subliminal PR message would have been that albums such as this one were cool, exciting, “in tune with the times,” not old-fashioned. You don't care to buy albums with such Verve? You just ain't hip, man.

(Incidentally, Granz sold Verve around 1960, which was the year in which Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas was recorded, but he remained her manager in perpetuity. Hence I imagine that he still had a say when it came to the artwork of this and later albums on Verve. If not him, then somebody else at Verve continued to cultivate his tradition of recruiting modernist designers for album covers.)

Since Granz was also the person who usually chose the songs to be recorded for Ella’s albums, he is a prime candidate when it comes to the question of who decided to open Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas with “Jingle Bells.” That song was originally published under the title "The One-Horse Open Sleigh.” (Another interesting detail about its origins: it was meant not as a Christmas but as a Thanksgiving song.)

Ella’s version of "Jingle Bells" includes the following line, not heard in other versions:
Love that vibration, syncopation of the one-horse open sleigh
and ends with this also-original line:
I’m just crazy about horses

It is possible that Ella improvised both lines on the spot. It is equally possible that they were pre-written. At any rate, we get two wildly enthusiastic mentions of horses in this album opener. (Additional horseplay can be heard in another album track, “Sleigh Ride,” with its persistent “giddy up, giddy up” exhortations.)

I’m wondering if all this horse craze was incited by Granz. Could he have been particularly fond of equine imagery? Bear in mind that, for his Pablo label, Granz chose a logo inspired by one of the horses drawn by Picasso.

But let's get, finally, to the big 'uniphant' in Ella’s room …

An unicorn is essentially a horse with a horn.

I’m thinking that the above-quoted lines from “Jingle Bells" inspired artist Gene Grant to draw a horse, and that the horse shapeshifted into an unicorn during his creative process. The shifting could have been inspired by any number of things, of course, including subconscious thoughts. Perhaps the wording “one-horse open sleigh” brought to mind an image of an unicorn. Or maybe he would have agreed with those of us who find the album very unique — as unique as a mythical creature. Maybe a horse was too simple a beast in Grant’s artistic world; he had to draw something more eye-grabbing. Or ............

(By the way ... Nowadays we often associate unicorns and rainbows with “a state of perpetual bliss and happiness” — a state which most of Ella's swinging album certainly conveys. I wish I could argue that this was in the back of Grant's mind, but I don’t think that the association was in currency back in 1960).

Or hey, best speculation ever: perhaps Gene Grant was an earlier incarnation of Steve Colbert. Did you see his TV show's final sketch? Who came to fetch Steve at the very end, but Santa in the company of an unicorn? So there. Take it from Colbert: unicorns are part of Christmas.

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Cliff Notes version:
Who knows what that unicorn means, if anything. But it's interesting food for thought.

 

as long as the contents are great i could care less about the cover...and It ain't bad at all...

 

Ella herself had nothing to do with the cover art...

 

Typically, the art director (along with a designer/photographer/illustrator), will develop concepts either with the producer as well as the artist/musician/band, or they may not be involved at all. FWIW my sense is that artists/bands didn't get involved in packaging much until the late 60's and 70's, and it happened more in rock/pop than with other genres. But you know for sure that she wasn't involved?

 

No I don't, but based on her relationship with Norman Granz , I tend to think he arranged everything and she did the fantastic singing she was known for.

 

BTW, there is also the "Christmas Collection" CD which is a Compass Productions/Target exclusive CD issue of this album in a jewel case with 3 of the bonus tracks but the tracks are arranged in a random order.

 

Like the original, though Gerry Mulligan one is a better example.

 

Awful cover, but terrific album. The six bonus/alternative cuts on the current CD remaster are a nice bonus.

 

The cover is sock. Hope that explains it for ya.

 

It shows up in EMI advertisements from November and December 1960 along with LPs from Adam Faith, Nat King Cole, the Kingston Trio, Russ Conway, Connie Francies, Sellers & Loren, Big Ben Banjo Band, George Mitchell Minstrel Show, Joe Loss, the Goons, and Vera Lynn.

 

I've never heard "sock" used as an adjective. Is this some sort of mid-century slang that's fallen out of fashion? I tried looking it up and nowhere is the word sock ever defined as an adjective.

Side note, I find it oddly humorous that the review refers to Ella as a "thrush": a small or medium-sized songbird, typically having a brown back, spotted breast, and loud song.

 

...and a Unicorn in a Palm tree...

Why are we talking about this in August?

 

It's from Coolsville, daddy-o.

 

So, it's like beatnik speak. I'm guessing "sock" isn't a favorable descriptor. Glad we're not the only ones scratching our heads over this cover art 56 years later!

 

Weekly entertainment magazines like Billboard and Variety (also a daily) introduced their own terse slanguage to preserve space, especially in headlines. Google the following phrase and you'll see that Billboard used "sock" in a complimentary, positive sense.

billboard variety sock speak