Nicest-looking record labels vs. dullest labels

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by CMcGeek, Oct 28, 2016.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. CMcGeek

    CMcGeek Loves records maybe too much Thread Starter

    Location:
    Sedona, AZ
    Maybe some of you don't stare at the records when they play--I USED to do this more frequently as a child, but to be honest, there's something sort of tranquil about watching the labels spin while the record is in play, so I still look over at it from time to time.

    If I had to have a favorite or two of these (okay, five) for the LPs, I would choose 60s-early 70s-era Decca, Apple, Capitol (rainbow), Colgems, and the twin-eye 60s-era Columbia.
    I like the Capitol swirl labels on the 45s too.

    I think the gold-letter wrap-around Columbia labels from the 70s on always looked kind of drab.
     
  2. Dude111

    Dude111 An Awesome Dude

    Location:
    US
    Yes 60s,70s Decca for sure and maybe Columbia (The one with 6 eyes on it)
     
    Michael P, Hey Vinyl Man and CMcGeek like this.
  3. DK Pete

    DK Pete Forum Resident

    Location:
    Levittown. NY
    A thread truly after my own heart. For me, the clear all-time winner is the Apple label, both sides. In second and third respectively are the Atlantic and Decca album labels. The worst (well...ONE of the worst)to my eyes is Cotillion.
     
  4. pbuzby

    pbuzby Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, US
    Favorites: Warners green and palm tree labels, ABC /Dunhill, Bizarre, Impulse, ECM

    Least favorite: London
     
  5. CMcGeek

    CMcGeek Loves records maybe too much Thread Starter

    Location:
    Sedona, AZ
    Casablanca and Kama Sutra were the most perplexing labels to my young eyes in the 70s. A little too much going on in both of them.
    Should have added ugliest to the discussion as well.
     
    stever, Celebrated Summer and spindly like this.
  6. telliott

    telliott Senior Member

    for me, the coolest designs are Apple, Swan Song and Caribou (CBS Beach Boys albums).
     
    JonnyKidd and CMcGeek like this.
  7. pickwick33

    pickwick33 Forum Resident

    Columbia had this classy-looking label in 1972:[​IMG]


    The design they used before it was tacky and had, as a previous poster said, a little too much going on. The word "Columbia" repeated to infinity just looks a little too busy for me: [​IMG]
     
    Hammerpeg, vonwegen, Suncola and 2 others like this.
  8. Alofter

    Alofter Nowhere Man

    Location:
    Marshall Michigan
    White label Thresholds are pretty keen.
     
    AlmostHeavenWV and Defrance like this.
  9. DaveJ

    DaveJ Senior Member

    Location:
    Manchester, UK
    Favourites: Vertigo, Reprise (riverboat), Island (pink, original), Liberty, Harvest, Warner Bros (mid 60's red), Apple, Countryside.

    Don't like: Asylum, A&M, Island (palms), Pacific Arts.
     
  10. CMcGeek

    CMcGeek Loves records maybe too much Thread Starter

    Location:
    Sedona, AZ
    I actually stared at long periods of time at the Bell label when my sister played her Partridge Family Lps because those colorless rainbows (didn't know those were supposed to be bell vibes) were different shapes and lengths each time she changed the record.
     
    JonnyKidd, Grant and Hey Vinyl Man like this.
  11. Hey Vinyl Man

    Hey Vinyl Man Another bloody Yank down under...

    Columbia LPs get the unfortunate distinction of going from most beautiful ('50s) to ugliest ('70s-80s). I never liked the '70s A&M label either, whereas the '60s one somehow made that drab shade of tan look terrific.

    The Capitol rainbow label is one of my all time favorites, but I also liked the lime-green label that followed it immediately. Motown is beautiful, too, although it's hard to admire that map while the record is spinning.
     
    JonnyKidd and CMcGeek like this.
  12. pickwick33

    pickwick33 Forum Resident

    [​IMG]

    Another one in the "best-looking" category.
     
    JonnyKidd, mooseman, sfoclt and 8 others like this.
  13. CMcGeek

    CMcGeek Loves records maybe too much Thread Starter

    Location:
    Sedona, AZ
    Yeah, seriously, what was that thing on the Asylum label (Looked like one of those cages from Gilligan's Island)?? And why is an asylum something you want to associate with music? :help:
     
  14. pickwick33

    pickwick33 Forum Resident

    I think that wooden building in the sky was supposed to be an actual asylum. I like it myself, even though I'm not a fan of most of their artists.
     
    CMcGeek likes this.
  15. pickwick33

    pickwick33 Forum Resident

    The RSO cow is straight corny.
     
  16. CMcGeek

    CMcGeek Loves records maybe too much Thread Starter

    Location:
    Sedona, AZ
    ^Yep, always hated RSO even though I did own several records with it back in the day.
     
    Cracklebarrel likes this.
  17. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    Elekra Monarch is a favorite :)
    Worst-Chrysalis, good grief, put at least a little effort into it
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Oct 28, 2016
    vonwegen, JonnyKidd, Paully and 17 others like this.
  18. CMcGeek

    CMcGeek Loves records maybe too much Thread Starter

    Location:
    Sedona, AZ
    ^ It was to have this during the Queen era.
     
    Murph and c-eling like this.
  19. telliott

    telliott Senior Member

    Those are interesting to me, more because those were around for such a short time. I have the first one on Chicago "Saturday In the Park" (Great song!).
     
    Mal, lightbulb and CMcGeek like this.
  20. marmil

    marmil It's such a long story...

    Capitol and Atlantic (78s, 45s, LPs) from 40's-'60s are my fave looking labels. I especially like the rainbow Capitol (who doesn't?) in all its iterations and the short-lived "center bullseye" Atlantic LP label from the early 60's. Vertigo is pretty cool too. As is the red 6-eye Columbia. All of the above look cool in your hand or spinning on your turntable.
     
    JonnyKidd likes this.
  21. danner

    danner Forum Resident

    Location:
    Birmingham, AL
  22. xantus

    xantus Active Member

    I've always loved the swan song labels.. the butterfly elektras.. wish I could get the wish you were here hands on many albums :D
     
  23. telliott

    telliott Senior Member

    Gotta love the classic ATCO yellow and white single label that existed from the late 50s through the mid 70s.
     
  24. CMcGeek

    CMcGeek Loves records maybe too much Thread Starter

    Location:
    Sedona, AZ
    I used to have this one
    [​IMG]
     
  25. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    The Capitol rainbow labels as from the 1959 "9 o'clock logo with spires" and 1962-69 "logo at 12 o'clock, pressed by Scranton" variants are indeed nice-looking; but the 1980's version, with the rainbow's gradations all but lost and the transitions especially harsh due to generations so far down that they almost looked like bad photocopies, was particularly dull - matched by the coating of the paper used for the labels. Capitol's 1969-72 red/orange "target" label straddled the fence between nice and dull, likewise for their Portland orange-background and tan-lettering 1972-78 label.

    The 45 London "blue swirl" labels, particularly on pressings by Columbia, are nice-looking. Where you get to "dull" in that realm are from some other plants, namely Shelley Products. On LP's, only CBS Pitman pressings with their own label fonts make the labels more bearable.

    As far as US Decca was concerned, the label designs used before the 1960 rollout of the "rainbow strip" labels (I use plural because the LP and 45 versions, in their layout, were so different) qualified as dullsville, for sure. (And Dullsville was the only place Decca didn't have a pressing plant. :winkgrin: )

    The grey label - whose tint appears to be PMS 403, a shade lighter than that used on Columbia Masterworks LP labels with the gold print around it, as post-1970 - is seen with CBS Pitman label fonts which are the nicest looking among collections of typefaces used for label copy. The CBS Terre Haute typesetting seen on the two-color "wallpaper" label are dull to say the least; Pitman fonts, I.M.H.O., would have made this design more palatable. (Santa Maria label fonts are the ones you see most commonly on Warner/Reprise, ABC/Dunhill, pre-1969 A&M, 1970's 20th Century, and pre-1977 Casablanca product - among others.) The grey label was first rolled out at Santa Maria around January 1972, then adopted in Pitman beginning later April and Terre Haute around May. It lasted up to the end of January 1973, then come February the "Pac-Man" Columbia 45 label design first turned up.

    RCA also ran the gamut. Among their labels with representations of Nipper, their 1954-65 layout of "dog on top" was the nicest (with "Papa Nipper" for LP's, "Mama Nipper" on 78's and "Baby Nipper" on their 45's), while their 1976-88 version ("dog near top") would count as the dullest. In-between were the two labels they used in the 1965-68 period - the "black label, white print, dog on top" on LP's, the "black label, dog on side" on 45's. And the "modern" orange labels - that too (and the changes in colors to light grey and then tan) is also a focus of division amongst fans of record label designs.

    The nicest of all MCA labels would have been the "black rainbow" label inaugurated January 1973, with the 45 version a bit better than the LP layout. After that, it was all downhill.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine