Next year, record companies are going to do away with the compact disc. But before the compact disc, vinyl was the medium. And many record labels had the art that made watching the record spin around on the turntable a little more enjoyable. Here are my some of my favorite designs.

1. MOTOWN-The Original Map (from the 60′s – mid 80′s)

Even as this label promoted “The Sound of Young America” and subsequently moved out west, the map stayed intact for most of its’ run.

2. SWAN SONG-The Swan Man LP (1974-present)

The design by Jimmy Page was inspired by “Evening” or “Fall of Day” by William Rimmer. It also was the label which didn’t let any information font get anywhere on their logo and was the butt of magnifying glass jokes.

3. ASYLUM-The Door in the Sky (1974-1983)

This design sums up the label at best. You had to guess if it was a door to heaven or an insane asylum.

4. EPIC-The Letterman Jacket (1978-1994, 2006-present)

In late 1978, Epic unveiled a logo that would stand the test of time, even as the orange layout gave way to this logo, it had many layouts in different markets e.g. in the US, the logo was against a midnight sky background; in Japan, it was a dark blue against a light blue background…you get the idea.

5. CASABLANCA-The Film Production Crew Outside The Gates (1977-1984)

In 1977, Casablanca had a precursor to the above mentioned design where it was just a few camels and people outside the gates; in 1977, as they became Casablanca Record and Filmworks, the update gave it life. Even though they changed their name to Casablanca Records, the design remained intact.

6. MERCURY-The IBM Building (1974-1983)

In 1974, Mercury went from their plain red label to a photo of the building they were located at the time. In 1980, Mercury became part of PolyGram and had moved to New York, but the design stayed for three more years.

7. VIRGIN-The Twins on the Dragon (1973-1977)

Yes artist Roger Dean designed a lot of other things besides things regarding Yes…if you could follow that, then you know that he designed the Virgin label, which featured a model looking like conjoined twins on a dragon. The problem was that distributors wouldn’t use only the lettering that spelled out the company and it lost details when it got smaller on the back of albums.

8. 20th CENTURY FOX-The Fanfare (1977-1982)

The movie company decided to get into the music biz like some of their filmmaking counterparts, but unlike the counterparts, they decided to do a different trademark altogether to appear hip, but by 1977, the hpi look gave way to the familiar 20th Century Fox fanfare logo that starts the pictures.

9. WARNER BROS.-The Drive with the Palm Trees (1973-1978)

Warners went from a dark drab olive green to a nice painted scene with the headline “Burbank, Home Of Warner Bros. Records” going across the top border. They changed the shield and left the design intact.

10. ELEKTRA-The Caterpillar to the Butterfly (1970-1976, 1978-1979)

Elektra had two different label designs going at once. The caterpillar that held the logo (which dominated the singles) and the butterfly that held said logo which dominated the albums. The butterfly took full charge in 1975, but by 1977, it was gone being replaced by the red label. The caterpillar made a brief appearance on Carly Simon’s “You Belong to Me” in 1978 and on The Afghan Whigs’ cover of TLC’s “Creep” in 1995 while the butterfly returned on Sparks’ 12″ single “Tryouts for the Human Race/Beat The Clock”.

11. SOLAR-The Comet (Both Directions) (1978-1989)

SOLAR (acronym for Sound Of Los Angeles Records) had the great idea of making a comet their design and making it go in the direction of the spinning record. The only time it went from the opposite direction was during its distribution pact with Elektra from 1981-1986.

12. FULL MOON-The Lonesome Pine (1973-2000)

Full Moon has the distinction of not only being a production company – it became one that had a label design that drove typesetters that had to lay out information on it crazy. It was okay on albums, but the production company went from Epic to Warners in 1982 for a new label deal. Since they were a production company, they were free to license their name and logo anywhere. Elektra had done the split logo design when it handled the soundtrack output that it and Asylum had put out (look for the original Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Urban Cowboy soundtracks ON VINYL). In the meantime, Warners had its hands full and decided to use the print logo over the Warner label, while CBS added on the UPC bar code on their singles. Interesting balancing act.

13. EMI-Guess Which Side? (1989-1993)

As EMI began to flounder stateside, they had one amazing idea – let the side number become part of the design. With gradiant blue tones, this was the design for EMI on everything except cassettes and compact discs.

14. SHELTER-The Censored “S” (1969)

Wow, talk about changing designs in the middle of the stream. Shelter unleashed a label design that was quickly disputed. They had an “S” painted on an egg – a logo that didn’t sit too well with DC Comics since the “S” resembled the “S” on Superman’s suit only inverted and upside down. Barring a lawsuit, the company put a black square over the logo. Years later when the label was handled by MCA, the “S” was scribbled in a circle.

15. NEMPEROR-The Color Scheme (1974-1977)

Nemperor has a unique scheme when it was handled by Atlantic. On their albums and singles, the logo would be one color and the background a different color on one side and swapped on the other side and, in some instances, the information print would be in gold like the gold inlaid designs.

16. MCA-The Rainbow (1973-1978, 1980-1992)

MCA adapted the rainbow as its’ layout design in 1973 and ran it for four years until they gave way to the brown/beige color scheme. The rainbow was re-instated in 1980 and would remain even after the company changed logo.

17. CAPITOL-The Purple Look (1940s, 1977-1983, 1999-present)

Talk about nostalgia. Capitol resurrected this design from the 40s, not once but twice.

18. PAISLEY PARK-The Triangle is the Artist (1987-1991)

The album labels that weren’t promotional remained the same, but the singles were a different story. A big triangle with “Paisley Park Records” on it pretty much dominated the design, but every artist signed to the label that survived this layout had their own color. To name a few: Prince (purple), Madhouse (orangish red), Sheila E. (fire engine red), Mavis Staples (pink) and Good Question (green).

19. A&M-Fade Into Silver (1973-1986)

A&M’s label design where a gold A&M faded into silver fell into the same category as Epic’s Letterman look. The design remained with the company, but after 1980 it was only on the albums for six more years.

20. ATLANTIC-The Red and the Black (1947-1992, 2003-present)

The fun part of Atlantic’s black/red design was the simplicity of the design – it was also fun watching how much information that they squeeze on the red part. In 1988 when they joined their Warner Music Group counterparts on putting the UPC bar code on the labels, the Atlantic logo retreated a little closer to the top.

21. ISLAND-The Palm Tree Inside the I (1974-1982; 1984)

I’m adding this one because when they came on the scene, the single label differed from the album label. On the ‘A’ side of the album label, outling of the I in the Island logo was placed strategically over the palm tree and the sun; on the B side – same thing except it was the moon and the palm tree and island were silhoutted against it. When they jumped over to Atlantic from Warners in 1982, this design disappeared. Atlantic updated the look a little and briefly ran it in 1984.

Special thanks to El Doctor Reyes (Squeezer of Pets) at visionradio for his knowledge & insight. Well done sir!!