Albums with gimmick packaging

Cafe Society
61

I have a copy of Cheech and Chong’s Big Bambu that still has the paper in it. My mom had a copy of a Rod Stuart album that was cut to resemble a rocks glass full of whisky too.

The two from my own period were the inside of Tool’s Ænima, which had the diamond cut motion cover, and if you flipped the CD booklet around there was a diamond cut motion image of guy giving himself head while the band looks on.

I also have a CD single of Slayer’s Seasons in the Abyss that came packaged in a clear plastic soft case that was full of fake blood and floating skulls. The blood is all dried up though. ETA - It’s this one

62

The Feederz’ Ever Feel Like Killing Your Boss? LP was covered in sandpaper, so it would destroy the covers of the records placed next to it.

Public Image Ltd.'s Metal Box was three 45-rpm 12" records in a metal film can. It was later released in a normal sleeve as Second Edition.

63

Post Cereals had a number of those cereal box-record promos during the early 70’s. I remember there was another one that featured the Jackson 5.

I wonder how much those cereal box records go for now and if they’re worth more if they’re not removed from the back of the box (maybe someone can check e-bay).

64

The cover of Very also has nubs like a Lego floor piece.

The outside cover of the Pat Metheny Group’s Imaginary Day is written entirely in code; you use the CD as a decoding wheel.

65

Six. :wink:

66

Damnit, all four Jethro Tull albums I was going to name have already been mentioned. (I have all four in their original form, also. So there, neener neener neener!)

67

As is Midnight Oil’s “Blue Sky Mining” LP. I have it and it’s just so pretty.

68

Also, the record was three sided!

The second side had two interlaced tracks on it, and depending upon where the stylus fell, you would hear either side two, or side three! Brilliant.

69

As I recall, he wanted to use different colored vinyls so that there would be a star in the middle of the LP. It never worked out, so they just released what came off the press. I think they were all different.

Jackson Browne’s first album was released with an opening on the top, and with a texture similar to burlap. The label inside looked like water. The entire intent was to simulate a horse’s water bag. The album is now known by the directions printed on water bags: Saturate Before Using.

Ian Dury and the Blockheads had an album released with what looked like wallpaper for a cover material. There would be any number of different looking LPs in the bin, but they were all the same release.

The cover of Todd Rundgren’s A Wizard - A True Star was originally cut to follow the artwork. It was truly bizarre in silhouette.

70

Nah, it was PiL’s second album Metal Box that was originally marketed in an, erm, metal box. Good album, although only Poptones and Careering seem to have had any impact ongoing. PiL never had an album called Public Image Limited. IMO the only ones worth having are First Issue, Metal Box and Flowers of Romance.

71

Some awesome CD box sets:

Brain in a Box
The image on each side is 3-D.

One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost and Found
Within the round hatbox, each CD is housed in a wallet made to look like a compact, with a silvery “mirror” inside and the disc as powder puff; the booklet looks like a diary.

A Life Less Lived

What It Is!
The box is made of some kind of thick, wood-like pressboard (?) and is the size of a vinyl 45.

72

God dammit all to hell - this thread is just making me lament the passing of vinyl in favor of soulless CDs and soulless MP3s. Vinyl LPs had SO much more potential for creative packaging! Reading all this stuff, it sounds like there was a veritable renaissance of krazy album packaging in the days of vinyl. Now I’m sad!

73

Sometimes they try: the CD of The Who Live at Leeds has an insert that shows many of the documents in the original LP. And the CD itself has the words “Cracking noises have been corrected!” a neat nod to the original “Cracking noises OK. Do not Correct!”

The CD of The Drowsy Chaperone looks like an LP record, which is very appropriate if you’ve seen the play.

Usually, if a CD does something like this, it’s on the CD itself.

74

lessee… a couple of things, and I’m too lazy to quote properly…

Muscle of Love was, IIRC, a cardboard box, rather than just paper, but I could be wrong.

Los Cochinos by Cheech y Chong depicted them in a green car - it had an inner sleeve and an outer sleeve - the front of the outer sleeve was cut along the roofline of the car and the inner sleeve filled in the “windows” of the car. Unlike Big Bambu, it did not have a giant rolling paper. :slight_smile:

Brain Salad Surgery by Emerson Lake and Palmer had a front cover that opened down the middle, except for a ~4" circle in the middle. Opening the cover exposed the (modified) Geiger painting inside. It also included a huge folded insert which had photos of the 3 of them, all the lyrics, etc., and also had three 4" holes in it. I’m not explaining it very well.

The subsequent ELP album was a triple live album, in which each of the album sleeves slid behind one of the letters E L or P. They weren’t at all into themselves. :rolleyes:

Slightly off topic, but the American Band single from the album by the same name was a translucent orange rather than typical black vinyl.

Good thing Who’s Next didn’t have a smell feature too… :smiley:

75

Rephlex records does some really nice packaging.

Off the top of my head I’ve got:

AFX Analogue Bubblebath 3 - in an extremely fragile brown paper bag.
Caustic Window - Joyrex J9i a shaped picture disc with a roland tr-606 on one side an a roland tb-303 on the other.
Caustic Window - Joyrex J9ii plain black sleave with a bag of pop rocks.
[URL=http://www.discogs.com/artist/Universal+Indicator|Universal Indicator -green] a 7", 10" and one 12" green vinyl record in a plastic shopping-bag type thing.

76

In fact it’s in a brown hard cardboard oversized postal envelope type thing. With pop rocks (or some similar candy)

77

Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young’s Deja Vu* had a gold embossed cover with a photo inset, with the corners looking like photo corners (those triangle things that held old photos in albums).

Early versions of the Door’s L.A. Woman had yellow cellophane over the band picture.

Bruce Sprinsteen’s Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ had a die cut postcard that opened up.

Stage Fright by the Band had a photo of two of the group’s members on the front. The photo wrapped around to the back. But it only was held by the shrink wrap, and wasn’t attached to the cardboard. Copies of the LP with that photo are rare (I see one for $119 on Ebay). Used albums and CDs show the cover after the picture has been removed.

*But I may have already said that.

78

Two gimmicks- not only was there a die-cut, as mentioned, but the second side actually had two grooves, each with a different set of sketches. (Both sides of the record were marked “Side B.”)

79

My copy (the 1995 single-CD version with eight bonus tracks but without Tommy) is in an LP-sized package with reproductions of all of the original inserts included. There’s even a bound-in page with a picture of what the original LP looked like in its pouch!

80

Paul McCartney recognized the sales potential to the collectors’ market early on.

The Beatles was already mentioned as having been only embossed with the title and an edition number in the beginning. It also had a poster and 4 8x10 portraits of the group. In the late 1970s it was limited-reissued in France in white vinyl, in a replica embossed sleeve that opens from the top.

Let It Be was first issued in Commonwealth countries in a box set with a poorly-bound book of photos from the sessions, and mistranscribed, misattributed dialogue from the film and outtakes, along with the album. It was rereleased some months later, minus the box and book, and with a different catalogue number.

During the late '70s and early '80s, EMI went nuts with the limited reissues. All the UK singles came out on picture discs. And there are pic disc LPs of Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road. Sgt. Pepper was issued in marble vinyl, The Beatles was issued in white, 1962-1966 in red, 1967-1970 in blue and Love Songs in gold.

Band On The Run album was a picture disc (in 1978 - the LP was released 1973).

Seaside Woman was a one-off single that Paul wangled from Epic in the US and A&M in England. It was released under the name of “Suzy & The Red Stripes” (after the Jamaican beer…and because Linda sang lead). This was limited-issued on A&M in a cardboard box with see-through front, containing a yellow vinyl 7", a button badge and ten postcards.

McCartney II (1980) came with a one-sided 7" record with a version of “Coming Up” recorded live at Glasgow. This became the hit, and everything on the album tanked.

Epic released The Girl Is Mine single (a 1982 Michael Jackson record with Paul guesting) in pic disc, and red vinyl; in Israel they made an orange vinyl pressing.

No More Lonely Nights (1984) was issued on 7" and 12’ pic discs.

Press (1986) was issued in a limited edition 10" single (the size of a 78 RPM record).

When Flowers In The Dirt came out, Paul went into overdrive with the collectible issues. The album was issued on CD with a bonus disc of current B-sides and other previously unavailable tracks - only in Japan.

This One, the second single from the above, was limited-issued in a cardboard outer box, designed as an envelope, with the record in a special picture sleeve, and with five picture postcards inside.

One (of three) 12’ singles for the track Figure Of Eight has images of lithographs etched into the otherwise blank vinyl of Side 2.

The tour recorded for “FITD” was released as a single LP/CD/cassette called Tripping The Live Fantastic - Highlights! and a 3LP/2CD abum, Tripping The Live Fantastic. It was also issued in limited edition “World Tour Pack” fomat, which came in a flap-over cardboard outer box designed like a tour case. Inside was a cardboard tray, holding two posters, a tour itinerary, six postcards, the 3LP & 7" single of a non-LP track called “Party Party”, or the 5" CD & 3" CD single of the same track in a cardboard digipak, and a bumper sticker that reads, “I’d rather be listening to Paul McCartney.”

First editions of Memory Almost Full come in a special box format that has five flaps that fold out to reveal the two discs (extra CD in this edition) in a tray in the center. Inside a flap is a series of pictures, accordion-folded, with the lyrics on the back. (I don’t think he could have got EMI to spring for that…)

Oh, man, look how long this post is already, and I haven’t mentioned anybody else’s records! Maybe I will, later.