Who else misses record labels?

Cafe Society
1

I don’t mean label as in, say, Capitol Records. I mean the actual paper label you used to see on vinyl records.

When people lament the almost complete death of vinyl (there’s still some being produced), they usually say they miss the cover artwork or the lyric sheets. I miss the labels themselves.

Some of my favorites:

Motown (w/the road map showing Detroit)

Jet Records (looks like the top of a skyscraper with the Jet logo and blue and yellow spotlights gleaming)

Atlantic (the red and black 45 label, not the album label)

Capitol Records (especially the silver on black)

Decca (w/Decca on one side and the color bands on the other)

Atco (yellow over white)

RCA Victor (w/Nipper NOT the hideous logo label from the 70’s)

Anybody else?

2

The only one I can think of is the Apple label on Beatles records…and I do kinda miss it. :slight_smile:

3

Sun, with the yellow label and tan “rays” spreading from the center of the 45.

Dot, multicolored lettering in a age of black/white.

A second on Atlantic and Atco.

Specality also had the yellow and white color scheme, laid out a little differently than Atco.

Chess, that blue and silver label with “Chuck Berry” or “Bo Diddley” or “Howlin Wolf” listed as the artist is my alltime favorite.

I used to file my records by record label. (Weird, I know) Maybe that has something to do with how clearly I remember the labels.

Neat topic, but here’s betting a lot of the young’uns on the SDMB can’t relate. :slight_smile:

4

Stax Records of course…

Carla Thomas
Sam and Dave.
Booker T and the MG’s
Otis Redding…the list goes on and on.

5

damn…I gotta read the op’s a bit closer.

6

You’re probably going to be forgiven. We all know it’s hard to concentrate when “Green Onions” is running through your head.

7

I always liked Tommy Boy’s label. Looked like people preppin’ poppin’ and breakin’ on it. I always knew it would be a good beat mix for spinning if it had that Tommy Boy label.

8

Well, I liked the old Stax label, with the stack of records and a couple flyin’ out the top…

MCA’s early-70s rainbow-against-black label was a fave.

Def Jam’s late-80s “turntable” label was like a modern variation of Stax’s look to me.

Chess’ slogan of “Often Imitated, Never Duplicated” was cool, though the label could sometimes leave a lot to be desired in terms of graphic look. If I were to own a record label, I think I’d use the motto “Life’s Too Short To Listen To Crap” as a nod to Chess.

Though the music was not-so-hot, I liked the patchwork on the Windsong label.

I’ve always liked “Burbank, Home of Warner Brothers Records” for its look, too, though it could be hard to read song titles.

I’m sure I’ll think of more…

9

Buddah (the highly psychedelic late-'60s version…Lemon Pipers rool!)

Vertigo, both the original hypnotic swirl and the Roger Dean spaceships versions.

And speaking of Roger Dean, any of the custom labels on '70s Yes albums. Flo and Eddie (ex-Turtles/Mothers Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan) used to have a “Blind Date” column in one of the local southern California rock papers, in which someone would play unidentified records for them and they would review them/tear them apart. One of the records was Ramshackled by Yes drummer Alan White, which led Flo or Eddie to observe: “A custom label design. Must be one of the guys in Yes. It is one of the guys in Yes? Hey, be sure to say that we identified the record before we even heard it!”

10

As a kid I was fascinated by the label for Casablanca Records for some reason. My cousins listened to lots of disco, my uncles listened to KISS so I saw that image of the street with the palm trees and the colorful swirls quite a lot.

Kind of OT, but I love to look at old record covers designed by Hipgnosis. So cheesy they’re cool.