For You is an instrumental album by German progressive rock band Profil, recorded in Brutkasten Studios and released in 1982. This is the only known release of the band.

The cover design is credited to Bernd Mayer, who was also a member of the band and played drums and percussion on the album.

Hypnos (by Jean Alessandrini) is in use for the name of the band. The title of the album seems to be handlettered.

[More info on Discogs]

From Wikipedia:

Dopes to Infinity is the third album by American rock band Monster Magnet, released on March 21, 1995. The album includes the song "Negasonic Teenage Warhead", the band's first hit single.

Art direction and design by Sandy Brummels and Walberg Design, with input from Dave Wyndorf. The illustration is by Mark Skillicorn.

[More info on Discogs]

From Wikipedia:

Pilgrimage is the second studio album by the rock band Wishbone Ash. The album focuses more on folk and acoustic music as opposed to the blues rock sound that dominated the first album. The album also contains the instrumental jazz workout “Vas Dis” as well as moodier, slower instrumentals such as “Alone” and “Lullaby”.

Cover design by Hipgnosis, using Benguiat Caslon (or one of the copies that were available from phototypesetting studios in London, like Lettergraphics’ Arriola Caslon).

Shown here is the first original German issue with fold-out cover. At this time, MCA releases were distributed through Telefunken Decca.

[More info on Discogs]

The self-titled debut album from April 1978 was designed by Zoran Busic with art by Rene Zamic.

Record collector, DJ and musicologist Klaus Hiltscher on Saga’s debut album:

In Germany the most sold Saga LP. I like this one because you hear also some rock guitars. In later LPs was the keyboards very dominant! “Humble Stance” is a very significant song for Saga, like “Satisfaction” for the Stones. To me it was the last LP which I really heard. In that year we opened our record shop ROCK ON, from then on I mostly heard Punk/Metal or New Wave like Gary Numan.

The cover established Solemnis as the typeface closely associated with the Canadian band’s early years. For the follow-up, Images at Twilight, the festive uncial by Günter Gerhard Lange was also used for the album title.

The track list on the back is set in Friz Quadrata, mostly in all caps.

The cover for Images at Twilight from May 1979 was again designed by Busic, this time with art by Tony Roberts.

Tracklist and credits on the back are set in Trump-Mediäval Italic.

Silent Knight was released in November 1980. Busic collaborated with Roberts another time. Solemnis made way for Parsons.

From Wikipedia:

Mind Garage was an American psychedelic rock and roll band from Morgantown, West Virginia, and a progenitor of Christian rock music. Their “Electric Liturgy” performed in 1968 was the first documented Christian rock worship service, and their 1969 eponymous debut RCA album was one of the earliest Christian rock albums released.

The band’s name is set using Calendar.

[More info on Discogs]

Fonts from the Flea Market 1420

Albert Boton’s Zan in use on the German sleeve for a 1973 single by Mac and Katie Kissoon, a Trinidad and Tobago-born pop soul duo consisting of brother and sister.

[More info on Discogs]

The second album by British-Australian group Marvin, Welch & Farrar, released on EMI’s Regal Zonophone label in October 1971. Cover art by UK design team Hipgnosis.

[More info on Discogs]

“Tomorrow’s Dream” b/w “Laguna Sunrise” is a single from Vol 4, the fourth studio album by Black Sabbath, released in September 1972. The Italian sleeve depicts a necklace with a cross pendant, with the heads of the band members shown between the four beams. The typeface is Tony Wenman’s Bottleneck, issued by Letraset in 1972.

[More info on Discogs]

Filmotype Holly was used on the cover of King Crimson’s 1974 album Red. From Wikipedia:

During the mixing stage, ideas for the album’s title and artwork were discussed. The needles on the meters on the studio's mixing desk were observed to be “bouncing and crashing sharply into the red”; for Wetton, this symbolised the direction of the band's music and was to influence the planned front cover of Red. However, EG [the band’s management] suggested that a group photograph would be easier to sell, particularly for the American market. EG director Mark Fenwick pitched to hire John Kosh, who subsequently commissioned Gered Mankowitz to produce photographs of the meters (for the album’s back cover) and the group, but tensions within the group led to each member being photographed alone and being combined into a composite. The resulting cover’s chiaroscuro style has been compared to that of the Beatles’ 1963 album With the Beatles […]

[More info on Discogs]

Text on the back cover appears to be set in some wonky phototype version of Futura Bold. The album was released on Island Records in the UK. The images show the US release on Atlantic Records.

Traumstadt is a live double LP by German prog rock band Hoelderlin. It was recorded on 24 and 25 October 1977 at Opernhaus Wuppertal, in the group’s home town, and released on Spiegelei, Intercord’s dedicated prog rock label.

The cover represents one of the more prominent uses of Erwin Poell’s eponymous display typeface, Poell. It was designed by Ingo Hamacher, following a concept by guitarist Christian von Grumbkow. Poell is used in all caps, featuring its dotted I.

[More info on Discogs]

The labels visualize the name: Spiegelei is German for fried egg. Text is printed in Helvetica.

Fonts from the Flea Market 1353

“I’m Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band)” is a song by the English prog rock band The Moody Blues. It was released in 1973 as the second single from their 1972 album Seventh Sojourn, with “For My Lady” as its B-side.

The German sleeve uses three weights from a phototypeface of unclear origin: Melen is shown in a 1973 specimen by European typesetting chain Typeshop as well as on a 1974 poster by Conways’ Photosetting in London. Melen also appears in catalogs by Lettergraphics (and also Castcraft), but it’s unlikely that it originated at Lettergraphics: the Conways poster has a section dedicated to designs obtained from the Californian company, but Melen is listed elsewhere.

All glyphs are composed of straights and arcs. The fonts came with dozens of alternates – see the two forms for A in the third line. The family has six styles with unconventional names: Plump (bold), Girth (medium), Juicy (light), Sunny (extralight), Meek (thin), and Sliced (like Plump, but outlined). Three styles were combined in this Use, partly with lowered glyphs and with overlapping lines.

[More info on Discogs]

The boldest weight, Melen Plump, with its many alternates, shown in Lettergraphics’ “Do a Comp” specimen issued sometime between 1968 and 1975

Babe Ruth is an English rock band from Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Initially named Shacklock, it was renamed after the famous baseball player in 1972. The debut album is best known for the song “The Mexican”. It comes with cover art by Roger Dean (b. 1944) who chose to depict a scene of space baseball, with the astronaut players surfing on sharks.

While the UK release featured Cooper Black Italic, with related lettering for the band name, the type was changed for the North American market: there, it’s almost as bonkers as the art, featuring a chromatic setting of Vanderbilt. This style is the shaded variant of Vassar, a top-heavy novelty face added to Filmotype’s library sometime before 1970.

[More info on Discogs]

Detail

Stromberg Graphic is used for Vanilla Fudge’s second album The Beat Goes On, released on ATCO Records in 1968.

The lines in other scripts are handwritten and appear to represent translations of the title.

[More info on Discogs]

One of the more striking uses of Pousse Cafe, and an early one to boot. Robert Montgomery’s all-caps typeface for Photo-Lettering appeared on the cover of the first and only album release by the Aquarian Age from 1969, with their interpretation of the Hair score.

From Sal Forlenza’s liner notes:

“Hair” broke the sound and sight barriers and triggered a wave of assent and dissent that produced overnight success. The “Now” generation had scored its first victory in their fight for freedom of expression. Out of this highly volatile, revolutionary environment came some of the most explosive music of this electrified era. Shocking, free-wheeling, tender, gutteral and most important of all … definitive!

The Aquarian Age, ten talented people from Texas, decided that the score of “Hair“ was the perfect vehicle for their first album. This was their generation that the actors were talking about; this was their philosophy being expressed in the hard hitting lyrics of the score, and this was the place to begin their recording careers; in the future, not in the past.

The four-color setting of album title and band name is contrasted with Bob Venosa’s black-and-white illustration of a ginormous mass of hair, flowing from a cornucopia held by a naked man. The back cover shows the typeface without color fills. Here it blends with the parallel lines of the long-haired head shown in profile – a hippie version of the portraits by Art Nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha.

[More info on Discogs]

This is the second and last studio album by the Japanese fusion band Space Circus. Tsunehisa Kimura created the artwork cover for the front and back, which is titled Divine Retribution and Earth Fantasy. Both artworks are currently in the collection of the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum.

The album title is set in an extra compressed variant of Helvetica Compressed [edit: or rather Schmalfette Grotesk, see comments], while the band's name is set in Neo Script.

The track titles on the back cover are set in a bold weight of Futura, while the track numbers, song credits, and staff credits are set in Optima. The Japanese sans serif typeface on the bottom left and the serif typeface on the bottom right are Ishii Gothic (石井ゴシック) and Ishii Mincho (石井明朝).

[More info on Discogs]

This is the debut studio album by the Japanese fusion band Space Circus. Design agency Sugarpot created the artwork for the front and back covers. The album title is set in caps from a medium weight of Capone, while the band's name uses Blackline.

At the back cover, the band’s name along with the the word “STAFF” is set in Helvetica, while the tracklist is in Optima. The staff personnel is most likely set in News Gothic.

At the front obi, the typefaces used are Shimbun Tokubuto Gothic, Ishii Mincho, and Ishii Gothic. The back obi uses Ishii Gothic and Ishii Mincho.

[More info on Discogs]

Front cover without the obi

In 1970, Hör Zu Black Label released a Soft Machine compilation with eleven songs from the band’s first two albums. This imprint for progressive and avantgarde music was started by German TV magazine Hör zu in 1968.

The blocky letters are from One Up, a display typeface of unclear origin. It’s shown in the 1967 and 1968 catalogs of London-based typesetting company Photoscript, in solid and outline styles, without design credits.

On the front, the unknown cover designer customized several of its letterforms: S, a, and c were all reimagined, probably to make them a bit less ambiguous and more readable. The back cover features unmodified One Up, in its Outline style.

In his liner notes, Walter Haas mentions that Kevon (Kevin) Ayres, in addition to being the lead guitarist, is an athlete and illustrator, that Robert Wyatt has mastered not only several instruments, but also lithography, and that Michael Ratledge won a philosophy prize and excels in rugby.

[More info on Discogs]

One Up as shown in Photoscript’s Catalogue of Some Art Nouveau and Ornate Typefaces, 1967 (page 23, detail)

Back cover

Alternative picture of the fornt cover, with colors that probably come closer to the actual ones.

Soft Machine’s band name famously was borrowed from William S. Burroughs’s 1961 novel, where it is a metaphor for the human body. This theme was picked up by the designers of the U.S. release of the self-titled debut album from 1968 – Byron Goto, Eli Aliman, and Henry Epstein – who depicted the band members tangled up in cogwheels, alongside a nude woman with a wind-up key (which soon after got censored).

Shown here is the cover of the debut album as Barclay Records released it to the French market. Cover designer Claude Caudron opted for a photomontage that emphasizes the machine part, without any human softness. Only on the back cover did Caudron reuse some of the visual elements of the original album design.

The title is set in caps from a dimensional slab serif that originated in the 19th century and went under various names, see Broadcast. In France, Deberny & Peignot revived this design in the 1930s and showed it as one of several sets of Initiales Ombrées, literally “shaded initials”.

[More info on Discogs]

1973 reissue of demo sessions recorded by Soft Machine in London, April 1967, and originally released under the title Faces and Places Vol. 7 in 1972.

The uncredited designer used Bottleneck (Letraset, 1972) and spaced the bottom-heavy letters so tightly that several of them join up.

The editors of Discogs point out that the colored portraits of Elton Dean, Mike Ratledge, Hugh Hopper, and Robert Wyatt show the wrong line-up: Dean and Hopper are not present on these recordings.

[More info on Discogs]

Sleeve of a reissue of Soft Machine’s self-titled debut album from 1968, released in 1976 by Italian budget label Record Bazaar as The Soft Machine, vol. 1, under licence from ABC Records.

The unknown designer used two typefaces from the catalog of Mecanorma: Bronisław Zelek’s “impossible” Zelek (1972), here printed in two colors, and Mike W. Schmidt’s Art Deco (1975). The photograph is reproduced from the original album art designed by Byron Goto, Henry Epstein, and Eli Allman.

[More info on Discogs]