Caruso Roxy’s bold weight (1962) can be seen in use on the cover of Feelin’ Good, a 1965 album by Lena Horne (1917–2010). Arranged by Ray Ellis, it was Horne’s first release with United Artists Records. The song names – likewise arranged on curved baselines – appear to be in all caps from Microflair Condensed, another 1960s face by Photo-Lettering. By 1966, Caruso Roxy was copied by Lettergraphics as Holiday.

[More info on Discogs]

The Stripper and Other Fun Songs for the Family is an album with easy listening and swing music recorded by David Rose (1910–1990) and His Orchestra. The titular opening track, “The Stripper”, is an instrumental recorded in 1958. From Wikipedia:

Four years after the song was recorded, MGM Records wanted to rush-release Rose’s recording of “Ebb Tide” as a 45-rpm single, but needed a B side. An office boy perused Rose’s tapes searching for one, and “The Stripper” was chosen. It became a surprise hit, receiving considerable radio play.

[More info on Discogs]

CL 500 (1955 pressing)

The Golden Era Series was produced and edited by George Avakian “from original masters which he assembled and preserved in Columbia’s vaults at Bridgeport, Connecticut.” [Discogs]

The two compilation albums shown here, Benny Goodman Combos and Benny Goodman and his Orchestra, were first released in 1951, with largely identical cover designs by young Rudolph de Harak, using Stymie set on a bouncing baseline. The latter album features an angled block of all-caps Peignot for the track listing. Both were (re)issued in various color variants.

GL 500 (1951)

CL 534

CL 534

Robert Montgomery’s Pousse Cafe in early use for a compilation album with eight rare recordings of jazz and swing music by Barney Bigard & Orchestra, Albert Nicholas, Bernard Addison & His Rhythm a.k.a. Freddie Jenkins & His Harlem Seven, and The Little Ramblers, released in 1969 by RCA Victor in their Vintage Series.

The typeface’s “plywood” layers inspired the uncredited designer to apply a similar effect to the silhouettes of the two titular clarinetists.

[More info on Discogs]

Found and suggested by Javi Gonzalez.

This MGM release from 1973 is a reissue and repackage of Sammy Davis Jr. & Count Basie’s Our Shining Hour, originally released by Verve Records in 1965. The cover art is by Craig Nelson. It’s unclear if he takes credit for the (hand-rendered?) line in Adonis. This upright script – rather a connected sans – was designed by Willard T. Sniffin for ATF in 1930.

[More info on Discogs]

Fonts from the Flea Market 1367

Mierop Ginger Snap in early use for a compilation album by jazz saxophonist Charlie Barnet (1913–1991), released in 1969 by RCA Victor in their Vintage Series. The songs were recorded between February 24, 1939, and August 14, 1941, for Bluebird. The C appears to be an alternate or a modification.

[More info on Discogs]

The Longines Symphonette was an orchestra pertaining to the Longines Symphonette Society. This mail-order label was led by Alan Cartoun, son of Longines chairman Fred Cartoun. In 1966, they released a 6-LP box set with no less than 84 songs by Bing Crosby.

George Gross (1909–2003) is credited for the cover illustration. The main typeface is Dave Davison’s Epanoul. The sans with letterforms based on a squircle is combined with Palatino Italic (used with swash caps) and a formal script (for “The”). The text in the bottom left corner of the cover is set in Bernhard Modern.

[More info on Discogs]

Bryson contributed a post about the first British edition of Hot Jazz, which has a book jacket that exclusively features typefaces by Rudolf Koch. I thought I’ll add the first U.S. edition by M. Witmark & Sons, too.

The American dust jacket features another typeface design by Koch. This time it’s Neuland (1923), a coarse all-caps design for which Koch manually cut the punches, resulting in small (and not so small) differences across the ten sizes.

Thanks to Edvinas Žukauskas and Jérôme Knebusch who digitized all individual sizes for their Koch-Grotesk revival (2023), it’s easy to determine the sizes the uncredited jacket designer employed. The main title and the publisher’s name use the 20pt (“Text”) size, and the subtitle, the author’s name and the location are derived from the 12pt “Cicero” size. The two lines in the 20pt design are shown in different sizes – that’s because they were scaled photographically. Identifying the sizes also tells us that the fonts used are the original ones imported from Klingspor: the domestic copy by Baltotype was cut pantographically based on the 28pt design, and thus is identical from one size to another.

The other typeface used for the synopsis and the spine is equally bold, but has nothing to do with Koch whatsoever. It’s Cooper Black.

Front and spine of the book jacket

The book cover combines Lichte Erbar-Versalien a.k.a. Monastic with an italic Caslon – possibly English Caslon Oldstyle.

The title page repeats the cover typography and adds text in another Caslon, in italics and roman caps.

While the chapter numbers use numerals from the aforementioned Lichte Erbar-Versalien, the initials are from another open face: it’s Caslon Openface.

Body text isn’t composed in Caslon, but in a Baskerville – namely the Linotype version.

Hot Jazz: The Guide to Swing Music is the English-language translation of Hugues Panassié’s Le Jazz Hot (1934) – which discusses the music genre of swing music and its differences from Jazz music – originally translated from the French by Eleanor & Lyle Dowling for M. Witmark & Sons in 1934. Shown here is the the dust jacket of the rare British 1936 print by Cassell in London.

The purely typographic design exclusively uses typefaces from Rudolf Koch: the multiline Prisma for the title, supplemented by Kabel with the italic and Black styles.

Front cover

From Wikipedia:

10 Saxophones and 2 Basses is an album by composer, arranger and conductor Pete Rugolo featuring performances recorded in 1961 and first released on the Mercury label as part of its audiophile Perfect Presence Sound Series.

The album title and artist name are set in Safari, with numerals in an outline style similar to that seen in the 1960 Headliners specimen but possibly a custom alteration to add emphasis to the album title.

Additional type set in a Clarendon-like slab with flared stems in two widths, a compressed (“Perfect Present Sound”) and a wide one (“High Fidelity”), as well as Futura [rather: Twentieth Century] Condensed Italic, Copperplate Gothic, Century Expanded Italic, and Monotype Grotesque.

Designer unknown. Additional album information at Discogs.

Back cover with the liner notes set in pink in some sort of Baskerville. The “Hi-FInformation” is in italic Monotype Grotesque, while the annotatedt track list appears to combine News Gothic and more Century Expanded.

A compilation re-release of music produced by Charlie Christian, Joe Venuti, and Eddie Lang, released by German label History as part of their “From Swing to Bebop” series of double CDs.

The compressed, City-style slab serif face used here is Robotik, designed in 1989 by David Quay for Letraset. The “From Swing to Bebop” logo on the top combines Kaufmann and Sanvito. The records are undated – judging from the design and the featured typefaces, they were probably released around the mid-1990s.

[More info on Discogs]

The same basic design and typography was used for all releases in this series.

The Roaring 20’s Special Edition, G.A. 33-602, 1957. Illustration by John Groth. Track names in Alternate Gothic No. 2, with Franklin Gothic and Venus Bold Italic for small bits. [More info on Discogs]

The Roaring 20’s is a series of records with “great hit songs of the 20’s, excitingly performed by Enoch Light and the Charleston City All-Stars”. It was started by Grand Award Records in 1955. Most of the covers shown here were designed for pressings from 1957: four LPs, a double LP, and a 7″ EP. The series also included the EPs Vol. 7, Vol. 8 and Vol. 9, some of them with art reused from the LPs.

All covers in this series feature a wordmark based on Metropolis. Willy Schwerdtner’s design from 1928 is shown in caps of increasing size, virtually creating a gradient from the Bold to the taller Titling cut. Although it was already possible to create such perspective effects through photographic means at the time, chances are it’s handlettering.

The Grand Award logo uses Caslon 540 Italic, with roman capitals. The label’s art director Casper Pinsker, Jr. worked with various illustrators. For the secondary texts, he employed a range of standard typefaces, most of them sans serifs.

The Roaring 20’s Volume 1, G.A. 33-327, 1957 (1961 pressing). Illustration by Tracy Sugarman. “Volume 1” is in Vogue Extra Bold Condensed. Track names in Futura/Futura Condensed, art credits in Bodoni. [More info on Discogs]

The Roaring 20’s Volume 2, GA 33-340, 1957. Illustration by Davis Stone. Track names in all-caps Vogue Extra Bold, art credits in Bodoni. [More info on Discogs]

The Roaring 20’s Volume 2, GA 33-353, 1957. Illustration by Emerson Barron. Track names in Erbar-Grotesk Bold Condensed, art credit in Ultra Bodoni Extra Condensed. [More info on Discogs]

The Roaring 20’s Volume 5, GA 33-378. Illustration by Elmer Wexler. “World’s Finest Performances” is in a Clarendon/Ionic. Track names in all-caps Futura. [More info on Discogs]

The Roaring 20’s Volume 6, G.A. EP2018, 1955(?). While the subtitle is set in Vogue Extra Bold, most other small text uses Futura/Futura Condensed. Illustration by Emerson Barron.

Big tight-not-touching caps from a light geometric sans for the cover of I’ve Gotta Be Me. The album by Sammy Davis, Jr. (1925–1990) includes covers of three songs from the musical Sweet Charity and was released by Reprise Records in 1968. Artwork by Ed Thrasher, with a photograph by Ron Joy.

But which typeface is it? The image above shows Filmotype Genny, for a pressing with a misspelled title, “I Gotta Be Me” instead of “I’ve Gotta Be Me”. Discogs mentions that this variant is French, but it apparently was distributed in the United States as well, as promotional copy (and probably beyond). The image below shows a version that has the correct title, and a different typeface: this time, it’s Futura Light, which is distinguished by the M with splayed legs and the descending J, among other details.

[More info on Discogs]

Filmotype Gaucho and Franklin Gothic Condensed for the cover typography of The Return Of The Doodletown Fifers by the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, released by United Artists Ultra Audio in 1960 in their Wall To Wall Stereo series. The series name is in the newly released Craw Modern.

[More info on Discogs]

A bichromatic use of Benguiat Charisma Shaded on the cover of Body And Soul. The album by American jazz saxophonists Al Cohn (1925–1988) and Zoot Sims (1925–1985) was released by Muse Records in 1973. It additionally features Jaki Byard (piano), George Duvivier (bass), and Mel Lewis (drums). Their names are listed in Cooper Black. Body and Soul was produced by Don Schlitten, who also provided the photography and cover design.

In 1993, Photo-Lettering, Inc. made a digital version including Shaded and Contour styles, but it’s no longer available. Letraset’s Candice (1976) is similar.

[More info on Discogs]

Back cover with liner notes by Ira Gitler (1928–2019).

Album art for seven single records by drummer, composer, and teacher Theo Christo. The covers use Audimat 3000; inner sleeves have text set in Franziska.

What intrigued me the most concerning the artwork was emphasizing cohesion and versatility, both being differentiating elements of Christo’s music, serving as crevices through which the intention to Project Sunlight manifests itself: “To Project Sunlight is to spread life, with the intention to make it as deep and meaningful an experience as possible. Authenticity and freedom of expression put into music.”

Cover for a 2020 instrumental single "Double Duty" on Martin's Garage Records. Inspired by mid-century illustrations. Featuring manually stretched Futura Display in the spotlight along with Clarendon and Old Mac Donald NF Wide on the very top.

Cover for Outer Space Sounds of Urban Zotel, a collection of swing and country guitar instrumentals recorded during 2019 and early 2020 on Martin's Garage Records.

The artwork is inspired by 1950s covers released by Blue Note, Capitol and Sun records by using period correct typefaces and a narrow color scheme in order to try capturing the same vibe as the music.

The main title pairs Brush Script with Futura Extra Bold Condensed, giving it an unmistakable mid-century look, in addition to Old MacDonald NF (inspired by typefaces like Hellenic Wide) and Futura Extra Bold with Futura Bold at the bottom of the artwork.

Inspired by the artwork for 1950s jazz, country and swing albums released by Verve, Sun, Blue Note, Capitol and similar this cover uses Futura Bold Oblique on the top part of the visual, Futura Bold for the artist name, Indubitaly NF for “Guitar In” and Franklin Gothic caps for “Hi-Fi”.

B-side of 78 rpm shellac single “I Guess I’ll Have To Dream The Rest” / “Take The ‘A’ Train” by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, recorded on May 28, 1941.

Released on June 20, 1941 on Bluebird, a lower-priced subsidiary label of RCA Victor founded in 1932. The two concentric rings of unequal length at the rim indicate this single was pressed in Indianapolis.

The Bluebird logo uses Cheltenham with an enlarged initial cap. News Gothic is used for the catalog number, “For best results use Victor Needles”, and the names of the artist, song, and songwriter. Bank Gothic appears for the patent notices on the inside of the rim, and the very outside text parallel with the rings (“RCA Manufacturing Co.”) is Monotype’s version of Copperplate Gothic, without serifs in this small size casting.