Kölsche Mösche (“The Cologne Sparrows” in the local dialect) is an alias used during carnival by the Quartettvereinigung Rheinland 1919. The men’s choir led by Heinz Eckert (1929–2015) recorded a couple of albums in the 1970s. This one, released in 1975 by Colorit and Music for Pleasure, comes with a cover photograph depicting Katz Castle with the famous Lorelei rock in the background.

The title is presented in François Boltana’s Stilla Caps (Letraset, 1974), with tight letterspacing and tildes used in place of dashes. The uncredited designer used those forms for the letters E, L, M and N that are not included in the digitizations by Linotype, Scangraphic and Elsner+Flake.

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Letragraphica sheet LG1836 with Stilla Caps in 72pt. The alternates and extras are absent from the available digital versions.

Eydie Gormé’s The Look of Love is a 1968 album released on Columbia Records. It features her smooth vocal jazz and pop interpretations of standards and show tunes including those from Casino Royale, The Apple Tree, and The King and I. All text is set in Helvetica.

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Victor Caruso’s Roxy was first shown in Photo-Lettering’s Art Nouveau Xenotypes 1895–1905 from 1962 under the moniker Xenotype 5017. Stylistically, it doesn’t evoke Art Nouveau (nor the Roaring Twenties), but really is a child of the 1960s, and a harbinger of the Swinging Sixties and Flower Power.

The cover of Toni Carroll’s second album from 1964 is the earliest use of Caruso Roxy documented on Fonts In Use so far. The uncredited designer specified a slanted setting – as seen in the last line of the specimen shown below. Note the two forms for s. Caruso Roxy offered numerous alternates: for frequent characters like n and i, there were a whopping six or even seven different forms, respectively.

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Spread with pages 854 and 855 from Art Nouveau Xenotypes 1895–1905. Xenotype 5017 a.k.a. Caruso Roxy (bottom right) is an outlier: the other faces are from the period mentioned in the title, or were at least around at the time: Flirt (c.1886), Thalia (1894), Gazelle (by 1893), Kismet (1879), and two adaptations of alphabets drawn by Peter Schnorr before 1905. The source of Xenotype 3532 is yet unidentified.

Detail

This compilation of so-called barbershop music was released by Decca Records in 1960. It celebrates the last ten winners of the Barbershop Harmony Society’s annual international chorus competition: the Buffalo Bills, the Schmitt Brothers, Four Teens, Vikings, the Orphans, Four Hearsemen, Confederates, Lads of Enchantment, Gay Notes, and Four Pitchikers.

The large number 10 is probably drawn without using a font. “Years of Barbershop Champions” is set in the Heavy weight from Ludlow’s Radiant. The names of the winning quartets are set in Alternate Gothic, likewise in all caps. “Official Recordings” inside the trophy is in Typo Script.

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Harmony Records HS-11350, “a product of Columbia Records”

A phototype adaptation of Nesbitt’s Gothic of 1837 seems to have been a go-to font for Columbia Records during their 1960s heyday – you’ll find plenty of uses, from Dylan to the Byrds to Jeff Beck as you flip through used record stores.

According to Wikipedia, Columbia revived the name Harmony Records as an imprint of budget-priced record albums and compilations – which ultimately proved so popular they acquired and reissued records from other companies, including Warner Bros. and Reprise.

This album, Christmas with the Everly Brothers, was previously issued by Warner Bros. as WS 1483 in 1962, with fanciful circus-style type. For the Columbia-Harmony reissue shown here, it used their trusty Gothic.

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The Magic of Doris Day is a 1970 album by Doris Day released on Harmony Records. All-lowercase Blippo is used for her name and title with the i being modified with a flower on top. Song titles are set in Futura, arranged at the left and right. No cover designer has been credited.

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First released by Supraphon in Czechoslovakia in 1966, this is the cover of the 1967 issue by Crossroads, a short-lived subsidiary of Epic Records. The A-side has twelve carols composed by Benjamin Britten and performed by the Prague Radio Children’s Chorus. Arthur Honegger’s Christmas Cantata on the B-side features the Czech Philharmonic Chorus and the Kühn Children’s Chorus.

The illustrated orchestra of Santas is by Cooper Union graduate Sandy Hoffman. Art director Sid Maurer combined (too) tightly spaced Solemnis, a festive uncial by Günter Gerhard Lange for Berthold (1953), with caps from Stymie Black, Morris F. Benton’s sturdy slab for ATF (1935).

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A purely typographic cover – if one counts the ornaments and border elements as type – for The Holly and the Ivy, an album with Christmas carols performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (today known as the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square). First released in 1960 (as ML 5592), this is the 1965 stereo reissue (as MS 6192), with unchanged cover design.

Both typefaces originated in post-WWII West Germany. The uncial is Günter Gerhard Lange’s Solemnis (Berthold, 1953) – note that the O’s in “Stereo” and “Holly” were accidentally used upside down. The condensed sans with the squarish build is Paul Renner’s Steile Futura (Bauer, 1952).

Just like Futura Display, the latter isn’t really related to Futura, but was named as such to capitalize on the popularity of Renner’s late-1920s geometric sans. Steil translates to “steep” or “abrupt”, and isn’t a term commonly used in type terminology. Bauer Alphabets in New York apparently felt the German name is rather confusing than helpful, and sold the 1950s design as Bauer Topic in the United States.

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The cover photo of the Golden Gate Bridge is by Joe Norton.

A classic Columbia Records LP cover for Tony Bennett’s 1962 album I Left My Heart in San Francisco, featuring Normande Italic.

The design uses the high-contrast fat face for all text on the front cover, from the city name to the song titles, echoing 19th‑century display types.

The images show different pressings and crops of the sleeve, all retaining the same typographic hierarchy.

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Title and artist’s name are shown in three lines of alternating colors. The colors are echoed in the slashes that separate the song names. Note also the sign painters’ quotes.

The back cover of this US pressing pairs Univers Italic for the bigger lines with Akzidenz-Grotesk a.k.a. Standard for the liner notes and track listing.

The back cover of the British release uses Gill Sans Italic and Monotype Grotesque. It was printed and made by the E.J. Day Group, London.

Patti Page’s 1969 compilation album, titled Love Letters, was released on Harmony Records as a 12-inch LP in the US. The nine-song compilation includes tracks like “Stranger On The Shore”, “Born To Lose”, and the titular “Love Letters”. Her name and title is set in Davison Spencerian with News Gothic used for the song list

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This split album released by Colpix Records in 1964 contains six early songs by the Chad Mitchell Trio on the A-side and six by the Gatemen on the B-side. The name of the former, a vocal group formed in 1958 in Spokane, Washington, is shown in Rosenblum Zetzinkup. This animated semi-slab with contour was drawn by Richard Rosenblum and added to Photo-Lettering’s library shorty before.

Found by John, who is currently tracking down Uses for some of the ten typefaces designed by Rosenblum.

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Chirpin’ is the 1977 album by the Persuasions, an a cappella group that formed in Brooklyn in 1962. Art direction by Tony Lane, with a cover painting by Gary Meyer.

The typographic treatment pays homage to the lettering on the iconic Tube map for London Underground from 1908, with larger EndcapS and each letter enclosed in a tile-like box. The fonts used to emulate the hand-drawn sans are Futura Bold and Extra Bold

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For comparison: detail from London’s 1908 Tube map

Bachelors ’68 is an album by The Bachelors, released in 1968 on London Records.

The swashy letters of the album title are in Pacella Latina, with the song list underneath set in Pabst Extra Bold. No cover designer or photographer is credited.

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The Lennon Sisters were known for their performances on the Lawrence Welk Show. This album showcases their style which was often characterized by soft harmonies and covers of popular songs from the era.

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Detail from the back cover, showing the band name in Benguiat Discotheque Contour B.

Re’Generation was a soul/gospel touring ensemble of a cappella singers founded and led by Derric Johnson, and active from 1970 to 1983. This album from 1972 comes with a cover designed by Bob McConnell, featuring photography by Bill Grein and a bichromatic use of Swinger Shadow, designed by Ray Cruz for Schaedler. The track names in Optima Bold are arranged around the top of the bell that encloses the photograph.

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Freedom Means.... is an album by The Dells, released in 1971 on Cadet Records. The male vocal group formed in 1952 in Harvey, Illinois, and remained active until 2012.

The cover design by Maurer Productions features West Behemoth Italic Swash, one of two italic styles accompanying Dave West’s upright Behemoth Clarendon. It’s used with several of its swash alternates and a four-dot ellipsis.

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Detail of the typography

Everybody Loves Somebody is an album by The Cheltenham Singers, released in 1964 by Wyncote Records. The title is set in all caps using Filmotype Ranger. And “Stereo” appears to be using Filmotype Fleet, also in all caps.

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One of PLINC’s Bookmans with swashes, namely Bookman Italic Swash Bold 6, in use for a flowery record cover from 1970. Recorded by The Lennon Sisters with Lawrence Welk and his Orchestra, it was released by Vocalion Records. The four sisters first appeared on the The Lawrence Welk Show on Christmas Eve 1955, and were a fixture on the TV show for more than twelve years.

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Too Marvelous for Words is a compilation album by The Lennon Sisters, with songs selected for re-release from their Decca catalog. It was issued by Vocalion Records in 1969, the year the four sisters were struck by tragedy: on August 12 their father and long-time manager, William Lennon, was shot and killed by a delusional stalker who believed he was married to Peggy, the second-oldest of the sisters.

The title and the vocal group’s name are shown in two interlocking text blocks, with one word per line: the former is set in all-lowercase Filmotype Tempo and printed in turquoise, the latter features purple caps from Helvetica Bold. The list of song names uses either Alternate Gothic or the largely identical Trade Gothic Bold Condensed.

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Vol. 1 features Filmotype Viking with custom script lettering and a lady dreaming of Gutenfels Castle above the Rhine. The small type at the bottom is in red caps from Franklin Gothic Wide. [More info on Discogs]

I Remember Germany is a series of folk music compilations released by Fiesta Records in the early 1960s. The record label was established by Jose Morand in New York in 1952 and specialized in international music, in particular from Continental Europe and Latin America. Their I Remember… series also covered music from other countries. There were at least eleven volumes in the Germany subseries alone. Shown here is a selection of eight album covers.

Vol. 2 has a view into Segringerstraße in the historic town of Dinkelsbühl. The title is shown in red caps from Twentieth Century Ultrabold Extended. “Volume 2” probably is in the regular-wide Bold style from the same family (or Futura, on which it is based on). The yellow lines at the bottom left are set in two weights of Venus Extended. [More info on Discogs]

Vol. 3 depicts St. Peter in Bacharach on the Rhine. The rigid blackletter isn’t of German origin: it’s American Text by Morris F. Benton, designed for American Type Founders in 1934. It’s contrasted with Filmotype Lariat. Small text at the bottom uses Century Expanded Italic and more Venus Extended. [More info on Discogs]

Vol. 4 is openly dedicated to beer and beer drinking songs. In terms of typography, it features more American Text and Venus Extended, this time together with Filmotype Warden. [More info on Discogs]

American Text and Venus Extended also serve for vol. 5. The wide slab is Filmotype Wand. The photograph shows the town hall of Michelstadt with its timber-frame construction, with several Volkswagen Beetle parked in front of it. [More info on Discogs]

Vol. 7 is an exception in that it focuses on a single artist, Willy Schneider (1905–1989), who “recorded more than 800 records in the ‘Rhine and wine’ genre.” The script is Filmotype Latin.

On the cover of vol. 9, we get to see young folks in traditional costume, drinking wine somewhere above the Rhine. The script is Filmotype York. [More info on Discogs]

Vol. 10 returns to blackletter. Again, it’s not a German design, but another creation by Morris F. Benton, Engravers Old English. The bold sans-serif caps are from Twentieth Century or Futura. “Golden Tone Stereo” uses Copperplate Gothic. The fairytale castle is Neuschwanstein. [More info on Discogs]