The First Record Album^409
Alex SteinweissAlex Steinweiss created the first
record albums with original cover
art in the late 1930 s. What seems
commonplace today was
revolutionary back then, when
heavy shellac seventy-eight rpm
records were packaged in
unadorned cardboard covers with
craft paper sleeves bound inside.
The title of the album was usually
embossed on the cover’s front and
spine, and on rare occasions an
album might include a
reproduction of a famous
painting. Steinweiss’s art was both
original and stylish, conforming
to contemporary French and German poster fashions where symbolic forms
and metaphors expressed the message. Rather than a portrait of the
recording artist, Steinweiss believed, and the management of Columbia
Records concurred, that provocative graphic symbols would stimulate the
audience’s interest in the music. According to a 1939 article in Newsweek,
sales of the first illustrated album cover rose over 800 percent.
“I tried to get into the subject,” Steinweiss explained in an
interview, “either through the music or the life and times of the
artist/composer. For example, for a Bartok piano concerto I took the
elements of the piano—the hammers, keys, strings—and composed them in
a contemporary setting. Since Bartok is Hungarian, I also put in the
suggestion of a peasant figure.” For the album La Conga Steinweiss painted
an enlarged pair of hands playing on a stylized conga drum. For Gershwin’s
original recording of Rhapsody in Bluehe placed a piano on a dark blue field
illuminated only by the yellow glow of a lone street lamp. The moody scene
captured both the music and the city.
Steinweiss’s designs maximized the limited image space. All the
characteristics of a large poster were brought to the forefront: strong central
image, eye-catching typography or lettering, and contrasting colors. At the
time the illustrated album cover was first introduced, record stores, which