Bad Album Covers (and what the records sound like) vinyl community
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- Опубліковано 30 тра 2024
- We've all seen the great lists and videos with the worst album covers ever. Have you ever wondered what the actual records inside sound like? I've gone through my own records and done some investigating with others and here are some of the worst album covers with actual sound clips.
Oh, holy, steaming shit through a screen door, this is BRILLIANT. Your videos usually carry some degree of 'someone's getting slapped upside the skull by a flaming wrecking-ball of ice', but this one is a masterpiece. That Gary album is maybe the worst ever with its cover 'art' and contents. I may not sleep tonight because of that one. I need more.
That Jimmy Turner song stopped me in my tracks. That was smokin. I want that record and I don't even collect.
Gary is giving off strong, "Kirk Van Houten: Can I Borrow A Feeling?" vibes.
Man that was some killer tickling of the ivory’s on that Jimmy Turner album! I remember when Pat Boone and Alice Cooper appeared on some awards show and Alice introduced Pat as the future of Rock n Roll and he came out decked out in leather and studs! LoL!
I'm going to guess that was around 1997 when he was promoting that ridiculous release. lol
@@RobertFithen yep and it was ridiculous! It was pretty cool tho that Pat Boone this devout Christian man had enough of a sense of humor to do a RnR album rather than be this high and Mighty Man of God who despised sinners like the the Coop! Haha! I always had a soft spot for the Booner since I was a kid and seen Pat Boone in the movie The Cross & the Switchblade (yeah that’s a real thing) Check it out costars Erik Estrada as the ferocious gang leader Nicky Cruz! LoL! Peace ☮️✌️👽🤘☮️
Jimmy must have gone to the Jerry Lee Lewis piano school. It was quite impressive I thought.
but did the album really sound like that? Like it was recorded with one crappy microphone with the band in a giant room?
@@cosmicvinyl2937 The rumor I heard was that Ozzy lived next door to Pat Boone, and as they'd get to know each other they sort of became friends.
I do remember in one of the early episodes of The Osbourne's Sharon said Pat was the best neighbor they ever had.
Absolutely dying at "Let Me Touch Him", haven't seen that one before.
It's the only one I couldn't find audio for.
Lisa Whelchel is a former Mickey Mousketeer, and who played the character Blair Warner in the TV series "The Facts of Life" Her lp, "All Because of You," was nominated for a 1984 Grammy.
oh my god , oh boy, i bought both albums. lisa is so beautiful.
It's kind of funny but I watched the program yesterday on MeTV that she hosts now. It's a show about people and their collections. They find collectors of different memorabilia, items, and things that they go through and get an appraiser/fellow collector to try and give an estimate on whatever the collection in the episode is worth and about. I think the program is still in it's very first season but I had been DVRing the program and watching some of the episodes. I believe it comes on Sundays and yesterday I saw The Collector, which I believe is the name of the show, that a new episode the other day had been recorded. I've been wondering when they're going to come across somebody who is a record / LP collector or someone who collects something having to do with music (bootlegs would be cool). I didn't even remember that Lisa had put out an album back in the '80s and I never had heard it or bought it or anything like that. But I do remember she was a Christian actor and was really living a good, clean, and Godly type of life and was a good example to others. I never was a big Facts of Life fan but I definitely was growing up when it was on TV and I know I saw plenty of episodes. Wow, I just asked Google how long the TV show ran and it said between 1979 and 1988. I didn't realize the TV show ran that long.
Yeah, there was a lot wrong with the '80s. Grammys lol
That Fiona Apple joke re: Death Grips was a gem! Great video, you'd be some craic to hang out with!
Thanks! I'm not sure a lot of people caught that.
Devastatin' Dave has some electric boogaloo vibes goin' on😂
I had a musician friend who bought that Pat Boone album when it came out. He was into Blues and Zappa and Butthole Surfers but when he saw a heavy metal album by Pat Boone in the store he couldn't resist. It got a play or two and then mysteriously vanished.
A common album on the 'worst covers' list is Satan is Real by the Louvin Brothers. I was curious what it sounded like and was blown away by one of the best albums I've ever heard. Even if you're not religious it's impossible not to appreciate the songwriting and vocal harmonies. Apparently Bob Dylan is a fan
Charlie & Ira Louvin are members of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Not all their music is religious in theme, but they were excellent singers and musicians. True giants of country music.
lol @Tammy Faye. I was in a weekend musical for charity based on her life. I played her second husband Roe, other unnamed characters, and I got to sing a love song toward the end. She was fully supportive of the show, and she passed on the same weekend that we did it. Fun memory, bittersweet! Another great video, man 👍
Re Gary (2:46): The album cover looks like they took that picture on his lunch break at work. As for Waking and Dreaming by Orleans: the guy in the middle of that photo with his eyes closed? That's John Hall, who later served as a Democratic US Congressman from New York. To me, Dennis Coffey's Scorpio always sounded like a 1970s TV cop show theme song - "Scorpio...a Quinn Martin production! Starring Tony Musante!"
Great video. Hilarious.
The Montrose album cover was designed by the dreadful Hipgnosis, who are responsible for countless crimes against good taste. UFO's 'Force It' is definitely high on the list. And the less said about Scorpions, 'Lovedrive', the better.
🤣@"How many time have you seen a country album with balls on the front?!"
Yeah, Hipgnosis is either really good or really bad---there's no middle ground.
I think 'Virgin Killer' is worse.
You had me laughing so hard with this video! Great video keep ‘em coming!
Thanks!! I will try.
Fun fact - the artist for the Born Again cover was overbooked and instead of quitting the project, he decided to slap together that cover as a mockup and send it to the band so they would fire him. The band loved it. I love it too.
stoner metal band Bong Wizard also has a cover that plays off the Pantera cover called Vulgar Display of Flower
🤣 This had me rolling. Too damn funny. I've seen a few of those, but some I have not. Thanks for the laughs!
Thanks for the great comment!
OMFG, this is HILARIOUS!! Reminds me of that recurring David Letterman theme where he played awful albums. Your comments are great. More please!
Thanks!! I think I'll make a follow-up eventually.
Dave's Record Collection
Man. you never cease to amaze. Pure gold.
Thanks!! I keep trying. lol
I'm surprised the imported "Blind Faith" album was not on the list; especially so given the prominence the group had with members: Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Ginger Baker, and Ric Grech.
Of course, displaying the album's artwork could violate the terms of decency with UA-cam; but I recall seeing it in US record stores in the mid-to-late 1970s for all eyes to see.
I stuck to albums that most people wouldn't know how they sounded.
The Blind Faith LP is a little riske
Some of these covers remind me of self-published novels (the kind of quasi-fanfic that's evidently never been in the same zip code as an editor), where the author decides they're a designer as well. "Yeah, that'll do. And for the font... Papyrus, I think."
He seems to dislike a lot of these but still has them in his collection! I do enjoy his take on things!
Thank you Robert. I am currently decorating my wall with bad album covers. 70s compilations are the go-to. Utterly objectionable by todays standards. As a viewer in the UK, I have to tell you that 'Enter Me Lord' by Mary Hinge is fabulous twice over. Keep up the good work.
Thanks! I can only imagine what that wall will look like.
@@RobertFithen It will look amazing. My wife is very supportive. She gets to determine if they are bad enough for the wall. I hope to send you a pic eventually. It's a big wall....
If you wondered... Mary Hinge/Hairy Minge. A minge is the delicate parts of a lady in England.
Growing up in the mid eighties there was a used record store that I visited as often as a teenager could with limited funds. For the five years the store was open they always seem to have had the same five copies of ELP's Love Beach. Funny, but sad how not one copy was sold.
Very entertaining Robert..you gave me a few giggles😆👌
Dude I thought DOA was the most grim and terrifying song put to wax until you just introduced me to the song Julie’s Birthday! Damn that shite is is tragic! I love the demon baby cover of Black Sabbath Born Again! Not a bad record either! The gal who drew the early Pantera covers was someone who drew Greeting cards locally who was friends with the Abbotts mom! Haha! Damn that Iron Angel is killer! Constrictor was Alice’s comeback album after being in rehab to dry out! I think your theory is spot on! Dude this was a fantastic video! Peace ☮️✌️👽🤘☮️
Thanks!! Great info about the artist behind the early Pantera. Did you hear the whole "Julie" song? The way he sings it...
@@RobertFithen yeah kinda reminded me of a Red Sovine jam LoL!
My ALL TIME favorite album is Rush-Hemispheres. But one of my all time NOT FAVORITE album covers is,...well,... Rush-Hemispheres.
GREAT topic. Enjoyed as usual.
Thanks!
Back in the 90s, I ran across an album called Verve in the cut-out bin of a Minneapolis record store. The front of the album had a picture of a young man eating food. It was about the most boring cover I could imagine. Very verve-less. But on the back, there were intriguing song titles like "Splem Jeague 3," "Feisty Schoolmarm," and "The Most Powerful Statement in History."
The sounds on the songs turned out to be just as varied as their titles. I felt like I was listening to a one-man indie version of the White Album. Fast forward five years, I listen to the album again and decide to try and find out something about the maker of it. I figured he might be lost to history. I do an online search and find out that he's still making music and putting out records, and he has a cult following. He also had his own website. I bought a few CDs from him and when they arrived the package was stuffed with copies of articles about him. He also included a note, which I still have: "Thanks pal! Hope you enjoy. Come back soon. Often." Then he signed his name: R. Stevie.
So what am I saying here? Don't judge an album by its cover but judge it by its song titles? Verve is as good as the White Album? Um . . . How bout, taking chances for a few dollars can be fun.
Finally, if you're still reading, I had no idea Millie Jackson went blue. And fart jokes? Ha! I think her album Caught Up is great. And I dig the cover. Thanks for creating your vids. They're informative and fun.
Thanks!! I was surprised by the Jimmy Turner album. Some of them, though, like the Gary album sound just like they look. lol
Have you ever heard of Neil Breen? Your story reminds me of him.
He is this guy who lives in Las Vegas. He made money as an architect, and in real estate. But he loves movies. And he makes these God awful movies. But they are good bad. He has a cult following. Look him up on UA-cam. People have Neil Breen parties and laugh all night long.
He writes, produces, directs, stars in, and does other various jobs to make his movies. He's not as incompetent as Ed Wood, but he also doesn't have as much money as Tommy Wiseau.
LOL this one was great. Iron Angel boy looks like He-Man stole Skeletors undies. :) Sounds great though!!
That DAC cover for Texas Moon is a classic. Not an easy one to find either. I only need 1 DAC album to complete my vinyl collection. "Requiem For A Harlequin". If you happen to have one, let's talk.
Thanks!! Yeah, "Requiem" and "Buckstone County Prison" are the only two I don't have.
This episode took me back to the 70s. My older sister had records by Kristy and Jimmy mcnichol, Shawn Cassidy, and other despicable stuff. I did enjoy her "lenny and the squigtones " lp.
The Tammy Faye segment reminded me of one of my favorite comic strips. It was Bloom County, and an alien just landed on earth, ventured into a house, turned on a TV, and saw Tammy Faye on a religious show. She was singing, mascara running.... and the alien exploded, saving all mankind.
Back around 2010 11 there was a Fakebook page dedicated to weird albums! This is an awesome topic for a video! 😂❤
I totally forgot about that glam rock sound, I think five albums, time frame for Pantera. I had always heard they had an album out prior to Cowboys from Hell but it wasn't until somewhere in the early 2000s I actually got the lossless flac files for all of their previously, I guess released, recordings. I don't think I've ever listened to all of that music. It definitely wasn't the same Pantera band members or music we've all heard. You got me thinking now about where that music might be? I'm going to have to figure out which multi GB hard drive it's on and maybe, for once, actually listen to each of the albums haha. Of course, if I don't find them I won't lose any sleep either... Brian in Fort Worth 🎶
Let Me Touch Him was hilarious with the NIN song. Spit my coffee out!
Good idea to actually play some of these records. Seen several of these covers online but never thought to actually listen to any of them.
Devastatin' Dave looks like a character from one of the "Breakin" movies. :)
I have the Lisa Whelchel record...bought it when I was 9. *LOL*
I have both the album & tape of All Because of You. Love Believer isn't that bad of a song, but the one you played isn't that great, however...
🤭🤭🤭very funny .. love how you come up with all this different videos idea.... Keep them coming..
Thanks!! I hope to!
Great piece on these albums! There is a thrift store in Shelbyville TN that has hundreds of those crazy albums, if they are still in business. My wife and I saw a few years ago when we aere on vacation in the area. The were all in VG+ condition because no one listened to them!
Hilarious video, excellent topic . Great fly to the rainbow shirt!
How about boz skaggs slow dancer?
There are two cover for that one. I can't remember which one was first.
@@RobertFithen the beach scene was the original. It was so bad they changed it on the next pressing.
Looking at the John Bolt album, the message reads loud and clear:
“Oh, come on now, honey. It’s time. Daddy’s waited 16 years for this.”
Great content and presentation!
Thanks!!
Gary is all legs and no torso.
Must've been a 70s thing.
Jimmy Turner found an outfit he liked and stuck with it. I respect that. Gotta agree about Dennis Coffey, perfectly good front cover but the back...unfortunate. Based on the short sample Boxer sounds pretty good.
Boxer may have gotten somewhere if it wasn't for that bizarre cover. lol
Great Cd and album collection. I’ve been looking for a really nice Cd storage. I’ve gotta say your Cd storage looks great. What company is the Cd storage you have. Any information would be greatly appropriated
Unfortunately, I bought them decades ago from some site on the internet.
Great video (as usual!), but as far as religious albums, surprised you didn't include Ken: By Request Only. It's pretty bad cover-wise, at least!
A classic album cover. lol
@@RobertFithen For sure! (Glad you know the album I'm talking about!).
Oh man, In A Metal Mood! My friend and I had a thing where we'd listen to the original song, then listen to Pat Boone's cover. His cover of Paradise City had me in STITCHES, while Holy Diver was honestly pretty kick-ass. I recommend that album to anyone who a) knows hard rock and metal reasonably well and b) enjoys the absurd once in a while.
I bought my sister that album for her birthday and my Brother-In-Law at the time didn't talk to me for a MONTH. My sister thought it was a hoot!
It was meant to be a JOKE, but unfortunately too many people in my community overreacted & condemned him for it. TBN even dropped his gospel music program from its lineup because of that, though they eventually brought it back after a while...
One of my top contenders for worst album covers is Emerson, Lake & Palmer “Trilogy” LP. It’s like an 8th grade art class drawing with terrible colors; pinks and browns, etc. Just atrocious to me. Anyway, good selections here. 😂
"Trilogy" makes me think of velvet oil paintings that used to be for sale in gas station parking lots.
@@RobertFithen Totally. Or like bad 70’s airbrush art. Lol.
Yeah, it was pretty lame, but their followup cover (Brain Salad Surgery) is easily their BEST.
I wonder if you left the cover for the album "Front To Back" by reggae/rocksteady band Wasnatch out of this video because it's relatively recent (2013), or because you have never seen it. You should check it out if the latter is the case.
Thanks for giving props to Dennis Coffey. He is awesome and that album is one of my favorites
Born Again - love the album cover. I've never understood the hate it gets, but the album itself is meh. Sabotage on the other hand, bad cover/ incredible album.
Exactly
Zero the Hero rocks but did they rip Billy Squire Everybody Wants You?
Great album..sabbath with Ian gillan. How could you go wrong?
@@Bigchet1223 and the last Sabbath album with Bill Ward on drums
You wore the right shirt. I don’t dislike this scorpions album cover ‘fly to the rainbow’? But some people say it’s a famously bad album cover.
I don't dislike it either.
Tammy Faye looks like the seal from the Riot album cover. I guess the moral of the story is you can judge a book by it's cover. I just wish I could un-see them. ;( Charles
More Gary, more Gary!
Don't you mean "Mowah Gary!" lol
@@RobertFithen you are right, I stand corrected!
The Zip Zap album reminds me of the singing voicemail commercial from 1986-"I'm not here ta take yo' call but I'll be back befo too long...ya gotta leave ya name, ya gotta leave ya number...wait for da beat!" BEEP...and the band Gary I think opened for Dick & Marge at the Elk's Club convention spring '78 in Davenport...or was it the Rotary club? I don't know but there was a mean game of Yahtzee played 🤣
I remember that commercial, didn't it also have an option with Beethoven's 5th that sang "Nobody's Home... Nobody's Home"
@@RobertFithen yep-that's it!
Orleans had a really great song in the 70s. It was all over TV for a year or so including ads for ABCs Fall lineup
It was used locally in the late 80's too for a syndicated channel. I remember "we're Still The One... for movies in stereo".
I’m also building up a substantial Christian collection. There are some beauts out there and luckily, they haven’t become popular yet. They will one day. These shitty record cover sites will eventually make them “must haves.” Thanks for taking us inside these albums - you have preformed an invaluable public service. Except for the cock album - but at least you left it ‘til the end.
Why wait? You should make a list, put your records on it, and then watch the value skyrocket.
Lmao Dude your a trip . alot of fun watchin your channel, you certainly boost the moralein the VC👍😎😊
Thanks!! It's a morale that needs boosted!
What, no JOYCE! ???
I know it's a tiny detail in the order of these things but to me the fact that a dude had two album covers where he wears the exact same clothes is awesome in a way I can't explain, like a well assumed weirdness.
Decca rejected The Beatles and got Paddy Roberts instead. 🤣
Hey the Humble Pie cover made by Melanie Nissen who is actually a good designer reminds me of another notorious similar case which is the HORRIBLE cover for Pink Floyd's "Meddle", designed by no other than Hipgnosis, one of the top cover designers ever, but what were they thinking of with Meddle??
I do a whole segment showing Melanie's other covers.
@@RobertFithen I saw it! Thats how I know she's good
"Songs For Gay Dogs"----"not that there's anything wrong with that."
Bravo! Genuinely entertaining.
Thanks!!
That Iron Angel album is quite popular with German speed metal heads. I know a bunch of people who consider it a classic.
I have not laughed so hard in a long time while watching this! Too funny!
Black Sabbath - Paranoid is the worst album cover of all time. The dude has on a red sash a motorcycle helmet and a sword and shield what the hell is that?
It was originally going to be called "War Pigs" and that was going to be the cover.
I love both the Sabbath album covers. Scared the shit out of me as a kid
“Gary” would be looking for a “Foxy” woman.
Comi siemre es un placer verte, te mando un abrazote desde Zacatecas, México
¡Gracias! Siempre es agradable ver tu comentario.
When I saw the British Decca logo on the cover of Paddy Roberts' "Songs for Gay Dogs," I couldn't help bu9t think, "They turned down the Beatles to record THIS?" John Bult's "Julie's Sixteenth Birthday". sounds like those horrible tear-jerkers Bobby Goldsboro recorded in the 1960's, like "Molly" and "Honey." And oh, those terrible religious albums! God has inspired some of the greatest music ever. made, from Bach's St. Matthew and St. John's Passions to Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis," John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" and the great gospel artists like Mahalia Jackson and Sister. Rosetta Tharpe. But He has also inspired some of the worst music of all time, including Mike Adkins' "I Am Jesus, Hear. Me Whine." (I know that's not the real title, but it might as well be.) And the Jimmy Turner album made me think I'd beamed into an alternate universe in which, instead of dying of an overdose, John Belushi found God, gave up alcohol and drugs, and spent the rest of his life. making O.K. Christian-rock albums.
Finger, nails eyes, & Fangs? What about the damned horns? But what I want to know is, where the hell did Black Sabbath get my brother’s baby picture?
What a horrible birthday. Poor Julie. Oh well, there's beer to be drunk.
'Committed to a Bright Future' by Dog Fashion Disco is a pretty 'good' cover. And that Gary album sounds great, in all the wrong ways!
Looks like you have to blow it up to get the full effect, a small thumbnail won't do it. Now that Gary's a doctor, I wonder if he tells his patients to walk through the "doewah" and tell me "moewah".
Love the one of the nude, chubby dude, curled up inside a box on the cover. What could that 'music' sound like, I wonder. BTW, Pantera's Ride My Rocket came out a year before Spinal Tap's Sex Farm. Are we sure Sex Farm isn't a Pantera cover.
Very entertaining man, laughs from down Under 🤪 Great t shirt by the way 👍👍👍
Great to hear! Thanks!!
"Gary" is about the cringeist thing I've ever heard!
Agree, but I have to admit the bass in that one is pretty killer!
‘Smell the Glove’ is up there…
One more light to your left(right in video) would be a pretty good improvement on the lighting
I actually like Paper Money as well as their debut:)
Check out the Tina Youthers album from, like, 1986 or so.
What a cover!
Little Red Book was a Burt Bacharach song covered by Love
Thanks! I did not know that and it explains a lot.
🤣@"How many time have you seen a country album with balls on the front?!"
Looking forward to the Jimmy Turner reissue
Hopefully by Analog Productions.
Now I understand why I never heard Lisa Whelchel on the radio!!
Jimmy Turner reminds me a bit of Sleepy LaBeef. I'd love to have a rockabilly album from him!
Never considered Cooper's Constrictor a bad album cover . Not the best though either. As for Pantera's cover , kinda surprised it was released. It looks like a child drew it. I think the album itself though is pretty good.
Texas Moon? should have been Blue moon(ing) of Kentucky!
Needs a little more blue. lol
Guess the SABBATH covers take the baby picture and wants it to be the killer baby in Larry Cohen's IT'S ALIVE.
@2:40 Gary! 🤦♂️
The pie collection contains the best rock ever created .
30 days alone with vocals and The laughter destroys 90 percent of super group albums .
The Boa is definitely spliced and Cooper was good in easy action and love it but after that nope .
The Sabotage is the best sabbath ever looked looked .
The gay dogs album would be canceled and immediately cause controversy if released today .
The birthday party dad sounds like a absolute classic and made us cry .Very sad .
Sir, some of those albums are
outrageously funny.
My favourite record inside a terrible sleeve is "Home" by Procol Harum. The cover is an absolute mess and does not reflect the (mostly doom-laden) themes of the album at all.
There are some pretty terrible album covers here Robert, without doubt. Bloody awful in fact but, I'm quite surprised you dont like the Paddy Roberts cover. Its amusing and quaint and has a nice vintage. The music may be forgettable garbage but its just the thing a vinyl seeker may home in on.
That Gary album....OMG just dreadful!
2:13 - that girl looks a hell of a lot older than 16.
Agree! She also looks as miserable as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
@@davidl570 😆😆😆😆😆😆
Worst album cover of all time: "Lena Zavaroni MA! He's Making Eyes at Me" Zavaroni was about 10 years old at the time of release, and with a title like this it makes me think: "I need to call the police There's a predator in the hood" or "Lena! Run inside my house, lock all the doors and windows and call 9-1-1!"
I'd never heard of her so I had to look that up. Um yeah, she would have been ten years old when this album was released. She did the right thing, though. She told her mother.
I gotta get that Gary LP!
Was Gary’s album produced by Gary Katz?
Lol. It actually was produced by another guy named Gary that's neither the Steely Dan producer nor the Gary on the cover.
@@RobertFithen I’m betting not the Gary from either REO Speedwagon or Lynyrd Skynyrd/Rossington Collins Band either! 😂
Neil Diamond is no stranger to bad album covers.
How about "Ken-By Request Only"????