When I think of top selling albums of the sixties, my mind instantly thinks of names like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Who. However, I'm completely neglecting the first half of the decade where the bulk of the top selling albums were by guys like Sergio Mendez, Al Hirt, Herb Alpert, Bert Kaempfert, Andy Williams and Henry Mancini.
Indeed, the target consumers during the fifties and sixties wasn't the Boomer generation - there wasn't a whole lot of disposable income in that age group yet - parents didn't lavish their kids with everything their heart desired back then. Rather, the intended market was a generation back - those swingin' bachelors and those hip dads. Back from the War, they purchased their hi-fi's en masse, drank martinis, chain smoked, and liked their cheesecake.
So, how to entice a guy in 2-tone wingtips and argyle sweater vest whose either on the make or on the golf course? Well, you don't put some fancy shmancy artwork on your album covers. And, heaven forbid you actually put a picture of the recording artist on the cover! The ugly mugs of Les Baxter or Martin Denny damn sure weren't going to sell records. No, the obvious marketing strategy is to put a hot chick on the cover.
To give you an idea how prevalent this was, let's just look at the saxophone albums. You'll notice the guys actually blowing into the saxophones are nowhere to be found. In their place are random beauties literally begging these post-War dudes to buy their records.
So, sit back and enjoy some vintage sax album covers. Click on the images to view them full size.
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| Sorry, guys but this one didn't make it pass the censors at headquarters |
Those were all mine.... here's some more from Flickr members (clicking images will lead you to their Flickr pages)...
This next four are from the always awesome LP Cover Lover
