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Sunday, July 15, 2018

Celebrity records...or are they?

Take the test: which of these 3 album covers is made up, and not actually a celebrity LP at all?  (Hint-- two of them are real.)


Is it... "Alan Hale's Roman Orgy"?


















"Art Linkletter Presents Amphetamine Party"? 








or "Lee Marvin at the Mighty Wurlitzer Sings About...", well, you know.












Ready?


The answer is...













"Alan Hale's Roman Orgy"!


This magnificently cheesy record jacket, complete with cartoony dancing girls, is the work of Cris Shapan-- who has a great eye and a sure hand when it comes to getting the look exactly right.  The lettering, the colors, the wear-and-tear-- it's perfect.  Inspired.  When it appeared on Facebook a few years ago, people thought it was the real thing.

There's more of his work at Dangerous Minds-- an all-too-scanty hint of the possibilities inherent in this new art form-- which I'll leave for you to discover on your own.  Except for this one:







I swear I've seen this at Goodwill.  It's not just weird, it's weird in precisely the way old records are weird-- a collision of non-sequiturs with a famous face to sell it.  Your free gift from Uncle Jemima Soap.  Beautiful work.



...OMG, he does paperback books too!