Taschen’s sexy record covers are hitting all the right notes

Surprising, shocking, hilarious, and sometimes very sexy – what makes a good record cover? It is a question which has preoccupied musicians and artists over the last 50 years, with the provocative results now gathered together for the first time. Sexy Record Covers, published by Taschen, features lesser-known work alongside famous album art, including The Rolling Stones’ Under Cover, Roxy Music’s Country Life, and John and Yoko’s Two Virgins.

The idea was sparked by record collector Eric Godtland in 2010. As manager for the Village People’s tour, he encountered eccentric and erotic records in markets around the world, laying the foundations for a celebration of the unexpected and the edgy.

‘When I begin any project, I look for a combination of visual impact, sexiness, originality, and humour,’ says book editor Dian Hanson, on considering the curation. ‘These international album covers have all that. The colours were mostly bright and primary, perfect for publication, the sexiness, often blatant nudity, was definitely there, originality was beyond my hopes, but the humour was what really grabbed me. I never imagined art directors across the globe were allowed this much frivolity. To be included, albums had to be genuinely provocative. A collector valued everything in his collection, and I had to be the mum, telling him, no, that isn’t really sexy; it’s just funny. Which was hard for me, because I love the funny stuff too.

‘When [the covers are] grouped together, the evolution of the genre is clear. Albums from the 1950s were more directly targeted to men, often tied to nightclubs, smoking, drinking and general concepts of “sin”,’ Hanson adds. ‘As the 1960s progressed, covers played off the allure of hippies and free love, with a (hopeful) gender-inclusive, everyone-loves-sex attitude. In the 1970s, the sexuality become goofier and riskier, and everything tapered off from the 1980s onwards. France, Germany and Italy produced the most sexy record covers, often far more daring than the American releases of the same records. Japanese record companies readily used European women on covers, but not Japanese women. I was never able to get a good answer for why this is.’

Sexy Record Covers is published by Taschen, priced £60, taschen.com.