When Music Lived in Nice Houses

December 12, 2007 10:59 PM

Record Envelope is a blog devoted to the bygone era of creative sleeves for vinyl 45s.
posted by dhammond (10 comments total)

See also.
posted by dhammond at 10:59 PM on December 12, 2007

Nice find!
posted by Rangeboy at 11:16 PM on December 12, 2007

Good find, good find, damn good find.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:46 PM on December 12, 2007

Pawing through and absorbing my parent's late 60's vinyl collection as a child , I remember that the sleeves were used as advertisements/catalog for the label.

It seemed every artist had to cough up a version of "Aquarius," "Little Green Apples," "Sounds Of Silence," "Theme to Love Story," or whatnot. The Wrecking Crew regurgitation was god awful.
posted by sourwookie at 12:05 AM on December 13, 2007

But that was LP's.
posted by sourwookie at 12:09 AM on December 13, 2007

Great find! Some 45 sleeves that stand out in my mind (and my collection) are Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me" which had a photo of the band on the front, and Supertramp's "The Logical Song" which had the lyrics printed on the back.
posted by Oriole Adams at 12:46 AM on December 13, 2007

Nice. As much as I love picture 45 sleeves, I have a soft spot for these label sleeves. And the LP sleeves with ads for other albums (or promoting "stereo sound") are always cool.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 3:34 AM on December 13, 2007

This is making me think I should start a blog featuring my own collection of wild and crazy 7-inch sleeves. I've got a big collection of obscure stuff I've collected over the years here in Japan and also in Europe, at flea markets and such. GYORJB.*

*Get Your Own Record Jacket Blog.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:42 AM on December 13, 2007

I was always partial to Apple's singles myself -- plain gloss black sleeve with the Granny Smith apple logo appearing on the record label. I still have a couple: Mary Hopkin's "Those Were the Days" and the Fab Four's "Hey Jude / Revolution" -- I never did figure out which was the A side.
posted by Mike D at 5:00 AM on December 13, 2007

Brilliant. I absolutely love generic label sleeves. Are any indie labels continuing the tradition? (The last modern incarnation I can think of is the Slut Smalls split 7"s label in the late 90s, which were quite fetching.)
posted by jack_mo at 5:57 AM on December 13, 2007