the BACK cover art

not sure if we've ever really delved specifically into this topic. of course lots of dialog on FRONT cover art. but what about the flip side? and we can include the inner parts of gatefold albums too

which is the best? frankly a lot of them seem to be throwaway since they just mostly list the tracks and all. but some were definitely better than others. and some releases and multiple, different back covers!

best back:
Mary, Scherrie & Susaye
Jimmy Webb! hard to believe the front was so inane but the back was fascinating
New Ways - they could have simply stocked the lp backwards in the racks and probably sold more!
More Hits - again, the collage of photos makes for a fun lp to look at
DR 76 and Baby it's me - every image from each of these photo shoots is amazing and classy

worst back:
dynamite
GH 3
Reflections - one puny closeup shot of diana's head
A go go - the shaking title art is pretty lame
LTISH and Ross 78 - again, hate repeating the front art

wasted space - this is my list for those with useless gatefolds
NW and Mag 7 - why the hell bother with gatefolds?!??!
GH - ok this might cause some controversy. lol but i feel they could have done more with the inside of the GH set. the liner notes are fine enough but enough already with the sketching. the cover and the posters are fine but let's get some real pics of these fabulous ladies!

I loved the flip side of "Talk Of The Town", although none of them probably were from Talk of the Town. The "Love Child" album maybe because it has always been a mystery to me.

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Originally Posted by captainjames

I loved the flip side of "Talk Of The Town", although none of them probably were from Talk of the Town. The "Love Child" album maybe because it has always been a mystery to me.

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Yes, about Love Child! Three girlfriends there for each other on a fire escape. Why blue? I always liked this album's front & back covers.

Re: Talk of the Town. I miss my vinyl albums, so I'll take your words about the back cover. I loved the front cover.

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Originally Posted by captainjames

I loved the flip side of "Talk Of The Town", although none of them probably were from Talk of the Town. The "Love Child" album maybe because it has always been a mystery to me.

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I liked TOTT too but i thought the image quality of the pictures was poor. they were pretty grainy if i remember. I think i have both the US and UK releases and the images are different on each.

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Originally Posted by sup_fan

not sure if we've ever really delved specifically into this topic. of course lots of dialog on FRONT cover art. but what about the flip side? and we can include the inner parts of gatefold albums too

which is the best? frankly a lot of them seem to be throwaway since they just mostly list the tracks and all. but some were definitely better than others. and some releases and multiple, different back covers!

best back:
Mary, Scherrie & Susaye
Jimmy Webb! hard to believe the front was so inane but the back was fascinating
New Ways - they could have simply stocked the lp backwards in the racks and probably sold more!
More Hits - again, the collage of photos makes for a fun lp to look at
DR 76 and Baby it's me - every image from each of these photo shoots is amazing and classy

worst back:
dynamite
GH 3
Reflections - one puny closeup shot of diana's head
A go go - the shaking title art is pretty lame
LTISH and Ross 78 - again, hate repeating the front art

wasted space - this is my list for those with useless gatefolds
NW and Mag 7 - why the hell bother with gatefolds?!??!
GH - ok this might cause some controversy. lol but i feel they could have done more with the inside of the GH set. the liner notes are fine enough but enough already with the sketching. the cover and the posters are fine but let's get some real pics of these fabulous ladies!

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Best back covers: More Hits & Love Child. DR 76 & The Boss. NW & Touch [loved Elton John's liner notes].

You're right about GH 1&2 inside cover. Carol Channing liner notes?! Why not Berry Gordy, HDH, Smokey, even Ed Sullivan?

NW & Mag7 gatefolds were flimsy & useless. I was glad Motown didn't use them on DR's albums.

Merry Christmas has always been a favorite back cover of mine. They all look so happy and quintessentially Supremes​...and the bouffants are bouffanting!

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Originally Posted by sansradio

Merry Christmas has always been a favorite back cover of mine. They all look so happy and quintessentially Supremes​...and the bouffants are bouffanting!

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oh that is a good one!!!! they look radiant. and SO 60s with those massive wigs lol.

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Originally Posted by lucky2012

Best back covers: More Hits & Love Child. DR 76 & The Boss. NW & Touch [loved Elton John's liner notes].

You're right about GH 1&2 inside cover. Carol Channing liner notes?! Why not Berry Gordy, HDH, Smokey, even Ed Sullivan?

NW & Mag7 gatefolds were flimsy & useless. I was glad Motown didn't use them on DR's albums.

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i believe Carol Channing was to write the liner notes for the Broadway To Hollywood lp, which would have included The Happening, along with a bunch of the tracks we got on the TAPFU hip o select cd.

apparently it was decided to skip that album and instead do R&H - completely agree because the material is much stronger on R&H. B2H was good but mostly used the As. it's nice enough but just another random collection of MOR songs. R&H was a more complete concept IMO.

so once B2H was canned, they had to do something with The Happening. it was a #1 and had to go on SOME album. they had canned the previous Supremes Gold greatest hits album from the prior year. so now i guess they decided to do a double GH album.

i don't have any idea if the painting style from the GH cover or the pencil drawings of the girls on the inside would have been used on the B2H album. i don't know if it ever got that far to have a cover mockup.

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Originally Posted by sansradio

Merry Christmas has always been a favorite back cover of mine. They all look so happy and quintessentially Supremes​...and the bouffants are bouffanting!

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Agree! Some here didn't like the front cover, but I thought it was simple & classy. The back cover was fun and a classic!

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Originally Posted by lucky2012

Agree! Some here didn't like the front cover, but I thought it was simple & classy. The back cover was fun and a classic!

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the front of Xmas is a bit of a "art school project." it's a little too homemade IMO. not as bad of course as the Marvelettes Postman cover from 61 lol.

I like the albums that have differing back art. I think Symphony or Copa is one of them. I wonder if it was a region thing? Or Stereo vs. Mono? Or maybe 1st and 2nd pressing?

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Originally Posted by marybrewster

I like the albums that have differing back art. I think Symphony or Copa is one of them. I wonder if it was a region thing? Or Stereo vs. Mono? Or maybe 1st and 2nd pressing?

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Sing Rodgers & Hart was another, IIRC...differing photos used.

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Originally Posted by marybrewster

I like the albums that have differing back art. I think Symphony or Copa is one of them. I wonder if it was a region thing? Or Stereo vs. Mono? Or maybe 1st and 2nd pressing?

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Copa had one version with a sketch of the girls and the other was no sketch. and then R&H had two different photos used.

the Copa EE booklet says it was the second pressing that switched the back cover and dropped the sketch. My guess is that either 1) it simply was too crowded to have the sketch, the liner notes and the "other albums available" and/or 2) the sketch was too jenky looking. it did sort of look like something a teenager might have doodled in a notebook and didn't really match the sophistication of the music, the album's concept or the liner notes by Sammy Davis Jr

for the R&H album, the two pics are both older. one is of the girls in the pink gowns with the ruffle bottoms. they occasionally wore the ruffle wraps too and that's what they're wearing in the pic. i believe it's a later 1965 photo of them singing from a tv appearance in Amsterdam. the other pic of them on stage, arms up wearing the yellow gowns from Itching on Ed Sullivan. given the gowns, i'd guess this is an earlier 1966 pic. this 66 pic is a bit more dramatic as it's a big "ta dah!" moment at the end of a song, all three with arms up in the air.

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Originally Posted by lucky2012

Agree! Some here didn't like the front cover, but I thought it was simple & classy. The back cover was fun and a classic!

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Definitely agree!

covers,
high energy
floy joy
new ways
love child
funny girl had alot of nice photos

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Originally Posted by lucky2012

Yes, about Love Child! Three girlfriends there for each other on a fire escape. Why blue? I always liked this album's front & back covers.

Re: Talk of the Town. I miss my vinyl albums, so I'll take your words about the back cover. I loved the front cover.

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Discogs site is my goto for album cover art. I love that they show front, back and vinyl scans.

Where Did Our Love Go? was an amazing cover....I stared at that for hours...Diana had Blue hair, Flo had Green, and Mary had Brass....
More Hits....the photo of Mary is terrible....she looks Asian.
Reflections has some great pictures....

the rear panels...
Funny Girl....all photos are bright and new.
TCB...great photos...all should have been shots from the televised version...there's not one photo of the Tempts in the gold tuxes that matched the gold gowns, no photo of Diana with the long hair...the B&W gowns used on the rear weren't even worn...I do love the small B&W photos...a lot!!! Diana is wearing her standard '68 wig in the walk on, when she turns around its the wig from the cover shoot/green gown photo's...[[watching the quick snippet of Mary walking down that ramp is a intoxicating moment...Cindy seems to hesitate after starting to get the spacing right)...this is the night I became a die hard fan and a Mary Wilson lover....
Let The Sunshine...we could have used a nice real photo for the rear.
Cream of the Crop....and excellent photo with too much flecktone
Greatest Hits Vol 3....nothing worse than a poor choice of cover repeated on the back...this was a great LP...all the latest singles in one place.

Right On....the rear photo is so matte, it makes the great shimmering Forever Came Today black gowns look like cheap stretched out wool...
Touch...great photos...great colorful front edges....the photo could have been a bit clearer...the rear photo is wonderful.
Floy Joy...great cover, rear panel photo is great, but small...there must be some great out takes from this photo session
Live In Japan /UK Hits...great photo of Jean on front...lousy rear picture...
All 3 Scherrie LPS are wonderful....the debut LP photo is a bit over filtered, but elegant, soft and the girls look beautiful...High Energy art is modern, and tasteful...rear panel photos are nice. MSS Mary looks better with the straighter hair in the alt cover shot, rear panel is one of my fav Scherrie shots.

the thin die cut fronts used on New Ways and Mag 7 ...my Mag 7 cover tore pretty quickly....[[ditto for my Honey Cone SOULFUL TAPESTRY Lp)...why even bother?....New Ways held up a bit better....

Of course, if it's all about photos....the 3 LP Anthology set booklet would be my favorite...

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Originally Posted by gman

Where Did Our Love Go? was an amazing cover....I stared at that for hours...Diana had Blue hair, Flo had Green, and Mary had Brass....
More Hits....the photo of Mary is terrible....she looks Asian.
Reflections has some great pictures....

the rear panels...
Funny Girl....all photos are bright and new.
TCB...great photos...all should have been shots from the televised version...there's not one photo of the Tempts in the gold tuxes that matched the gold gowns, no photo of Diana with the long hair...the B&W gowns used on the rear weren't even worn...I do love the small B&W photos...a lot!!! Diana is wearing her standard '68 wig in the walk on, when she turns around its the wig from the cover shoot/green gown photo's...[[watching the quick snippet of Mary walking down that ramp is a intoxicating moment...Cindy seems to hesitate after starting to get the spacing right)...this is the night I became a die hard fan and a Mary Wilson lover....
Let The Sunshine...we could have used a nice real photo for the rear.
Cream of the Crop....and excellent photo with too much flecktone
Greatest Hits Vol 3....nothing worse than a poor choice of cover repeated on the back...this was a great LP...all the latest singles in one place.

Right On....the rear photo is so matte, it makes the great shimmering Forever Came Today black gowns look like cheap stretched out wool...
Touch...great photos...great colorful front edges....the photo could have been a bit clearer...the rear photo is wonderful.
Floy Joy...great cover, rear panel photo is great, but small...there must be some great out takes from this photo session
Live In Japan /UK Hits...great photo of Jean on front...lousy rear picture...
All 3 Scherrie LPS are wonderful....the debut LP photo is a bit over filtered, but elegant, soft and the girls look beautiful...High Energy art is modern, and tasteful...rear panel photos are nice. MSS Mary looks better with the straighter hair in the alt cover shot, rear panel is one of my fav Scherrie shots.

the thin die cut fronts used on New Ways and Mag 7 ...my Mag 7 cover tore pretty quickly....[[ditto for my Honey Cone SOULFUL TAPESTRY Lp)...why even bother?....New Ways held up a bit better....

Of course, if it's all about photos....the 3 LP Anthology set booklet would be my favorite...

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yeah it was always a mystery to me as to why bother with the die cuts and gatefold covers if you're not going to do something interesting inside. maybe part of it is that the album would have been in cellophane and so a customer would feel the cover and be more prone to by it because they could tell the gatefold and all. but to open it up and just see those blah inner covers would be a real letdown.

Least favorite back cover is from their 1975 album. Ok, I get it, women love to experiment with their look; however, that 'do over' on Cindy was, in my opinion, too bizarre. It looks NOTHING like her. To tell you the truth, I still can't see any Cindy in that picture. Attachment 21281

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Originally Posted by jobucats

Least favorite back cover is from their 1975 album. Ok, I get it, women love to experiment with their look; however, that 'do over' on Cindy was, in my opinion, too bizarre. It looks NOTHING like her. To tell you the truth, I still can't see any Cindy in that picture. Attachment 21281

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i don't think that was Cindy's doing. that was an overzealous art director getting crazy with the retouching lol

i wasn't a fan of this entire lp art. the front photo is too blah IMO. this was their relaunch album and i thought the Laura Ashley look was too soft and subtle. maybe if they were doing really just a pop album with just the Ivey Woodford tracks then something like this would more fit the content of the music. but the lead track was HMM which was exciting and powerful and so this soft and sleepy cover didn't coordinate with that vibe

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Originally Posted by lockhartgary

Discogs site is my goto for album cover art. I love that they show front, back and vinyl scans.

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Thank you, lockhartgary :) Not taking care of my albums and their album covers is one of my biggest regrets.