Back in the day it was a rite of honor to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone

by Jim Whalen Rowan Public Library

The 1950s brought us beautiful record album artwork. The album that impressed music lovers was the Nat King Cole Trio in 1945, Topping the Billboard Best Selling Popular Record Albums. Many singles were released from the four 78rpm work.  What was so different was the artwork. It was given praise as one of the reasons for sales. This was the beginning of record companies hiring artists for album covers. 

Some of the iconic covers include Sgt Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band, Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen, and of course Elvis.

When Rolling Stone premiered in 1967 the first cover was John Lennon. Remember the song Dr, Hook & The Medicine Show “The Cover of Rolling Stone.” Shel Silverstein wrote the Cover of Rolling Stone song. It was an honor to appear on the cover and also helped record sales.

Fast forward to 2019. CDs are difficult to find. Barnes and Noble have eliminated CDs and replaced with albums. The once $5.00 album is selling for $30 plus. You know the ones you could not sell in a yard sale for $1.00.                                                       

Dust jackets or covers have also been responsible for book sales. In the 1820s books were sold in a wrapping paper with enough information to identify the book. This paper was meant to be discarded after use. Lewis Carroll is credited with asking his publisher to design a dust jacket that would keep the book in a cleaner condition in 1876  After World War One artists were sought to design more appealing jackets with less emphasis on the ornate pages. This is a similar history of the recorded album.

If you see a book on display with no dust cover, plain brown book would you select it or the one with a

dust jacket next to it? We like shiny colorful objects and will probably select the more colorful one. I have put both out of display and almost always the one with the dust jacket is checked out.

The libraries webpage is attractive with scrolling books https://www.rowancountync.gov/307/Library

You may not check out that particular one, but you will look at it further because of the cover.

Libraries are different than the saying Don’t judge a book by its cover. Patrons and employees pick up a book because of the cover. Employees work hard to make sure displays draw you in and offer a wide variety of what you want.