Vinyl records used to run the show in terms of music sales and still have a place in the lives of young hipsters and old Baby Boomers.
The rebirth of the vinyl record can be attributed to a cool retro factor for newer generations while the older generations like the nostalgia vibe and likely wore out their original vinyl records during a clumsy, unsober attempt to hear that “one song” over and over on an LP.
LP records were an excellent way to package a lot of musical chaff with a few kernels of musical wheat in a larger tune collection.
Jim Sutherland
The record companies lured potential young buyers into an album purchase by investing heavily into creative cover art designed to camouflage the musical crap on the record.
For obvious reasons, car guys were attracted to album covers with cool vehicles on them, so MyStarCollectorCar decided to pick five of our favorite auto-centric LP record jackets from the past.
The first album cover car on our list is a 1964 Jaguar E-Type used by the Dave Clark Five on several of the band’s record jackets, including ‘Catch Us If You Can’, a suitable tune for an XKE-given the fact these British road rockets were incredibly fast sports cars during their production run.
Dave Clark owned the Jag on the record covers and was clearly proud enough of his car to include it in several photo shoots with his band. A cool retro British sports car on an album cover belongs on our list here at MyStarCollectorCar.
The second car on our record album list is the famous 1933 hot rod Ford coupe that appeared on ZZ Top’s best-selling ‘Eliminator’ album in 1983. The car is owned by ZZ Top frontman Billy Gibbons and was custom-built to showcase the band’s brand in the early 1980s.
The ’33 Ford custom coupe still oozes cool 40 years later and earned its place on MyStarCollectorCar’s list of notable album cover cars.
The third esteemed member of our famous album cover list belongs to the Beach Boys, a band that featured numerous cars in their songs and on their LP jackets. We chose their ‘Little Deuce Coupe’ album cover because the car in question was a 1932 Ford Deuce Coupe hot rod that embodied everything that was custom cool during the early 1960s.
The ’32 Ford is still one of the most popular cars in the hobby and owes some of its lasting fame to the Beach Boys because of their album cover and their ‘Little Deuce Coupe’ runaway hit single. The combination of song and album with the same name ensured a ’32 Ford hot rod will always be a rock star in the car hobby.
The fourth addition to MyStarCollectorCar’s list is the 1971 Plymouth Duster 340 on the ‘Heartbeat City’ album created by the appropriately named Cars. A ‘71 Duster 340 was a lively compact with a sporty fastback design and a large 340 decal on its hood to warn others about the famous Mopar small block under its hood.
The Cars’ Heartbeat City’album cover designer could not have chosen a better car to showcase the band’s tunes.
MyStarCollectorCar’s fifth and final album cover car choice is the 1960 Buick Electra convertible used on various versions of The Kinks Greatest Hits album packages. A ’60 Buick drop top was a wild-looking car right out of the factory-let alone with hood art that resembled hippy art on the side of old vans enroute to Woodstock in 1969.
The Kinks were famous for their unusual antics and their list of offbeat accomplishments includes an album cover with a psychedelic 1960 Buick convertible in our opinion here at MyStarCollectorCar.
We at MyStarCollectorCar believe a classic ride on an album cover was always a good idea because the car diverted attention away from the non-classic songs on the record itself during the heyday of vinyl.
Jim Sutherland
BY: Jim Sutherland
Jim Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer whose work has been published by many major print and online publications. The list includes Calgary Herald, The Truth About Cars, Red Deer Advocate, RPM Magazine, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Windsor Star, Vancouver Province, and Post Media Wheels Section.
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