The Stories Behind Iconic Album Covers Part 2

Ongoing History of New Music

Curiouscast

Music History, History, Music, Music Interviews, Music Commentary

4.8 • 604 Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is the second half at a look at the stories behind some of the most iconic album covers of all time…on part one, we looked at the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, Depeche Mode, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Beastie Boys, Alice In Chains, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Smashing Pumpkins, all in chronological order, ending in 1993. Now we’re going to pick things up in 1994. This is part two of a show that looks at some of the most iconic-looking albums in history, along with some secret stories they contain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Alan, and I just wanted to let you know that you can now listen to the ongoing
0:04.3	history of new music early and ad-free on Amazon music, included with Prime.
0:09.3	At Little, we value the variety of life. It's why we're introducing four for two pounds
0:14.4	on eight Little Bakery favorites with Little Plats. You can mix your twists with your turnovers,
0:18.9	create a croissant supergroup, or just nab a whole bag Piga and Platts. Little, more to value. Subject to availability, GB-only 18 plus terms apply. You see little.orgaday slash LPTV. If you're in traffic right now, look around. You'll see empty car seats. Nobody loves sitting in traffic. We don't. And neither do ESSO. Every filled passenger seat in this jam could mean one less car on the road.
0:40.7	And ESSO want to help with that. Carpooling could mean less traffic. Split fuel bills. And new friends. Oh, we're friends. I added you on social media. We don't have social media. We're bubbleheads. Oh, I've got social media. More journeys made together.
0:54.8	That's thoughtful driving.
0:56.9	ESO.
0:57.7	See ESO.com.
0:58.7	UK.
0:59.5	In 1938, a 23-year-old graphic designer named Alex Steinweiss was hired as the first ever
1:05.5	art director for Columbia Records in New York.
1:08.9	He was designed a project to help promote a new release by Richard
1:12.5	Rogers and Lorenz Hart. They were famous for not only writing more than 500 songs since
1:17.7	1919, but also wrote 28 stage musicals for Broadway audiences and beyond. In those days,
1:24.5	all music came on 10-inch 78 RPM discs, one song per side.
1:29.8	If you have a collection like the one Alex was assigned, those perhaps dozen of those individual discs,
1:36.6	were packaged together in what looked like a bound book with paperboard covers.
1:41.7	Inside were sleeves for each of the records, kind of like what you'd have
1:45.8	for a phonograph album, for individual pictures. But this wasn't obviously a phonograph album.
1:52.3	It was an album for records, and this is where the term phonograph album or record album came from.
1:59.8	The first company to create such bundles of records was Odion, a German company in 1909.
	...

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