1979 The Cars Candy-O

The 1979 album of The Cars featured the art work of Alberto Vargas.  Vargas was well known for his works in Esquire magazine as well as the inspiration for many of the pinups on the noses of World War II aircraft.  Vargas is often credited for one f the best movie posters of all time, The Sin of Nora Moran, which depicted Zita Johann.   After Esquire Vargas worked for Playboy with the Vargas Girls and his work saw a resurgence.  The passing of his wife in 1974 resulted in him losing interest and not painting.  The release of his biography in 1978 led him to two album covers for Bernadette Peters and one for The Cars.  Vargas died in 1982.

1979 Arthur Blythe Lenox Avenue Breakdown

While Arthur Blythe may not be a household name, the Mark Hess illustration may be.  Hess created a downtown feel of a brownstone for designer Gene Greif.  Originally the painting had people but they were taken out for fear of distraction of the rest of the piece.  Prominent in the center of the city is Arthur Blythe’s sax.  The typography appears like many signs in a city posted on a roof of a building.

Hess went on to do 2 other paintings much like this using clarinets in a city scape and a sax as a roadhouse.

For being an unknown to most of the world, Arthur Blythe, has appeared on over 50 albums and is still playing at the age of 68.

Mark Hess’ work can be seen on a variety of portraits and magazine covers.  I cannot find any other albums he has appeared on but hopefully someone will let me know if that is correct or not.

1979 Little Feat Down on the Farm

Ok Ok A few didn’y like the creativity of The Beatles White Album so now I will venture even farther into the oddball art.  Little Feat’s Down on the Farm.  the 1979 album featured the artwork of Neon Park who was formerly known as Martin Muller.  Park’s work can be seen on the albums of Little Feat, 38 Special, The Beach Boys and many others.  Park created every Little Feat album’s artwork from 1972 and later.

Park was known for his duck series with the 3 main ducks being Marilyn Duck, Betty Duck and Jane Duck modeled after Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable and Jane Russell.   He also created works for cartoon series, opera sets at UCLA and special effects for films.  He passed away in 1993 from Lou Gehrig’s disease.

More can be learned about Neo Park XIII at the ALS website.