New Book Covers the Covers of the 1980s

Before music came in clouds it came in sleeves. For the iTunes generation this may come as a surprise, but to buy music in the pre-digital era required a trip to a store, where rows of labeled bins held vinyl discs in a variety of formats: long-playing albums, 45s, 12-inch singles. These records, as they were called, came in paper sleeves that were covered front and back with artwork.

In a new book, “Put the Needle on the Record: The 1980s at 45 Revolutions Per Minute” (Schiffer), Matthew Chojnacki argues that the perfect union of pop music and visual art took place in the 1980s, when big-hair metalheads and New Wave androgynes shared the top of the singles charts. The book is an annotated compilation of selected record covers of singles released in the 80s that were culled from Mr. Chojnacki’s own collection of more than 5,000 7- and 12-inch singles.

“I like 70s and 90s music, but visually the 80s was the most compelling,” said Mr. Chojnacki. “It was the strongest market for singles. Every artist was putting together really artistic sleeves, some great and some not so great.”

Mr. Chojnacki, who by day is the vice president of finance for Hugo Boss, worked for about seven years on “Put the Needle on the Record,” interviewing some of the artists and designers from that era about their work. He got Jake Shears, the frontman of Scissor Sisters to write the foreword; Nick Rhodes, the keyboardist for Duran Duran, wrote the afterword.

Mr. Chojnacki, 36, recently spoke with ArtsBeat about what makes a great cover, some of his own favorites and the joy of holding a piece of vinyl in your hands. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Tell me more about your love of cover art. In this case you’re focusing on cover art for vinyl singles. It’s a format that really doesn’t exist anymore, at least in the mainstream music world.

When I really like an artist I like to dig deep and get to know their whole catalog and see their progression. Once I get hooked I like to go through anthologies and B-sides in ways that people don’t do these days. With the iTunes generation it’s more of a singles market, where people hover around artists.

When did this kind of artwork, some of which is very bold, first take hold?

When the music industry started to take note. They wanted to match the image with the artist. In the 80s artists put as much effort into their single covers as they did their album covers. A lot of indie bands today are putting an emphasis on single covers. But as far as the mainstream, the images now are one inch by one inch on iTunes.

Let’s get to the specifics. What’s one of your personal favorites from the book?

Kate Bush’s “Army Dreamers.” It’s an anti-war song. The point of that single cover is a tongue-in-cheek image of 1940s pinup girl, which is the total opposite of Kate’s style. She was trying to make an image reflective of the 40s and 50s when there was this mystique about the military which made guys want to serve. Pinup girls deflected the cold realities of war.

This was common in the 80s, to have serious lyrics wrapped in fun imagery and fun music, which made the song even more chilling. If you look at this cover it looks like she’s having fun. But it’s really the total opposite.

Was there a band whose cover art was ahead of its time, something that we would look at today and be shocked by?

I think the Smiths’ sleeves were very ahead of their times.They took vintage imagery and attached it to their music. Morrissey and the Smiths spoke through their single covers, especially for “What Difference Does It Make?” The original cover used a still from the 1965 film “The Collector,” but it was used without permission. Terrence Stamp, who was in the movie, objected to it. So Morrissey re-shot the cover in the exact style using his image instead of Terrence Stamp’s. He mimicked the sleeve and bucked the system. These days the label would have just deleted it.

What are some of the most cringe-worthy covers? What’s the cheesiest?

All the hair bands were cheesy. I can’t believe they pulled off what they did. But it took off. Motley Crue and Twisted Sister and Poison sold very well.

Some of the covers were done by famous artists.

In the 80s artists often paired up with up and coming musicians, especially in New York City. Madonna was palling around with Keith Haring way before he was popular. The 70s disco artist Sylvester was friends with Haring, who did a 12-inch cover for his song “Someone Like You.” Warhol worked with Debbie Harry too.

This was also a time of a more open sexuality. Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s sleeve for “Relax” was boundary-pushing. It got banned in some countries. But now it would be looked at as not too controversial. The band The The put out a 12-inch for the song “Infected,” which shows a demon masturbating. I can’t believe it got as far as it did. Everyone was pushing crazy boundaries. Some succeeded and some did not.

Do you hope your book inspires a new push for bigger, better cover art? Or is it more a nostalgia trip?

I hope it’s a motivation for artists to put a greater emphasis on their sleeves to help regain a little of what’s been lost in the experience of buying an album. If an album is available in vinyl, I’ll buy it in vinyl.