As demonstrated on the logo for this website, the outer sleeve design for the One World album still looks great today and must have sold a few copies in itself. The inner sleeve was equally good. The artist, Roger Dean, was the leading artist at that time and went on to fame through his sleeve designs for artists such as Yes and Uriah Heep. He also designed the sleeve for one of the Motown Chartbusters albums (Vol 5 or 6?) as well as (I think) the Rare Earth label itself.
The Willie Remembers sleeve (not a Roger Dean design) always intrigued me. I wondered if the old tramp was related to one of the songs on the album? I think Peter Hoorelbeke said not. Its a good photo, but maybe it was a bad choice at a time when they needed something to sustain the momentum of success from previous albums. By that I mean it didn't feature a photo of any of the band members so it gave no clue as to the content. At least this was probably the case in the UK where the band hadn't broken the charts.
Just interested to know if anyone had any comments on the sleeve designs?
Dave, the guy who designed the label, his name escapes me but from memory it was a college art student. I think part of the deal was that he got a copy of every release on the label. It certainly was not Roger Dean who designed the label.
On the subject of album sleeves Willie Remembers and Ma are not only my 2 least favourite Rare Earth sleeves but have got to be 2 of the worst sleeves for me of any band. My 2 faves by far are One World and Back to Earth! I wonder what was planned for the cover of Live in Chicago and does anyone out there know what was on the front and back cover of Tight and Hot. But hey as the old Motown slogan goes "Its what's in the grooves that counts" ha ha
I was almost too embarrassed to let my friends see the Ma sleeve. I hated it at the time, though it doesn't bother me so much now. Probably cos middle age and beer has given me a figure nearly as big as hers Another band I was into was Jo Jo Gunne and around that time they had a similarly bad sleeve for their "Jumpin' the Gunne" LP. Having said that, I liked the photo of the band on the back of the Ma sleeve. Pity Norman Whitfield felt important enough to include himself in the shot.
As for the "in Concert" sleeve, I read somewhere that there was a photo of the band included (maybe as an insert?). Was that just in the US? We never got that, or at least I didn't, in the UK.
One thing that was always missing from Rare Earth sleeves was some live action photos in my opinion.
I always liked a great design sometimes I would buy a album on the art work alone even if I did not know the artist. Years ago when albums were still in vogue, the cheap bin sometimes held some of the best examples.I can recall buying a copy of ANDY BOWN's GONE TO MY HEAD because of it's art work.I can say the same thing for BLOODROCK and MISSISSIPPI also MAD RIVER to name a few.Having gone through three years of art in high school it gave me an idea of what goes into a design.There is always going to be good and not so likeable ( I don't want to say bad ) art work.If it grabs your attention it's done it's job.Something else on this subject, album covers with different designs for release in NORTH AMERICA and EUROPE.I have a CANADIAN copy of RENAISSANCE from 1969 the BRITISH cover is completely different, which I thnk is cooler.Also ELTON JOHN's EMPTY SKY, I was lucky enough to find a copy of both examples one I bought in CANADA back in the '70s and a EUROPIAN copy I found in the states, it was only a cassette but it was still a find.I guess we should be thankful two different designs the more there is the more there is to talk about.
Somewhere on this forum I remember asking where the title "Willie Remembers" came from, as it doesn't appear to relate to anything in any of the songs. Both Peter and Ray responded to say that "Willie" was the name of Peter's pet dog at the time.