Noted German collector Thorsten Knublauch and a collector named Richard Forrest who is the originator of the terrific blog at the link provided below in blue, gave me a wonderful education recently about Klaus Voormann record designs both in vinyl and on CD. Klaus of course, knew the Beatles back in Hamburg, and when the Beatles split up, he played on numerous solo recordings. Of course, he is best known as the designer of the Revolver album cover for the Beatles.
One of the most extraordinary summaries of Klaus’s work for other artists is located here: Klaus Voormann’s Record Cover Art | recordart. This is a superb blog designed and compiled by Richard Forrest dealing with Klaus Voormann’s artwork on both vinyl and CD. This guy’s personal collection is without peer and there are so many interesting stories that accompany this blog. I am so happy that I was alerted to this site by Thorsten. I have learned so much from Richard’s link and I have become much poorer by purchasing many of the items listed at Richard’s site for my own collection!
I found the following story to be fantastic and it provided so much new information. To be better informed access the link above. Klaus Voormann drew a sketch of the group “The Eyes” on the back of the “She/Peanut Butter” single cover pictured just below. Paddy Chambers who was in the group had been a member of the legendary Liverpool band, The Big Three. Gibson Kemp who was to later marry Astrid Kirchherr, was a former drummer for The Hurricanes. John Frankland, according to the blog, was a former member of Kingsize Taylor & The Dominoes.
Here is the sketch that Klaus drew for The Eyes 45. Notice there are 4 people pictured, but not for long...
This EP was released many years later and was Paddy Chambers Klaus Voormann, Gibson Kemp. The 4th person who was in the Eyes and left, John Frankland, was conveniently removed from this collection of Paddy, Klaus and Gibson’s collection of 45s. I bought a copy of this collection from the great book publisher Apcor who is responsible for the fantastic “A is for Apple” book series.
Achim Schultz, a German musician friend of Klaus’s, was the beneficiary of several of Klaus’s cover designs for a few CDs. Here is Achim’s George tribute:
Achim did a tribute song for John and Yoko and Klaus did the sleeve for this work as well.
A third Klaus contribution to Achim:
Klaus’s unique style is certainly evident on this release by The Pleasure entitled “Travel Inside.”
No one can miss the not too subtle comparisons to Revolver with this release by Fool’s Garden entitled “Who is Jo King?”
A wonderful release of a Klaus demo recorded at George’s Friar Park entitled, “Lu La Le Lu.” This was released as a special 45 by the book company Apcor which has issued the fabulous “A is for Apple” series.
The link below was posted by someone on YouTube and features Klaus performing the song Lu La Le Lu with a band that has his son Max Voormann as a member.
Lu La Le Lu [Live Bayerische TV 24 June 2016] – YouTube
Here is a Christmas single cover designed by Klaus with the photo in a different color on the two 45s. One picture was cropped by the record company and the A-side was flipped on the singles.
Klaus does his version of “The Thing” from the Addams Family Meets Maxwell’s Silver Hammer with this design:
Wet Wet Wet with 2 different cd cover designs by Klaus
No mistaking Klaus’s input on this design:
Two LP color cover variations for Klaus’s design of Gaby Moreno and Van Dyke Parks LP iSPANGLED!
The rarest Klaus sleeve that he produced in the very early 60’s and he handed the sleeve to John Lennon as a means of introducing himself to the band. That is where John told him to “show it to Stuart, he is the artist in the group.” The sleeve was for the Typhoon’s version of “Walk Don’t Run.” Would love to be able to find a copy of this sleeve one day.
If you would like to learn more please go to the source of much of this information with the link below: It appears I have a lot more collecting to do, after all! Klaus Voormann’s Record Cover Art | recordart–
Here are the two Bee Gees LP covers designed by Klaus:
This is a great book by Klaus Voormann and his son Max with sketches they did of the Beatles stomping grounds in Hamburg. Copies of this signed book were available for purchase at the Voormann website Klaus Voormann – The official shop and archive
There was a special collector’s edition of “It Started in Hamburg” to honor Klaus’s 80th birthday and only 80 copies were issued of the book. I requested copy #80 and Klaus and Christina Voormann graciously honored my request to be able to purchase that copy!!!
Thanks to Thorsten Knublauch for obtaining this inscribed German magazine for me of a Klaus magazine cover design:
Klaus did the cover design for this LP by Gary Wright. If you look at the musicians on this LP there are many familiar names from Beatles history. Hugh McCracken was a guitarist on Ram, Double Fantasy and Happy Xmas. Drummer Alan White and bass player Klaus also play on the album.
Klaus designed the cover of this LP as well:
The Genesis Revolver 50th Anniversary special edition by Klaus- I did purchase a copy of this book.
Klaus also signed a copy of this book which I purchased from his website
Richard Forrest has stated on his website that this may possibly be the rarest Klaus cover design of an obscure Jazz LP release in Germany. Richard has implied that this is the Golden Fleece for a Klaus collector to be able to find for their collection.
To end this post I will present Forrest’s listing of 20 Klaus-designed Pioneers of Jazz LPs and his cover design for Manfred Mann’s “As Is” album which I recently purchased on eBay. All of these designs appear on the Richard Forrest website and a great debt of gratitude is extended to him for his superb research. Also, special thanks to Thorsten Knublauch who informed me about Richard Forrest’s site. The link to his website is provided in this post.
The last pieces that will be shown in this post are the design that Klaus did for “I’m the Greatest” included in his booklet of sketches for the “Ringo” LP and a unique signature from Klaus that I recently acquired…..(see this at the end of the post)
Manfred Mann’s “As Is” LP with the Klaus-designed cover. Bought a copy of this recently on eBay.
Thanks to Alfred Ebeling who just informed me of this 2023 Klaus design of a collection of Manfred Mann hits from the Sixties!
The twenty covers for the Pioneers of Rock EP series:
Klaus Voormann’s “I’m The Greatest” sketch for the Ringo LP:
Klaus saying goodbye to us all with this unique signature!!!
What an artist Klaus is. Which is your favourite?
