Vixens of Vinyl

Description

Vinyl record albums - wow! - they're back. When the record label marketers realized that their audience for the newly developed stereophonic albums were overwhelmingly young males, they employed an age-old strategy to encourage sales: place young women on the packaging. In the heyday of the bachelor pad, the record covers of such artists as Martin Denny, Esquivel, Andre Kostelanetz, Perez Prado, and many more were draped with alluring women whose charms transcended the strictly musical. Even the decidedly less hip entertainers like Lawrence Welk and the ubiquitous 101 Strings ensemble found they could reach a wolfish new consumer base with a little satin and cleavage. Author and collector Benjamin Darling takes us on a freewheeling tour of the various vixen genres and sub-categories, featuring one hundred of the most dazzling album covers from the bachelor era.

Benjamin Darling is the author of the improbably popular Cakes Men Like and Helpful Hints for Housewives, both published by Chronicle Books.