THE VERY RARE KLAUS VOORMANN DESIGNED LP COVER
The back cover of the LP:
THE STORY BEHIND THE KLAUS RARITY ACQUIRED:
Thorsten Knublauch is the person that I turn to for information about the Beatles in Germany. I also depend upon his expertise when learning about some of the prominent Germans who played a significant role in the Beatles history. Through Thorsten’s efforts, he was able to secure a German Klaus Voormann rarity for me which I thought I would never see and I am extremely grateful for his kindness.
Richard Forrest has stated on his website Klaus Voormann’s Early Record Covers. | recordart that the record cover that I obtained from Thorsten (shown above) is one of the rarest Klaus cover designs, it is not a jazz album like many other Klaus album covers of the time, it is a kind of radio air play. released in Germany. Richard has implied that the album described below by Thorsten may be the Golden Fleece for a Klaus Voormann designed LP cover collector to be able to find for their collections
Only a handful were made and Thorsten assumes that it was an in-house product for the Deutsche Grammophon record company in Germany.
Klaus and many of his existential German colleagues were big fans of jazz music prior to the explosion of beat music which was spearheaded by the Beatles after they had served their training period in Hamburg!
According to Thorsten, Klaus Voormann got a commission from Reinhart Wolf in 1960/1 to illustrate the covers for a series of jazz re-issue EPs called Pioneers of Jazz. These archival recordings were released on the German Coral label, another Deutsche Grammophon imprint at the time. Klaus illustrated all twenty covers. This photograph is from Richard Forrest’s excellent website at the link provided above:
MORE OF THE STORY:
According to Thorsten Knublauch, in late 1961, probably as a Christmas gift for employees at Deutsche Grammophon, Klaus was commissioned to design the cover for the LP album entitled: Wer nie im Bett Programm gemacht. The LP is a a kind of radio air play which distinguishes it from the 20 LP Pioneers ofJazz series that Klaus designed around the same time (see above).
The title of the LP translates thanks to a translation by Thorsten Knublauch: “Who never made (a, or the) program in bed…“
The front cover of the LP where you can see where Klaus acknowledges himself midway up the post that resides at the right hand side- near the foot of the bed it states: VOORMANN
The back cover of the LP:
Apparently the guy on the back cover is replying to what is being said on the front cover (translation provided by Thorsten Knublauch):
It seems this is the listener who writes a letter to the radio station:
“and when I turned off your lame broadcast in disgust, I threw the radio down, which is why I have to charge you the replacement value of the same type….”
Thorsten’s Description
Thorsten’s description to me of what he believes the release was and why? I trust this man’s judgement completely regarding anything that has to do with German based recordings. He is clearly the best!!!
Thorsten Knublauch’s analysis and conjecture regarding the origin of the LP:
“Ok – as far as I found out and theorized – according to the content of the album – I assume this was an in-house product for the Deutsche Grammophon record company in Germany that was located in Hamburg. There were quite a few jokes that relate to other music business companies, radio stations or papers or records mainly in North Germany.
The album itself has no catalogue number – perhaps the stamped number 004169 was it. What is more important is the M1 stamp. As you might know, this is a system on records from the company that means M=12th letter of the alphabet = December (they counted I and J as one as it looks the same in large letters.) 1 means first year of the decade. So the record was pressed December 1961. And guess what – this is the same stamp that you find on the second My Bonnie pressing with the English intro – this had been pressed in December 1961, too, but was released late January early February 62.
So my fair guess is: this was a Christmas gift for staff or customers of the company in 1961…”
Thorsten Knublauch
It is the cover that is interesting for the collector, states Thorsten, as the content was not very impressive!
These images were kindly provided to me by Thorsten Knublauch: The description that Thorsten provided above has the following illustrative images for support:
Here is the indicator that Klaus was involved in the album cover design. As well as his notable artistic style reflected on the cover, his surname also appears on the cover as indicated here:
Here is a different view of the location where the surname of Voormann appears on the cover:
A parting commentary from Thorsten Knublauch and a few comments from me:
“You might know. Klaus worked as a graphic artist for various companies – no idea if freelance or as a staff member. The record sleeves he did at the time – the Jazz EP series or the Walk Don’t Run sleeve were also from the Deutsche Grammophon group in the years 1960-1961. He got the jobs through Reinhart Wolf – the photographer where Astrid, Klaus and Jürgen worked around 1960 as assistants.“
Thorsten has said that collectors should be careful when purchasing the Walk Don’t Run picture sleeve which is historical as this sleeve was presented by Klaus to John Lennon when Klaus introduced himself to the band in Hamburg. Thorsten has informed me that the sleeve has been frequently bootlegged. Be careful not to buy a photocopy or a reprint with colour logo or bands‘ name on the sleeve – as shown here. The original is also shown below the bootleg cover.
A sample of the bootleg cover:
What an original Klaus Voorman “Walk Don’t Run” picture sleeve looks like: (photo sent to me courtesy of Thorsten Knublauch)
In closing this blog post I want to mention the masterwork of Thorsten Knublauch. You should see the incredible prices that this book is currently commanding on Ebay! THE BEATLES MACH SCHAU IN HAMBURG
Published by Apcor Publishing in April of 2021
Back cover of this great book:
Completely sold out!! All 500 copies of the book have been sold and it will not be reprinted! That is one of the reasons it commands high prices if you are fortunate enough to be able to locate one…
Quality-the best term I can use to sum up the book!!!
Thorsten, you are the best!
From your friend Buzz, across the pond!
We were honored to have had Klaus as a Special Guest at about ten FESTS over the years. He is a very special person and we got to know him and we fully understand why he was such a friend of the Fabs and musically, he appeared on so many of their solo albums.
Thanks for the comments Mark. It was fantastic to have met Klaus at one of your Fests. Would also like to take this opportunity to thank you for always going the extra mile for book collectors in acquiring signed copies of the many of the books that you have offered for sale over the years! Thank you for the dedication you have shown, it is appreciated!
so cool!