The Bar-Kays – Gotta Groove album art
Seymour Chwast’s Blimp was added to Photo-Lettering’s alphabet range around 1969. In the same year, a two-colored Blimp A (the variant with stripes) appeared on the cover of Gotta Groove. It’s the second album by the Bar-Kays, the backing group of Stax Records. It’s also the first one after four band members were killed in a horrible plane crash, together with Otis Redding. Trumpeter Ben Cauley, the only survivor of the crash, and bassist James Alexander, who was on another plane, rebuilt the group.
The cover design is by Beverly Parker, with art direction by Honeya Thompson. Discogs credits Thompson with the design of about three dozen album covers. Most of those were made in a single year, 1969, for Stax and their sublabel Volt. An article in Cashbox from February 1969 has some info about her:
Honeya Thompson has been assigned the post of assistant art director [for Stax Records and its affiliated labels]. […] Miss Thompson is a graduate of LA’s Otis Art Institute. She has freelanced as an illustrator for Capitol Records, Gallin & Bright Advertising Agency, Robert Miles Runyan Advertising and West magazine.
Originally released in 1969 on Volt Records, the images show a 1971 UK issue on Stax.
