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Our Best Boston Album Covers article looks at some of the legendary Boston Album covers that were very original in their logo and design. While classic rock history is lined with bands who developed their own logos over the years like The Rolling Stones’ tongue, The Who’s Bulls Eye and so many more, Boston arrived on the scene with a logo that easily stood as one of the most creative of all time. While most people saw the spaceship image right away, there were many that didn’t notice that the spaceship with the Boston name on the front was also a guitar. Others also failed to notice that in the spaceship was the city of Boston. As original as it may have seemed, it shouldn’t come as no surprise, because this was a band that was the creation of a brilliant mind named Tom Scholz who also founded the company Scholz Research & Development, Inc. that developed musical products.
Boston blew music fans away in 1976 with the release of their first album. I will never forget hearing the song “More Than A Feeling,” for the first time and thinking that I had never heard anything like it. While we have covered the band Boston’s music many times, this is our first look at the band’s album covers.
# 6 – Corporate America
Opening up our Best Boston Album Covers list is the band’s fifth album called Corporate America. The album was released on November 5, 2002. While the band’s logo that had been usually presented on the front of the guitar spaceship cant be seen, it does show up on its own on the upper right-hand side of the cover. This is probably the most basic Boston studio album cover the band ever released and our least favorite. It is also the most difficult album to get as it is completely out of print because of a label dispute between Tom Scholz and Artemis Records. There was an entire team of artists responsible for the album cover including Alisa Andreola working on the design, Darryl Hirschler responsible for the front cover artwork, Darvin Atkeson handling the back cover artwork, Ron Pownall taking care of the photography, and Kathy Murry in charge of image editing.
# 5 – Life, Love & Hope
At the halfway point on our Best Boston Album Covers list is the band’s most recent studio album entitled Life Hope and Love. The album was released over nine years ago on December 3, 2013. The band’s classic spaceship logo is once again featured on the album cover. While almost every Boston album cover has been engulfed in the black and blue tones of space, Boston’s sixth album cover is encased in a reddish tone that makes it stand out from all their other album covers. The cover art was designed by Darvin Atkeson.
# 4 – Third Stage
At the number four spot on our Best Boston Album Covers list we present the cinematic album cover for the band’s release entitled Third Stage. The album was released on September 26, 1986. It was only the band’s third studio album of their career even though ten years had passed since their debut album in 1976. It would also be the band’s first album for MCA Records as legal disputes had caused a six-year gap between Boston’s second and third album releases. The Third Stage album also delivered the band’s first number one single of their career with the beautiful song “Amanda.” A whole new generation of fans were discovering the band in the second half of the 1980s. Photography for the album was done by Richard Ocean and Ron Pownall. John Salozzo was responsible for the cover artwork while Chris Serra took care of the cover concept.
# 3 – Don’t Look Back
Boston’s second album Don’t Look Back was one of the most anticipated follow-up albums in classic rock history. Their sophomore album was released on August 15, 1978. While two years between albums may not seem like a long time in today’s world, back in the 1970s most rock bands released a new album every six months. Fans were very anxious to get new material from the band. The album was good, and easily their second best album of their career, but it just could not compare to their debut. The album cover seemed to be very much the sequel to their first album cover as the ship escaping Earth seemed to have landed at its destination. Gary Norman served as the cover artist for the album’s cover.
# 2 – Walk On
Coming in second on our Best Boston Album Covers list, we showcase the action-packed cover for Boston’s fourth album, Walk On. The album was released on June 7, 1994. It had been eight years since the last Boston studio album had been released. Yet, by the mid-1990s Boston fans had gotten used to the band taking long periods in between studio albums. While the album may have been a musical disappointment to some Boston fans because lead singer Brad Delp had quit the band, the album’s cover stood as one of the band’s best yet. Art direction for the album cover was led by Vartan Kurjian. The concept for the album cover was created by Andy Engel. Illustrations and designs for both the front and back covers were created by Ron Larson and Michael Bryan.
# 1 – Boston
We close out our Best Boston Album Covers list with the band’s debut album simply titled Boston. The album was released on August 25, 1976. The cover presents the soon to be famous Boston logo. Multiple spaceships are carrying what we presume were full cities and are shown escaping an exploding Earth. While the reason behind Earth’s explosion is unclear, we think it’s safe to say that Tom Scholz’s environmental concerns which he would later publicly declare probably fueled the idea. Nonetheless, it was a full team of people behind the band’s debut album cover art. The person responsible for designing he album cover art was Paula Scher who was employed by CBS Records at the time. The spaceship was illustrated by Roger Huyssen. The city name Boston was lettered by Gerard Huerta.
Boston’s debut album would stand as one of the greatest rock and roll debut albums of all time. The music on the album changed the sound of rock as the acoustic-oriented and blues genres that fueled so much of the first half of the 1970s rock scene would turn into power pop rock as bands like Foreigner, Journey, and many more would follow along in the celebration of catchy pop rock songs. The spaceship logo presented on their first album would continue to be used by the band for the rest of their career.
Best Boston Album Covers article published on Classic RockHistory.com© 2023
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