Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim

I have mixed feelings about ‘100 Greatest‘ lists. At best: They can introduce you to new music or make you revisit music you already own but have neglected. At worst: They are unimaginative and lazy lists with the same old albums and artists always featuring (albeit, you may argue, for good reason). I'm still a sucker for them though...

Occasionally you can be surprised. Years ago I saw a list of the 100 ‘coolest’ albums. While the term is about as subjective as they come, quite a number of albums I had never heard of featured. Three stuck in my mind and this was one of them (the other two were No Other by Gene Clark and Pacific Ocean Blue by Dennis Wilson).

The back cover turns out to be by the 'King of Liner Notes', Stan Coryn. This comes from a time (and genre) when liner notes were feted for their literary qualities. For this album Coryn evocatively reports from one of the recording sessions. Among other liner notes, he wrote those for Lee Hazelwood, Dean Martin and Everly Brothers' albums. Even the back cover seems to exude an effortless cool.

The photograph on the back was taken by Ed Thrasher. His NY Times obituary noted his, "work proved integral to the success of many...albums and helped define the look of rock. His overall art direction included commissioning photographers, typographers and illustrators for albums including the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s “Are You Experienced,” Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks,” the Grateful Dead's “Anthem of the Sun,” the Doobie Brothers’ “Toulouse Street” and even Tiny Tim’s purposely cheesy “God Bless Tiny Tim.” An expressively moody self-portrait of Joni Mitchell appearing on the cover of her 1969 album “Clouds,” also started a small trend for musicians to create the art for their own records."