Steve Gibson and the Red Caps

Here is a 10-inch LP by Steve  Gibson and the Red Caps that is notable not only for the music found on the record but the cover that encased it.

First, the music. The Red Caps had a very long career (chronicled in detail by Marv Goldberg elsewhere on the web) making music inspired by the Mills Brothers and Ink Spots, as were many other groups of the 40s. These eight sides were cut as singles for Mercury from 1947-50. As you listen you will hear echoes of he Ink Spots' Bill Kenny (high voice) and Hoppy Jones (low voice) and the Mills Brothers' Harry Mills. Like those groups, the Red Caps played their own instruments.

There is nothing about Red Caps' performance - which, if anything, was a bit ironic and detached - to inspire the perfervid goings on shown on the cover. A giant woman in the grip of some nameless passion? Two boppers rapt in admiration? Purple and magenta swirls on a bed of chrome yellow? It's cover art by Fred Steffen!

Steffen is obscure. He does not have the cult following of Jim Flora or Alex Steinweiss, both of whom will be making appearances here in due course. Steffen's art, if it can be called that, was every bit as eccentric as Flora's but I don't believe his career was as long-lived. He did quite a few covers for Mercury - I have examples done for Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Tony Martin, Georgia Gibbs, Lionel Hampton, and probably others. After executing these, he and his garish palette seemed to vanish. Other information about him would be welcome.

During the 10-inch era, Mercury's other specialty in covers was a compete contrast to Steffen's work - bland cartoon illustrations for the likes of Vic Damone, Ralph Marterie, Xavier Cugat, and Steve Gibson - on the Red Caps' only other Mercury album.