Kiki Dee – Great Expectations album art
From Cash Box (July 18, 1970):
Take one established British session singer, add an excellent record company that knows what it’s about, sprinkle in arrangers and musicians of style and taste building on rock solid songs and you have some idea of what this premier LP from Kiki Dee is like. But not quite. Here’s a girl with one of the finest new voices around who has been struggling for some time in England with the wrong material. Suddenly, as happened when Dusty Springfield moved to Atlantic, Kiki’s voice is finally liberated. Best cuts include “I Can’t Give Back The Love” and the moving “Jimmy.”
The “excellent record company” that “liberated” Kiki Dee’s voice was Tamla, the label that brought to prominence such soul acts as Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and Smokey Robinson & the Miracles. It’s quite clear from the design of the cover (and the title’s nod to Dickens) that Tamla didn’t want there to be any ambiguity about the singer’s country of origin.
Pinto Flare is used for the album title and artist name, interestingly taking no advantage of the ‘flare‘ – the swash alternates – of the typeface’s name. The designers seem to have been more attracted in the tightness of the font’s letterforms. Microgramma (or maybe all-caps Eurostile Extended) is used for the song titles with Univers taking up the remaining text.
Art direction by Curtis McNair, and cover concept by Tom Schlesinger. Photography by Jim Hendin.
1 Comment on “Kiki Dee – Great Expectations album art”
Thank you, Ian! This Use is proof that Pinto Flare was available already before July 1970, two years earlier than what we previously had documented. I’ve added the “early use” tag.