Percy Faith and His Orchestra – Younger Than Springtime album art
In the 1960s, CBS/Columbia Records released dozens of albums by easy listening band leader, Percy Faith. Many of the covers featured a trendy new typeface, often (if not always) supplied by New York’s top headline phototype shop, Photo-Lettering, given that many of the styles were available exclusively from PLINC – for their first few years, at least.
This 1970 release of Younger Than Springtime was issued by CBS’s budget labels, Harmony Records and Columbia Special Products. The typeface is the brand new Torino Italic Swash, Photo-Lettering’s ornamental version of the early-19th-century didone, which didn’t appear in a major PLINC catalog until 1971. See the P from “Percy” and the Y from “Younger” matched in this sample from Alphabet Thesaurus Vol. 3 (1971):
Within a few years, another phototype firm – likely Castcraft – caught on to the idea that Torino italic, with its sparkling contrast and ball terminals, was well suited for embellishments. Their bulkier, stubbier version isn’t as elegant as Photo-Lettering’s, but it has lowercase swashes that the original doesn’t have, and still packs a pretty punch. Here’s a sample in Torino Display JF, Jason Walcott’s digitization of the typeface:
6 Comments on “Percy Faith and His Orchestra – Younger Than Springtime album art”
How is Torino Italic made in 1971 when this album is in use (1970)
Note the “circa” qualifier for both dates.
This album isn’t dated precisely. Discogs states that a version with Bookman on the cover came out in 1970. But this is a different version, which isn’t reliably dated, and may have been released at a later point.
We don’t know when exactly Torino Italic was made. All we know for now is that it was shown in PLINC’s 1971 catalogs.
Scratch that: I found a record directory that explicitly dates the album version with Torino Italic – by Harmony Records, with catalog number H 30020 – to “11–70”. I’ve changed the date of this album from “circa 1970” to “November 1970”. And consequently the date for Torino Italic from “circa 1971” to “circa 1970”. Thanks!
Thanks, Florian! Great to shed more light on Torino Italic Swash.
Also, could that be the same woman in this album?
Quite possible. Both photos are credited to Don Hunstein, Columbia Records Photo Studio. The purple textile seen in both pics suggests it’s from the same session.