You know those little stickers that record companies affix to CD packaging? I’ve had this habit of keeping them, dating back to the days of 33 1/3-RPM vinyl records. Some of the earliest ones I collected came from — surprise! — Raspberries and Eric Carmen albums.
The two Raspberries stickers I managed to squirrel away came from the band’s first and third albums. The former featured a bright red, large-type announcement that stated, simply, “Go All the Way.” Still attached to the same piece of cellophane is a neon orange $2.99 retail price sticker. Yes, both still bear the faint scent of raspberries, thanks to the legendary scratch-and-sniff sticker Capitol put on early pressings of the Raspberries’ 1972 debut. In 1973, the Raspberries' Side 3 LP had a 2½-inch-wide sticker reading, “Includes their Smash Hit TONIGHT.” It wasn’t a brilliant bit of marketing by Capitol, but the company gets extra points for the unique shape of the die-cut LP cover.
I also held onto stickers from Carmen’s first four solo albums, including the distinctive copper-tone call-out adhered to his 1975 Arista debut. The sticker’s verbiage: “Contains the three smash hits: Sunrise, All By Myself, and Never Gonna Fall in Love Again.” (Sometimes, the songs speak for themselves!)
Skipping ahead, Arista put fittingly loud call-outs on 1978’s Change of Heart and 1980’s Tonight You’re Mine. The former received a high-contrast sticker (white type on a black background) reading, “Includes the hit songs: ‘Change of Heart,’ ‘Baby I Need Your Lovin’,’ ‘Haven’t We Come a Long Way.’” It’s one of the biggest stickers you would have seen on an LP, measuring in at 4¼ by 2¼ inches. As for Tonight You're Mine, the underrated gem "It Hurts Too Much" received a nice plug via a loud, red, 3½-inch sticker.
And what about Boats Against the Current? Well, I saved a small section of the cellophane wrap bearing one sticker showing the album’s price code (G), another showing its bar code plus artist/title info, and a third that reads “Includes the Hit Single ‘She Did It.’”
Alas, the Boats sticker wasn’t Arista’s most creative piece in terms of design or copy writing. Heck, the company’s publicity department could have stayed late one night to give the sticker a little more oomph. They could have added some heft to its size, along with some words that trumpeted the album’s arrival with more flair than the usual hit single citation. Something like this might have attracted more attention:
ERIC CARMEN'S MUSICAL TRIUMPH!
Features the hit "SHE DID IT"
Plus "BOATS AGAINST THE CURRENT"!
An eye-catching graphic touch might have helped — a boat-shaped sticker, maybe, or a color seascape background. (Where was Bernie Hogya when Arista needed him?) Now, I’m not saying a more attractive sticker ultimately would have made a difference in the sales of Boats Against the Current, but... considering that Eric Carmen went all out in writing, playing, and producing a pretty intense album, he deserved a marketing campaign to match — including little details like those eye-catching LP stickers.
6 comments:
Thanks for the "shout out," Larry. Before knowing you were collecting stickers I designed one for the new Raspberries Live On Sunset Strip package promoting Bruce Springsteen's liner notes. You can add that one to your collection!
It just goes to show that management (Clive) was out to sabotage the album's sucess from the beginning. Had the album been given a decent amount of promotion, I'm sure that it would have been a huge hit. Stupid on his part really, Arista spent how much? - over $500 000 - making the album. You'd think they'd want to recoup that kind of cash.
Really shows you the level that Clive would stoop to - willing to potentially lose that much money to prove his point. Sounds like he hasn't changed either.
lostcontrol, there's a really interesting article at http://www.ericcarmen.com/press/770900a.htm where the interviewer asked Clive Davis about the investment Arista has in Eric's album. Apparently, Eric, as the album's producer, was left holding the bag.
Clive says: "...It's his investment, not mine..." - meaning Eric was the one who lost money on the cost of the album if it didn't do well, not Clive Davis and Arista.
Larry, nice to know other people carefully saved those stickers over the years. I really enjoyed your story here
Don, you too? Which other ones might you have? Did Fresh and Starting Over have stickers? Or that great compilation called Raspberries Best Featuring Eric Carmen?
I'm certain EC's late-1980s solo compilation on Arista had a sticker for "Hungry Eyes" (and "Make Me Lose Control"?), but the copy I got at the time was a comp, so I don't know for sure....
I might have mentioned this once before, but the copy of "Starting Over" that I originally got back in '74 had this really cool "Raspberries" sticker on it... it was the first album out of the case at "Zayre's" and was the only one that had this particular sticker. The sticker coverd most of the front of the album, and had the word "Raspberries", in the font of the Starting Over album, in bold print at the top and then again several times underneath, each time shrinking just a bit. It was a cool sticker and I, like a lot of you, kept LP stickers for a long time; but during one of my frenzied cleaning episodes decided that I no longer needed them... :(
I wonder if any of the rest of us remember this sticker. I think the other copies at the store had a sticker that read "Featuring the Hit Single, Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)"
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