Well Gandalfe brought him up, so how could I not write something about the album covers of Fausto Papetti?
Source: eBay.com
Fausto Papetti was an Italian alto saxophonist who was incredibly prolific. He released approximately 2 albums per year.¹ His popularity was at its peak during the 1960s and 70s, when all his releases hit the top of the European Hit Parade charts.
Source: eBay.it
After his third album in 1962, Papetti’s albums were numbered sequentially, and later titled Raccolta as well—which Google translates as collection. Papetti’s best selling album was Raccolta 20, which was released in 1975.
Source: musicmusic.by.ru
In addition to these sequentially numbered albums, Papetti also released themed albums. In total, before his death in 1999, Papetti released 50 Raccolta albums, over 40 singles, and 1 EP. As I said, the man was a very prolific recording artist.
Papetti’s albums are generally characterized by the female nudes that grace the covers. However, as the first couple of album covers I have included here illustrate, the evolution from intimately clad to unclad came over time.
As the social norms changed, so did the album covers. Also remember the man was Italian, and Europeans are much more open-minded about nudity than North Americans.
Source: eBay.com
This cover from the 1982 album My One And Only Love, is pretty much what one would expect from a Papetti album based on his previous cover art.
Source: eBay.it
However, I was really quite surprised to see this alternate cover on eBay as well. This was the only cover like it that I saw for this album. I don’t know if it was for a particular country, or a particular market, or what. It certainly doesn’t fit in with the rest of Papetti’s covers.
Source: eBay.com
She has that Billy Idol look going for her doesn’t she?
Papetti’s music can be described as easy listening, or perhaps early smooth jazz. His covers of popular songs lent themselves to being used as background music in restaurants, cafés and the likes. His version of Barry White’s Love’s Theme—from his 18 Raccolta—was featured on Ultimate Breaks and Beats.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzHU38aZ7ok
Perhaps my favourite Papetti album cover of all comes from the 1984 Sax’ Idea album. Haven’t we all been in this situation at times? I know I have. I’ve just not usually been wearing stilettos when it’s happened. 
Source: eBay.com
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Isn’t interesting what artists will do to sell their music? Me thinks there is an inverse correlation to the quality of the musician and the amount of nudity on the cover. I don’t think I have listened beyond the first song on my Papetti that I purchased from eBay for less money than it cost to ship it to me.
I really like this post btw. Mostly because I didn’t peg you as such a free spirit. Kudos. I should have known better.
With all due respect, I believe you meant to write: “Isn’t it interesting how promoters exploit artists?”
As they say in the street: “Pimpin’ ain’t easy.”
:p
IMO, the only good thing about the Fausto Papetti albums is the cover art. Some are actually quite lovely pieces of art. Remember Gandalfe, I’m German, and I was raised very differently from the uptight, rigid, almost Puritan, North American standards that are the norm in Canada and the USA. Nude beaches were very much part of my upbringing. So was nudity in print, etc. Papetti’s albums are artistic, and while some might argue, exploitive of women, typical of European ads of their time.
I have hesitated to respond to these series of posts on jacket art, not because of their sexy content, but because I was afraid to spoil the fun by getting too serious. However, I can resist anything but temptation.
The contrasts among the Dukoff, the Papetti, and the Mulligan covers are quite striking to my eye. The Dukoff and Papetti have a great deal in common. Both generally involve rather straight-forward photographic technique with, for lack of a better term, natural composition. The lighting is flat, as is the perspective, and even the casual nudity comes across with a certain uncomplicated innocence, if not blandness. I think I’ve seen more dramatic photography in a Montgomery-Ward catalog. (For those who are too young to remember those, think J. C. Penny.)
The Mulligan cover is something else again. Hidden behind the simplicity of the design is a stunning display of technical as well as psychological sophistication. Someone had to carefully plan this so that Mulligan’s intense gaze, as well as the apparent direction of the light source, would line up exactly with that of the model. Additionally, someone was clever enough to match the color of the title type face with the model’s costume. This a piece of work worthy of the legendary master himself, F. N. Genius! :devil2:
It’s interesting to note that as Papetti’s career develops to include the North American market, the packaging changes mood from relaxed playboy sensuality to pent-up bad-boy eroticism.
Just as is the case with the music, some people will say “I can do that!” and promptly produce images that are superficially similar but distinctly inferior… and be blissfully unaware of their failure.
I had a considerably (like 20 years) older friend who played Papetti for me thinking it was cool. I was a brash kid and didn’t exactly have a lot of tact in laughing at him. It didn’t really hurt our friendship, but he never did try to impress me with his music collection again. This was just as well, as for the most part we were musically incompatible. About the only thing we agreed on was our mutual admiration for drum and bugle corps.
Hey there Paul. Nice critical advertising analysis of the album covers.
The Mulligan cover works to a large part because of the 2 elements you have ID’d: the model’s jumpsuit/album title colour tie-in, as well as Mulligan’s gaze at the the model. These elements combine together with the model’s body language, which is carefully posed to convey a message of come-hither. Note she is much smaller than Mulligan, feeding in very nicely to Goffman’s thesis that a woman is taller than a man, only when the man is her social inferior. (Erving Goffman, Gender Advertisements, Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., 1979.)
The Mulligan album is a much more sophisticated design as far as advertising is concerned. Advertising had advanced in the decade between the 50s and 60s, and new techniques were being employed which enabled audiences to get the message much quicker than before. Juxtapose the Mulligan album with the Papetti albums and there really is no comparison. As you say, it is nudeness for nudeness sake. Nothing more. There is not a great deal of sophistication to these album covers—although they did manage to get some tie-in on the Sax’ Idea album with the dog. The stilettos, the leash, the album title (in the dog’s talk bubble) are all red. However, that’s about as sophisticated as it got!
That was fun. I had to dig real deep to try and recall some of my undergrad communications stuff on advertising. Let’s play some more Paul when I put up some other album covers. Or if you have some ideas for interesting sax album covers, let me know.