Marley, Grace Jones make Billboard’s Best Album Covers list
On Monday Billboard magazine unveiled its Best Album Covers of All Time list.
Jackets by Bob Marley and The Wailers and Grace Jones made the cut.
Island Life, a best-of compilation by Jones, released by Island Records in 1985, ranked at #27, while Marley’s Rastaman Vibration, released by Island in 1976, ranked at #22.
Jamaican graphic artiste and photographer Neville Garrick designed the cover of Rastaman Vibration.
The Jamaica Observer caught up with Garrick, who lives in Los Angeles, and he was ecstatic about the recognition.
“I’m very excited, considering it was the first album cover that I got to do for Bob Marley, who went on to become a musical historical figure worldwide,” he said.
Garrick, who was art director at the Daily News daily newspaper in the early and mid-1970s, is best known for designing several Marley album covers, as well as backdrops for the Reggae Sunsplash festival throughout the 1980s. He has also worked with Burning Spear, Steel Pulse, and other major reggae stars.
He shared how he got involved in Rastaman Vibration.
“At the time I was living at 56 Old Hope Road after getting arrested for possession of marijuana. It was also my first time meeting Chris Blackwell of Island Records. He came to pick up the tracks and the first album cover design that I had submitted; this was an alternative to what was eventually used. For some reason Bob Marley didn’t like the original design I had submitted; he said it looked too much like the Black Heart Man album cover I had done for Bunny Wailer a couple months before,” Garrick recalled.
He continued: “Chris said he was leaving the island in two days and if I could have the new version finished in time. I told him yes. I was working on the new concept which involved burlap to show the roots connection. Later that day someone passing my room downstairs and said, ‘A di album cover dat?’ That voice was Bob Marley. I was so overjoyed that I worked on it for the next 13 hours or so and had the finished cover for Chris Blackwell and Island Records. On seeing it Chris decided to send me to Los Angeles, California, to complete the cover art with the printers. The rest is history.”
Garrick designed 12 album covers for Marley, among them Exodus, Survival, Confrontation, Kaya, and Talking Blues.
He is a founder and executive director of the Bob Marley Museum.
Effective Independence Day this year he has been designated a commander of the Order of Distinction. He will be invested on National Heroes’ Day, October 16.
Rastaman Vibration was Marley’s first album to enter the top 10 of the Billboard 200 Albums chart, ranking at #8. Its best performing single was Roots Rock Reggae, which peaked at #51. The album has been certified gold in the US and UK.
Other hits included Crazy Baldhead, Who The Cap Fit, War, and Rat Race.
Grace Jones and frequent collaborator Jean-Paul Goude partnered to create one of the decade’s most memorable covers for Island Life. Featuring a nearly nude Jones, the art was actually a composite of the singer in a series of different poses, pasted together for an unforgettable result.
Island Life is Jones’ most commercially successful album, peaking at #4 in the UK and #161 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. It has been certified gold in the UK, Austria, and Australia, as well as platinum in New Zealand. Since 1991 it has sold more than 200,000 units in the US.
Hits from Island Life include My Jamaican Guy, Slave to The Rhythm and Pull up to The Bumper.
Occupying the #1 spot on the Billboard list is The Velvet Underground & Nico, the self-titled album by The Velvet Underground & Nico, which was released in 1967.
Other titles making the list are Under Construction (#85) by Missy Elliott, The Black Album by Jay-Z (#73), Anti by Rihanna (#68), The Pinkprint by Nicki Minaj (#63), 1989 by Taylor Swift (#50), True Blue by Madonna (#49), and What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye (#38).