World Top 12 - cover photo stripped back

Some of the most arty sleeves in the cover version world were produced by the Flag label, specifically for their "World Top 12" series. One of the most adventurous was volume 36, from the start of 1972. This photo is heavily colour-adjusted to give it an almost psychedelic feel:

Until just now, I'd never seen the photo in its original state. But then I stumbled across the image before it was adjusted. It seems it was shot in a carefully lit studio, apparently with a red spotlight on the model:

This image is from the cover of an Italian LP called "Guitar Parade" by The Guitar Brothers, released on the UP label in 1977. Here's the full record sleeve:

The fact that Flag went to such trouble with the image (or at least, selected one which offered more than just the raw shot) shows how much consideration they gave to their artwork in the 1970s. And in fact, the image is well-travelled, having appeared on a number of different LPs, sometimes with alternative colour filtering:

What's equally interesting is taking the original Flag LP and literally making a negative of it:

This gets us back to something resembling the natural colours again. I wonder who the photographer was - and come to that, who the model is?...