Bob Welch was always a bit of an outlier. When you think of 1970s rock, you probably think of stadium-filling anthems or the California-cool harmonies of the Eagles. But Welch? He brought a weird, wiry, Hollywood-slick energy to the table. Nowhere is this more obvious than when you start digging through the crates and find Bob Welch album covers. They aren't just "period pieces." They are fascinating, occasionally cringe-inducing, and deeply intentional artifacts of a man who knew exactly how to market a vibe.
Most people know him as the guy who kept Fleetwood Mac from falling apart between Peter Green and Stevie Nicks. Others know him for "Sentimental Lady." But if you actually look at the records, you see a transition from mystical, prog-leaning art to high-gloss, cocaine-fueled disco aesthetics. It’s a wild ride.
The Scandalous Lick: French Kiss (1977)
Let's not bury the lead. The cover of French Kiss is arguably one of the most iconic images of the late 70s. It’s also kinda gross if you look at it too long. Honestly, it’s exactly what people mean when they talk about "yacht rock" excess.
You’ve got Bob in a white tracksuit-rugby hybrid thing. He’s holding a lit match to his mouth. And then there's Ellie Seibert—a Neiman Marcus model and the wife of a Capitol Records promo man—literally licking his face. Not his lips. His cheek. His earlobe. It’s a mess of red fingernails, bronze tans, and heavy makeup.
Behind the Scenes of the Kiss
Bob once admitted in an interview with Know Name Records that they were just "fooling around" taking pictures one day. It wasn't some grand artistic statement at first. They showed the snapshots to Capitol's art department, and the suits basically said, "Yeah, let's do that, but professionally."
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Roy Kohara (Art Direction) and Art Sims (Design) took that "fooling around" energy and polished it into a platinum-selling image. It perfectly matched the music: slick, over-produced (in a good way), and unapologetically commercial. It signaled that Bob was no longer the "hippy-dippy" guy from the Bare Trees era. He was a solo star.
The Surreal Shift: Three Hearts and The Other One
By 1979, Bob was a massive star, and the covers started getting... weirder. Three Hearts is a total trip. It’s got this multi-frame, flickering quality that feels like a glitch in the Matrix before the Matrix existed.
The design was handled by Vigon, Nahas, Vigon—a powerhouse design trio that worked with everyone from Prince to Fleetwood Mac. If you look closely at the original vinyl pressing, the matrix run-out groove actually has three hand-carved hearts in the wax. That's the kind of detail you just don't get with digital.
Then came The Other One. If French Kiss was the peak of the party, The Other One feels like the 3:00 AM comedown. The cover features Bob in a tuxedo, looking a bit more hollowed out, framed by a bizarre, high-contrast lighting scheme. It’s less "sexy beach party" and more "vaguely paranoid Hollywood noir."
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Man Overboard and the End of the Era
As the 80s rolled in, the art style shifted again. Man Overboard (1980) is a classic example of early 80s minimalism. It’s clean. It’s got that "New Wave but still Rock" look.
Interestingly, the credits for this one include Henry Marquez and Roy Kohara again. You can see the continuity in the work. Even though the music was moving toward a more polished, synth-heavy sound, the visual identity stayed anchored in that high-end photography style.
- Eye Contact (1983): This one features photography by Leon Lecash. It’s peak 80s. Bob looks like he’s stepped right out of a Duran Duran video. The organic, "rocker" feel of his Fleetwood Mac days is completely gone, replaced by a neon-tinted, synth-pop aesthetic.
Why the Mystery to Me Painting Matters
We can't talk about Bob Welch album covers without looking back at his time in Fleetwood Mac. Specifically Mystery to Me (1973).
The cover is a painting of a baboon on a beach, tasting a cake. There's a penguin in the background (a nod to John McVie). Bob once explained that the concept was basically: "no matter how much knowledge we stuff ourselves with, we’re still just monkeys."
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It’s a far cry from the "licking the face" covers of his solo years. It shows the range of his career—from philosophical, slightly surrealist rock band member to the face of 70s indulgence.
What Collectors Get Wrong
A lot of people think these covers were just "slapped together" by labels to sell sex. While there's some truth to the marketing, Bob was deeply involved in his visual presentation. He was a Hollywood kid, after all. He understood the power of an image.
If you’re hunting for these on vinyl, here’s what to look for:
- French Kiss: Look for the Capitol "orange label" or the "purple label" pressings. The color saturation on the cover varies wildly between US and Japanese imports.
- Three Hearts: Check the dead wax for those three hand-etched hearts. It’s a cool Easter egg that proves you have an early pressing.
- Condition is Everything: Because these covers used so much white space (especially French Kiss and Man Overboard), they are notorious for "ring wear." Finding a clean, non-yellowed copy is getting harder every year.
Bob Welch’s music often gets categorized as "guilty pleasure" or "yacht rock," but his album art tells a more complex story. It's the story of a man navigating the massive shift from 60s mysticism to 80s commercialism, one strange, glossy photo at a time.
To start your own collection or verify a find, grab a high-resolution discography guide and compare the "matrix numbers" on the inner rim of the vinyl to ensure you have a first-state pressing with the original intended color grading.