Klaus Voormann Celebrates Beatles’ ‘Revolver’ Cover in Book Box Set
Klaus Voormann, innovative visual artist and one-time bassist in John Lennon‘s Plastic Ono Band, created one of rock’s most vivid album covers for the Beatles‘ 1966 masterpiece, Revolver. On March 2nd, Genesis Publications will release the “Grammy Anniversary Edition” of Voormann’s 2016 book, Revolver 50, which chronicles the creation of that iconic art collage.
Each of the 500 available copies will include one of Voormann’s signed original drawings from his personally curated collection. The box set, which celebrates the artist’s 1967 Grammy for Best Album Cover, Graphic Awards, includes a special 12-page booklet, a foreword from Paul McCartney, an introductory letter from Ringo Starr and contributions from former Manfred Mann bandmate Mike d’Abo and Professor Lawrence Zeegen, Dean of the School of Design at Ravensbourne.
The 156-page book is presented in a graphic novel style, documenting his various encounters with the Fab Four: from meeting the quartet in Hamburg, Germany to visiting Abbey Road Studios during the Revolver sessions to unveiling his final artwork design to the quartet. In a glowing statement, McCartney said of the project, “In the end, the Revolver cover was a classic, and this book is another.”
Sixty-seven “Deluxe” copies of Revolver 50: Grammy Anniversary Edition will include the original artwork in an 18.5 x 18.5-inch frame. The remaining “Collector” copies contain drawings of various sizes, housed inside a 12 x 12-inch record-sized framing mount.
In 2011, Rolling Stone readers ranked Voorman’s Revolver artwork the seventh-best album cover of all-time.