Spontaneous Combustion

CMU vs. Maldoon

Just spotted that CMU’s “Open Spaces” looked a little familiar…you know that nagging feeling you’ve seen it before somewhere…? It bears a striking similarity to Maldoon’s second album on Purple Records, TPS3502.

Only thing is…CMU’s album was released on the Transatlantic label back in 1971…some 2 years before Maldoon’s 1973 album. Maldoon’s cover was a painting by Eric Slack. Not sure who did CMU’s cover…

And in case you’re wondering whatever happened to Curtiss/Maldoon, Madonna ‘reworked’ their “Sepheryn” track for her “Ray Of Light” song back in 1998. So much so, that Dave Curtiss and Clive Maldoon were actually given (quite rightly) a songwriting credit for the track. Maldoon died in 1978 from overdosing on prescription medicines.

Spontaneous Combustion vs. World Party

Now they are both in the style of Roy Lichtenstein, but Spontaneous Combustion’s album was released in 1972, with World Party’s “Bang” album coming out in 1993.

Home vs. Deep Purple

There’s a similar theme with these two sleeve designs, too. Both albums feature the band members’ faces within the liquid or reflection of either a glass beaker full of chemicals or a wine goblet. Home’s “The Alchemist” from 1973 predates Deep Purple’s “Come Taste The Band” by 3 years. It’s also a much better design with better photography and a less-clumsy execution of the band members mugshots in my opinion.

Let me know if you find any more similarities on the site…!

I’ve added a whole new section on Harvest singles, featuring the text “THE GRAMOPHONE CO. LTD” around the label rim, to tie in with the albums section. There’s a whole lot of weird and wonderful along with the standard examples you’d expect such as Deep Purple, Edgar Broughton Band, Wizzard, ELO and Roy Wood.

There are just over 70 singles released up to and including Wizzard’s “Angel Fingers” (HAR 5076) in July 1973 before the wording changed on the labels to “EMI RECORDS LTD”. There’s a few more to add yet to the list, but here’s a broad selection to browse through for now!