Ken's "By Request Only" album cover

[snopes]

Comment: The link below and attached image, are I believe fake, and are being reported as real. There is certainly a lot of interest regarding this particular album. I have emailed the zonicweb site for inofmation, but have recieved nothing.

http://www.zonicweb.net/badalbmcvrs/...bumcovers3.htm

[Cervus]

Right now I have nothing to say about the album in question, because I'm still in shock from viewing the album cover they list as #2, the title of which is NFBSK:

Tacky design, bad photography, racial epithets and oral sex on what is apparently a ventriloquism recording. How could it be worse?

[ThistleS]

The Scorpions cover is definitely real. I see no reason to believe any of the others are fake.

[kappants]

I have seen these album covers all over the net. I think they are real.

[snoozn]

On the handsome beasts cover, my first thought was "Is that Karl Rove???" Then I saw a posted comment saying someone thought it looked like Dick Cheney. Heh.

snoozn

[Hero_Mike]

I owned two of those albums (Queen and Van Halen) on cassette - the covers are real. And so is the Scorpions one - seen that in stores many times.

Mwahahah!

Seriously though, I don't see why any of this shouldn't be real, least of all the cover linked in the OP. So it's from the decade that taste for got, and Ken has a slightly unfortunate chin. I suspect there are worse high school yearbook photos from that time.

Also, I'm delighted to see Knorkator in there. I suppose it wouldn't excuse the album covers to explain that they're mostly parodying Rammstein -- sadly, just as Rammstein's texts are lost on anyone who doesn't speak German, their texts are even more incomprehensible because they're mostly based on double entendres.
The album covers are intentionally bad, so nobody thought these were "good" covers at any point in time. Not even the band.

[KingDavid8]

I'm surprised that Queens of the Stone Age's first album wasn't there. That's the only album whose artwork I refuse to load into my computer. If you want to see it, there's a site about that album here, with the "artwork" (it's a tad NFBSK, but not terribly so): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queens_...ge_%28album%29


David

[Toys For Big Boys]

Page Three, can you recomend any Knorkator? I'm a huge fan of Rammstein!

[Richard W]

Is this one in particular a real album, though? It seems hard to find a reference to it that's not just a reference to the cover being one of the worst ever. I agree that it would be odd just to photoshop that one when some of the others are real, but there's not much readily-available info about poor old Ken out there.

[major accent]

It's almost certainly a real album. There was a time when it was generally pretty cheap to record and privately press small quantities of records, and there are countless DIY records with covers more and less weird than this one. There are people who collect these small-press rarities as well. Many of these releases have very little information, and in the absence of an internet or any public interest, they become, in some cases, completely obscure.

[bjohn13]

Originally Posted by major accent

It's almost certainly a real album. There was a time when it was generally pretty cheap to record and privately press small quantities of records, and there are countless DIY records with covers more and less weird than this one. There are people who collect these small-press rarities as well. Many of these releases have very little information, and in the absence of an internet or any public interest, they become, in some cases, completely obscure.

This is the best explanation I have heard as of yet for the Ken: By Request Only album. I have seen this album cover pop up from time to time here and there over the web, but I have yet to see any irrefutable proof that the album itself exists. It seems to pop up in lists of legitimate "worst album covers ever" lists, but I have never been able to find anyone who has actually heard what is on the album. I have also never been able to find the album for sale.

[dlloyd1]

This guy claims to have a copy, but it's quite possible he's not entirely serious

http://rateyourmusic.com/release/alb..._request_only/

I have to tell you gentle reader, that Ken saved my life. This seemingly simple man literally ripped me from the clutches of death. This album, the words, the music, the aura changed me in so many ways. You see I was what one might call a late bloomer, I did not have a girlfriend until I was well into my thirties. I owe it all to Ken. I was at the local Sam Goodies try to get my hands on a few rare Herb Alpert bootlegs, and I came across this gem. It was a fluke really, it was the last copy of the album they had, and it had accidentally fallen into the waste basket. This man's piercing stare captivated me. I was hypnotized in a way.

Well, I got it home and listened; whew it was a sonic event. Full stereo and just amazing. As I listened I stared into his eyes, and it was like he was saying to me "hey, I did it; so can you". The next morning I went out and got myself a leisure suit from Goodwill, and set out to find someone who was willing to cut my hair like his. I had to finally sign a liability waiver at Super Cuts, but they did it. Over the next few weeks, as my mutton chops grew in, I took some dance lessons at the famous Fred Astaire school of dance. Then it happened.

I was out one night at the Bowl 'O Rama, and she walked in. Almost immediately I heard the immortal words of ken, from track number three "She ain't no lady, she's my sister". It was clear as day, I heard it right in my left ear, he sang like an angel; "She aint gonna tell nobody, go for it". So I asked her back to my place, and as soon as I put the album on....

Well, let's just say I had to fill a few requests that night.

Thanks Ken

[bjohn13]

Originally Posted by dlloyd1

This guy claims to have a copy, but it's quite possible he's not entirely serious

http://rateyourmusic.com/release/alb..._request_only/

Hilarious. I'm pretty certain he's not serious, but thanks for the link

[major accent]

I've seen a lot of independently produced DIY records, and usually if someone scans the front, there's someone who scans the back. Every single image of the "album" seems to be the same pristine image. Even if a record spends years unplayed in an attic or a thrift store, there is usually at least some evidence of it's age (a ring of wear on the cover, wear around the edges).

But there's an album for sale here and there by a "Ken" from the late sixties called "Sincerely, Ken" which (based only on the cheesy title and one word name) seems to fit the Ken aesthetic. Reportedly it is the output of Ken Henderson, a "one man band" from Davenport, Iowa. Can't find any artwork, however.

[Richard W]

There's a page here listing Ken Henderson's albums, and which claims to have artwork for a CD rerelease of "Sincerely, Ken" but the pictures appear to actually be from an album called "Knights of Fantasy" by Deodato.

They are (coincidentally) quite admirably bad, but in a very different style to Ken - although since they seem to be the wrong pictures, that doesn't mean much. All the pictures on those links are the same, unfortunately. "By Request Only" isn't listed as a Ken Henderson album on that page.

This music tribute site has a memorial to a Ken Henderson (1914 - 1997) but he would surely have been too old to be the Ken in the picture.

[major accent]

Note that this company sells CD recordings of vinyl records, so the artwork in the CD would be reproduced from the orginal LP release. Presumably they offer these because they have collected copies of the vinyl releases. I strongly suspect that this is the same Ken of "By Request Only" fame, but no way to know for sure...

[Richard W]

Originally Posted by major accent

Note that this company sells CD recordings of vinyl records, so the artwork in the CD would be reproduced from the orginal LP release. Presumably they offer these because they have collected copies of the vinyl releases. I strongly suspect that this is the same Ken of "By Request Only" fame, but no way to know for sure...

True, they might just not have a copy of that one. The other album titles and the name "Ken" seem to fit the swingin' vibe.

[Cervus]

Our library sale is coming up in a few weeks, and the records they sell there usually are old church groups and/or DIY recordings. I never spent much time scouring the record bins there, because although I collect LPs, a quick flip through their records showed nothing of interest to me. However, this time I'll be sure to look for some of the albums that frequently show up on the "Worst Cover" lists.

[bjohn13]

Originally Posted by Richard W

True, they might just not have a copy of that one. The other album titles and the name "Ken" seem to fit the swingin' vibe.

This discussion has interested me, as this By Request Only album is one I have questioned for quite some time (more than a year, but not likely more than two). I actually could have sworn that I had first heard about it here (or on the old boards), but I've had no luck finding the particular thread.

It seems as if I have just as many answers as before. I strongly suspect that this album doesn't exist.