The first Sparks' self-titled album didn't sell but the band got a second chance and "A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing" was released in 1972. In order to avoid problems with Bearsville Records company Sparks decided to propose an obvious cover with a very classic photography of the band. - read the story of the Halfnelson "Car Interior" cover...
A photo session was scheduled with photograph and friend Larry Dupont in the basement of the UCLA Ethnic Arts Museum. In that unusual place the band was surrounded by scary African fetishes, masks and spears but all this stuff doesn't appear on any shot.
Ron Mael & Jim Mankey were sitting on chairs while Harley A. Feinstein, Russell Mael & Earle Mankey were standing behind them. Harley Feinstein was standing behind Ron Mael trying to look cool but at this time the drummer was immature and a bit of a jerk and he suddenly tipped Ron's chair back to make the keyboardist think he was falling over backwards... Ron's arms flew up... Larry Dupont snapped the photo with his Hasselblad, a swedish high-quality photography camera.
Ron Mael was involved with cinema at UCLA. He was very keen on silent movies and was a comedian in the mold of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, The Three Stooges & The Marx Brothers... Ron Mael obviously liked sight gags. So he probably found the photo amusing and decided to put the blurred shot on the front album cover and a "straight" pic from the same photo session was used as Lp back cover.
The two black and white photos were hand-tinted by Larry Dupond and that's the reason why Russell Mael's famous red & white checkered suit became a green & white one on the second pic. The band liked the idea of the front and back covers being nearly identical.
From the eighties Bearsville Records reissued the first two albums on Cd. But if the Sparks self-titled album still have its original cover, "A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing" Cd got now the back cover as front and vice versa.
These informations regarding the story of A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing cover were obtained from Harley A. Feinstein.