John grabbed my cover and held it so close to his eyes that I thought his nose would pierce it. And for the first time I spotted a slightly sheepish look on his face, as if he felt embarrassed that a stranger noticed his short-sightedness. And, apparently, he wasn’t prepared for me confronting him with this question. It only took John a second to switch back to the nonchalant, grumpy rocker and he said in a tight-lipped manner: ‘Go to Stuart... He’s the arty one.’ 

That was my first contact with the lads, and to be precise, it was already the first step towards John’s phone call, which wasn’t until six years later, when he asked me in the early summer of 1966: ‘Any idea for our next album cover?’

[Klaus Voormann, on broaching the subject of album cover design with John in Hamburg, 1960. From Revolver 50: Birth of an Icon.]

Genesis Publications has announced a Grammy Anniversary edition of Klaus Voormann’s book, Revolver 50: Birth of an Icon, limited to 450 copies. Klaus won a Grammy Award for the artwork on 2nd March 1967, the first of its kind for a rock album.