The Chantays – Pipeline album art
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Some sources date ITC Beesknees to 1991. That’s not wrong, as the extrabold all-caps typeface with the top-heavy rounds was indeed issued by ITC that year. But in fact, the jolly design is almost two decades older than that. The announcement in the Spring 1991 issue of ITC’s U&lc magazine mentions that Dave Farey first created it in 1972:
Influences for Mr. Farey's type designs tend to be American, and Beesknees is no exception. He credits Push Pin Studios, Peter Max, Bob Zoell—and the Marx Brothers for much of the inspiration in this design. Farey has long admired both the cinematic humor and typographic titles of the Marx Brother films. Both had an influence on Beesknees. Originally, the face was to be called “Horse Feathers” or “Monkey Business” after the famous Marx Brothers films. “Monkey Business” stuck for a short while, but it was later shortened to just “Business” and soon thereafter became “Beesknees.” Since it is a caps-only face, Mr. Farey claims that in reality it should have been named “Half-a bee,” or perhaps “Knees.”
An undated specimen by Alphabet Photosetting already shows it under the name Beesknees. This typesetting service in London likely was the place where designer Jack Levy ordered three words in Beesknees for the cover of the shown reissue of Pipeline, released in 1974 on Contour Records.
The debut album by Californian surf rock band The Chantays was first released with Downey Records in 1963 (and also by Dot Records the same year), with a different, exclusively typographic cover. It opens with the titular “Pipeline”. Recorded in July 1962, the instrumental track is considered one of the landmarks of the surf genre.
This post was originally published at Fonts In Use