During the mid-eighties we either enjoyed or suffered a mini-Hooters craze, depending on your fondness for cuts like “All You Zombies” and “And We Danced.”  Hooters band mates Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman teamed up earlier than The Hooters, though, and for some reason did not name that previous band Bazilian Hyman.  No, they went with Baby Grand, and they released two albums.

Both Ancient Medicine and Baby Grand are middle of the road (MOR) albums similar to what Paul “Heaven on the 7th Floor” Nicholas or Andrew “Thank You for Being a Friend” Gold was churning out at the time.  This is the kind of stuff I’m talking about:

If that’s your thing, have at it.  I will say this about the great Hyman, however — he co-wrote Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time,” which I declare without even a slight shred of sarcasm one of the greatest singles of the eighties.

Anyway, although the music isn’t particularly strong the album covers are great, particularly Ancient Medicine.  The cover is an homage to 16th century painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo, whose portraits made of fruits and vegetables still delight viewers after five hundred years.

You can pick up either of these albums for under five bucks, but I’d recommend spending that moolah on The Portrait of Eccentricity: Arcimboldo and the Mannerist Grotesque, a book by Giancarlo Maiorino.  That will set you back anywhere from $10 to $75, depending on the book seller, but if you’re interested in art history it’s well worth it.  Happy hunting.