DESIGNED FOR SUCCESS
Better Living and Self-Improvement with Mid-century Instructional Records
Praise for Designed for Success
“Borgerson and Schroeder’s vinyl collection and book transports us to another era, offering a critical eye on one side and a playful wink on the other for how ideas were fostered in mid-century American culture.” –Gary Baseman, artist (Cranium, Teacher’s Pet, The Door is Always Open)
“With this delectable book, a fascinating genre of underappreciated vinyl finally gets the deluxe treatment. A great sociological lens on mid-century American hopes and fears – plus those weird and cool album covers!” - Steve Young, coauthor of Everything's Coming Up Profits: The Golden Age of Industrial Musicals, and main subject of the documentary Bathtubs Over Broadway
“A brilliant and delightfully rendered analysis of how midcentury vinyl records and their covers shaped Americans’ aspirations, domestic spaces, social relationships, career training, and education.” - Penny Marie von Eschen, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of American Studies at the University of Virginia: author of Paradoxes of Nostalgia
“once you’ve finished amusing yourself after at least a couple of passes through the entire collection of fascinating LP covers, you will discover that you are also holding a real BOOK book. As with the two preceding volumes in their DESIGNED FOR… trilogy, there is a point to Borgerson’s and Schroeder’s curated tour through their midcentury record collection. The LPs – their often-dazzling front covers, the usually earnestly descriptive back-cover liner notes, and of course the music or spoken words on the disc – offer a remarkable portal through which to survey the naked ideals, illusions, aspirations, fantasies, fears, and frivolities of this midcentury world – at once so familiar yet so bizarrely distant from our world. They guide us carefully through the subtle details on the front cover or liner notes of each LP, revealing things we probably missed during the first irresistible urge to make fun of them.” – Amazon Reviewer
“These often awkward albums reveal our history, both how far we’ve come and (sometimes) how little we’ve changed. There are deeply researched asides about the appearance of artists you may already be familiar with backing tracks or giving instruction on these albums, as well as a tip of the hat to cover artists whose work you may know via more popular album genres. And then there is the dry humor embedded within the text. Yes, Borgerson and Schroeder are knowledgeable observers and keen listeners, but they are also witty.” – Reedsy Discovery
Reviewed in The Wire, October 2024
GALLERY
An illustrated history of midcentury instructional records and their untold contribution to the American narrative of self-improvement, aspiration, and success.
For the midcentury Americans who wished to better their golf game through hypnosis, teach their parakeet to talk, or achieve sexual harmony in their marriage, the answers lay no further than the record player. In Designed for Success, Janet Borgerson and Jonathan Schroeder shed light on these fascinating albums that contributed to a powerful American vision of personal success. Rescued from charity shops, record store cast-off bins, or forgotten boxes in attics and basements, these educational records reveal the American consumers' rich but sometimes surprising relationship to advertising, self-help, identity construction, and even aspects of transcendentalist thought.
Relegated to obscurity and novelty, instructional records such as Secrets of Successful Varmint Calling, You Be a Disc Jockey, and How to Ski (A Living-Room Guide for Beginners) offer distinct insights into midcentury media production and consumption. Tracing the history of instructional records from the inception of the recording industry to the height of their popularity, Borgerson and Schroeder offer close readings of the abundant topics covered by “designed for success” records. Complemented by over a hundred full-color illustrations, Designed for Success is a wonderfully nostalgic tour that showcases the essential role these vinyl records played as an unappreciated precursor to contemporary do-it-yourself culture and modern conceptions of self-improvement.
Featured Tracks
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Record covers for publicity (these covers are from companies that are no longer in business)
Hear How to Improve Your Vocabulary and Speech, Carlton CHH 23, 1961.
Secrets of Successful Varmint Calling, Johnny Stewart, Outdoor Products Records, 1967.
Hear How to Achieve Sexual Harmony in Marriage, Dr. Rebecca Liswood, Carlton CHH 28, 1956.
Hear How to Improve Your Fishing, John Dieckman, Carlton CHH 26, 1961.
Hear How to Take Better Photographs, Ralph Morse, Carlton CHH 18, 1961.
Personal Golf Instructions from Driver thru Putter, Arnold Palmer, Sports Champions SCI 32, 1962.
Songs of Safety: Manners Can Be Fun, Health Can Be Fun, Frank Luther, Vocalion VL 73683, 1963.
Yoga for Americans, Indra Devi,
Mace M10021; 1965.
What it Takes to Be a Great Salesman, Businessman’s Record Club BRC 136, 1963.
Calm Nerves for Self-Confidence, Psychoscope Record #4 R 1365; cover design by Russell-Greene, 1958.
Actual Business Letters, Stenodisc No. 513, ca. 1950.
Cambridge Language Series Russian, L 13, ca. 1957.
Swimming for Fun and Fitness, Artrec SLP 63/7000, c. 1964.
Learn Tennis with Arthur Ashe, Manhattan Recording Co LT 10, 1974.
Bern Ramey on Wine, Wine Record Company, 1964.
The New Math: A Guide for Puzzled Parents, New Math Records Vol. 1, 1966.
Outboard Motor Boating, Outboard Motor Boating Records SO: A101, ca. 1960.
Reduce Through Listening, Improvement Services MR 1006, 1964.
Developing Your ESP Powers: The Burgess Method, RJB 105; 1972.
Secrets of Hunting, Fred Bear, Henry Russell Recording Studio W4RM 3967; 1968.
Play Guitar, GL Vol. 1 ST, 1962.
Play Electric Bass with the Ventures, Dolton Records BST 17504; 1966.
Learn-Play Bongos, Jack Costanzo, Liberty LRP 3177; 1960.
Bob’s Marriage Repair Kit, World Records, R-5, 1974.
4 Lessons in Jazz, AAMCO ALP 302, 1958.
Music for Big Dame Hunters, Sounds of a Thousand Strings, Crown CLP 5173, 1960.
Praise for Designed for Success
“Borgerson and Schroeder’s vinyl collection and book transports us to another era, offering a critical eye on one side and a playful wink on the other for how ideas were fostered in mid-century American culture.” –Gary Baseman, artist (Cranium, Teacher’s Pet, The Door is Always Open)
“With this delectable book, a fascinating genre of underappreciated vinyl finally gets the deluxe treatment. A great sociological lens on mid-century American hopes and fears – plus those weird and cool album covers!” - Steve Young, coauthor of Everything's Coming Up Profits: The Golden Age of Industrial Musicals, and main subject of the documentary Bathtubs Over Broadway
“A brilliant and delightfully rendered analysis of how midcentury vinyl records and their covers shaped Americans’ aspirations, domestic spaces, social relationships, career training, and education.” - Penny Marie von Eschen, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of American Studies at the University of Virginia: author of Paradoxes of Nostalgia
“once you’ve finished amusing yourself after at least a couple of passes through the entire collection of fascinating LP covers, you will discover that you are also holding a real BOOK book. As with the two preceding volumes in their DESIGNED FOR… trilogy, there is a point to Borgerson’s and Schroeder’s curated tour through their midcentury record collection. The LPs – their often-dazzling front covers, the usually earnestly descriptive back-cover liner notes, and of course the music or spoken words on the disc – offer a remarkable portal through which to survey the naked ideals, illusions, aspirations, fantasies, fears, and frivolities of this midcentury world – at once so familiar yet so bizarrely distant from our world. They guide us carefully through the subtle details on the front cover or liner notes of each LP, revealing things we probably missed during the first irresistible urge to make fun of them.” – Amazon Reviewer
“These often awkward albums reveal our history, both how far we’ve come and (sometimes) how little we’ve changed. There are deeply researched asides about the appearance of artists you may already be familiar with backing tracks or giving instruction on these albums, as well as a tip of the hat to cover artists whose work you may know via more popular album genres. And then there is the dry humor embedded within the text. Yes, Borgerson and Schroeder are knowledgeable observers and keen listeners, but they are also witty.” – Reedsy Discovery
Reviewed in The Wire, October 2024
An illustrated history of midcentury instructional records and their untold contribution to the American narrative of self-improvement, aspiration, and success.
For the midcentury Americans who wished to better their golf game through hypnosis, teach their parakeet to talk, or achieve sexual harmony in their marriage, the answers lay no further than the record player. In Designed for Success, Janet Borgerson and Jonathan Schroeder shed light on these fascinating albums that contributed to a powerful American vision of personal success. Rescued from charity shops, record store cast-off bins, or forgotten boxes in attics and basements, these educational records reveal the American consumers' rich but sometimes surprising relationship to advertising, self-help, identity construction, and even aspects of transcendentalist thought.
Relegated to obscurity and novelty, instructional records such as Secrets of Successful Varmint Calling, You Be a Disc Jockey, and How to Ski (A Living-Room Guide for Beginners) offer distinct insights into midcentury media production and consumption. Tracing the history of instructional records from the inception of the recording industry to the height of their popularity, Borgerson and Schroeder offer close readings of the abundant topics covered by “designed for success” records. Complemented by over a hundred full-color illustrations, Designed for Success is a wonderfully nostalgic tour that showcases the essential role these vinyl records played as an unappreciated precursor to contemporary do-it-yourself culture and modern conceptions of self-improvement.