Published in 1992 to celebrate fifty years of business Capitol issued this 220 page, very lavish and free promotion book in paperback and hardback, my copy is numbered 1860 (and also an eight CD box of their top selling artists over the decades). Because the book is basically a PR exercise the copy is obviously none too critical about the artists or the companies operations. The reason I love this book is the completely over-the-top design, every page is a sort of visual explosion of star photos with various treatments, coloured panels, graphics and lots of different typefaces for the headlines. It's beautifully produced with good printing and paper but one major flaw, it was side stapled so it's impossible to open flat or even vaguely flat. In fact, this is the only thick, large sized book I have ever seen bound like this.
Copies of both versions of this book are available on the net though quite expensive but nowhere near as expensive as Capitol's seventy-fifth anniversary book published by Taschen in 2017. It's a truly huge book but unfortunately blandly designed and just full of large PR shots of the companies recording artists and it doesn't have too much to say about the history of Capitol in the forties and fifties.
Because of the cost I only think it's worth buying Capitol's fiftieth if you are interested in design and want to see a beautifully designed book.
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