Dolores Erickson on Whipped Cream and Other Delights
The cover is the stuff of teenage dreams and yearning of older men to return to their youth. Innocence and come-hither looks wrapped into one alluring package.
If an album cover ever helped to sell mega amounts of copies, this was it. Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, certainly benefited from the album design of A&M art director Peter Whorf, and model, Dolores Erickson, gracing the cover of Whipped Cream and Other Delights.
The iconic album cover, which is best appreciated in its full 12″ x 12″ vinyl incarnation, can still be found for sale at many thrift shops, flea markets and garage sales for a couple of dollars.
The album released in 1965, went to #1 on the Billboard pop music charts and ended up selling over six million copies over the years.
Was it based on the music? While it is a good album of instrumentals, I am positive that the provocative cover had a lot to do with its popularity.
Modeling for The Ford Agency, Dolores Erickson was married and 28-years-old at the time. She had known Peter Whorf from working with him previously on other album covers and he was engaged to Erickson’s best friend. When she got the call from Whorf to do the album cover, she came to his garage which had been converted to a photography studio and the cover was shot in one day.
Although Erickson appears not to be wearing anything, she had been wrapped in cotton and had on a bikini underneath all the “cream.”
She was also three months pregnant at the time.
Photographer and cover designer Whorf did a masterful job at hiding Erickson’s pregnancy. One problem: they could not use whipped cream because it kept sliding off. The solution? Shaving cream which adhered better to Erickson’s body. The only bit of whipped cream is on her head and fingers.
The outtakes for the album were given to Erickson and she still has them. When she received them in 1965 she was shocked at how much it revealed. By today’s standards they are still rather modest. Here are two of them.
click to enlarge
click to enlarge
The cover did not make a celebrity out of Erickson and she was rarely recognized in public as the “Whipped Cream” girl. It wasn’t until many years later that people began asking her to autograph the album cover.
Dolores Erickson (center) in 2006 (photo © Vinyl Times)
Erickson, a Washington native, retired from modeling and went on to become an artist and sometimes appears at record and collectibles shows.
The talented Peter Whorf who designed this and scores of other album covers passed away at the age of 64 on November 11, 1995 in Los Angeles, CA.
Herb Alpert, the musician who founded A&M records can partially thank the album cover for spurring huge sales of his albums and dominating the music charts in the mid-1960’s. For instance, for the week of June 22, 1966 Cash Box Magazine, which measured album sales, noted that Herb Albert had three of the top four selling albums in the country, outselling the Beach Boys and the Rolling Stones.
As Herb Alpert said, people still come up to him today and say how they really liked the album Whipped Cream and really, really liked the cover!
Click below to listen to two of the better known songs from Whipped Cream and Other Delights.
Whipped Cream was used on the TV show The Dating Game as was Lollipops and Roses.
Great stuff! Here’s my appreciation:
https://100bestalbumcovers.blogspot.com/2020/01/48-whipped-cream-other-delights-herb.html
January 6th is National Whipped Cream Day. National Whipped Cream Day is celebrated on the birthday of Aaron S. “Bunny” Lapin, one of the founders of Reddi-Wip whipped cream. He created Reddi-Wip in 1948 and applied for a patent for “dispensing valves for gas pressure containers” the following year, receiving the patent in 1955.
Very interesting article. And this woman was still very attractive in 2006. I guess my reaction was a little different from these other posts, like all kids, I was fifteen in 1965 andI liked rock, was buying Beatles, Stones, Count 5, Standells, best of Dave Clark 5 (mainly for the cut “Bits and Pieces”), and thought Herb Alpert was just plain square, I mean c’mon, when I was 12, 13, 14 or so, I turned up my Dynatones “Steel Guitar Rag” single to eleven on my parents’ stereo when they weren’t home. And I’m sorry if this sounds jaded, but when this record came out, I thought OK, whipped cream, I get it but so what. I mean like most adolescent boys I had magazines hidden in my closet with photos that left nothing to the imagination. So the album cover seemed just plain tame to me. And Herb Alpert would never write anything like 19th Nervous Breakdown – he was just square. Funny (peculair) thing was, that a couple of years later, summer of 1967 I was told about Cream’s first album, “Fresh Cream.” When I went to the department store to buy it (in Long Island, NY) I asked for “Fresh Cream” and the woman behind the counter pointed to the Herb Alpert album instead, prominently displayed on one of the racks. I said no that’s not it, and she replied something, I don’t remember, but clearly had no idea what I was talking about. I rooted through the record racks (there were no bins) and finally found “Fresh Cream.” I took it to the counter, paid for it, and the saleslady just nodded….. And I still haven’t heard one note of Herb Alpert’s Whipped Cream and other delights.
This album was my pre-teen introduction to Spanish music…how could you NOT get hooked on the instrumentals and be riveted by that album cover. The couple who owned the album had the only stereo on the street…. and we (all the kids) could sit listen to the music in their air conditioned house during the summer months. This album started my interest in Spanish music and I have become a fan of many other musicians since: Jesse Cook, The Gipsy Kings, Al Marconi, Johannes Linstead et al. The matriach of the family of who graciously let us listen endlessly to her albums passed away in the past two days, and in remembering her, I thought of this album. Had to look it up, and glad I found this story. Great tale and great memory. Thank you!
I absolutely loved your comment: Went zipping back thru time to my own Mother’s extra cool album collection which was more diverse, I daresay, than anyone in our tiny part of the county in Georgia back in the 60s. She had Cream, Herb Alpert, Johnny Cash, Strauss… Leonard Bernstein said that Eric Clapton & Co were “brilliant” and she bought their album when I was ten. She also bought George Carlin before and after he was “hippie cool”. Our neighbors had plastic covering their living rooms with “hi-fi”, but I liked our ceiling fan and record player because Mama was a bona fide lover of culture. One more thing – we eschewed country music then because most of it and it’s fans were racist. One day I noted the Johnny Cash Folsom Prison album and she said, almost indignantly, “That’s not country music… That’s AMERICAN music!” ? So grateful I still have her around to steer me right.
Can anyone please tell me the name of the woman on the cover of “South of the Border”
I have searched and searched and cannot find any information.
Thanks
Chuck
Sandra Moss
That was Herb Alpert’s first wife. She was also on the album What now My Love. She is also the girl he sang to on his special. He sang This Guy’s In Love to his wife.
I am writing a book about rock ‘n roll music and I would like to use one of the outtakes for my book. How would I go about getting permission to do that? Who owns the rights to the outtakes present?
The estate of Peter Whorf would probably still own the rights if they were not sold to an archive or A&M. You might consider contacting his family. You could also try A&M records, but dealing with a huge company is usually fruitless unless you get lucky and find an advocate who will take the time to help you. Good luck.
Yes my parents had this one buried in the old Grundig stereo system. Why have pornography hidden as a kid…when you have this rare gem at your , um , finger tips!
I sometimes wonder: What’s it like sitting in whipped cream?:)
Pingback: When Dolores Erickson And Herb Albert Promised Us Whipped Cream & Other Delights (1965) - Flashbak
Great story about the Whipped Cream album and its beautiful cover! When I was a young teen, this album cover prompted me to utter “wowza” for the very first time!
That’s funny shaving cream. Want to laugh at another one. The Aunt Jemima ads with the pancakes and her syrup, the syrup is 10W40 motor oil.
I got to meet Ms. Erickson on Sunday at a Vinyl Fest here in Louisville. She’s still going strong and enjoys her iconic status. Whatever they covered or didn’t cover with the “whipped cream” (mostly shaving cream, really), I’m glad that they didn’t cover those eyes. Now, my copy of the record’s cover is signed/personalized.
Well…I still have the album which I bought when I was in college.
She was 3 months pregnant. There is nothing more beautiful than a woman expecting a baby.
Please! Spare us your sickly sentimental feelings!
Please Garson Rotorbane ~ if you can’t handle “feelings,” just ignore them.
My mother gave me the album for Christmas after putting a little Santa Claus sticker over Ms. Erickson’s breast! I played the trumpet then and was nuts about the music. She wouldn’t have given it to me otherwise, I was surprised she let her guard down for something that was really risque.
I loved the music of Herb Alpert and the TB as a kid growing up in Minnesota. In college I had the album Rise. I LOVED this model on the cover of this album. Was pretty revealing stuff for it’s day. Good memories….It was great to see Herb Alpert in concert where I live now in LA. My wife and I saw him at the Hollywood Bowl.
My girlfriend at the time gave me this album for Christmas back in 1965. It was very risque, even back then. And she was so straight laced! I admired this photo for years.
When I was a little boy, we had a finished basement, hardly ever used. I loved going there and listening to a phonograph of Beatles songs, West Side Story, and Herb Albert. But this album created my first fantasy as a growing boy, always staring at the cover, wishing I could see what else was under that whipped cream! Wow! Who would think that that would be considered risque, when you see what the world shows on the internet, T.V., and movies today. Imagination was so important back then. It made you appreciate when the “real deal” happened. Ah, the “good old days”. Now, I’m sounding like an old man. Oh, well…
I was fortunate enough to know Peter Whorf as well as his talented brother Chris who has also created iconic album covers. I have a piece of Peter’s art in my office and think of him fondly. I worked for A&M Records for over a decade and consider Herb Alpert one of the greatest men of our generation. treat yourselves and listen to his old and current musical creations!
I worked for a record shop (remember them) when this album came out, we had church folks tell us how lewd it was and we kept them behind the counter to keep them from getting stolen. we’ve cam a long way since then.
I bought this album when it first came out strictly because of its cover. She was a beautiful woman when this album cover was shot and she still is — one of
those people the camera loves.
Pingback: The story behind a classic 1965 album cover | Charles Apple