Gatefold
A gatefold is a type of fold used for advertising around a magazine or section, and for packaging of media such as the phonographic industry.
LP covers
A gatefold cover or gatefold LP is a form of packaging for LP records which became popular in the mid-1960s. A gatefold cover, when folded, is the same size as a standard LP cover (i.e. a 12½ inch, or 32.7 centimetre, square). The larger gatefold cover provided a means of including artwork, liner notes, and/or song lyrics which would otherwise not have fit on a standard record cover. It became famous as an extension of progressive rock, as the expansive, transient gatefolds by Roger Dean or H. R. Giger became associated with concept albums. Gatefold sleeves were also used when an album contained more than one record; for example, a double album would include one record in each half of the cover.
Starting in the early 1950s, RCA used gatefold packaging for some of their deluxe 45 RPM single releases, such as Nat King Cole's 8-song "Unforgettable" EP with two 45s, released in 1952. Gatefold packaging for LPs was popularized in the late 1950s by band leader and stereophonic studio recording pioneer Enoch Light, so he could fit liner notes he had written describing the sounds in each song on the album sleeve. The first gatefold LP packaging used with a traditional 33⅓ LP may have been the Verve release Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook, issued in late 1956, featuring 32 songs on two long-playing monophonic records, on Verve MGV-4001-2.
In recent years, the LP gatefold has been adapted to package CDs, without a jewelcase.
Notable gatefold releases
The technique has been used for many notable LPs; in particular:
- The Beatles - Beatles for Sale
- The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
- The Beatles - The Beatles (The White Album)
- The Beatles - Let It Be
- John Lennon - Some Time in New York City
- David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
- David Bowie - Diamond Dogs
- David Bowie - Blackstar
- The Rolling Stones - Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass)
- The Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesties Request
- The Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet
- The Rolling Stones - Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2)
- The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street
- The Rolling Stones - Goat's Head Soup
- The Rolling Stones - Black And Blue
- The Who - Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy
- The Who - Tommy
- The Who - Quadrophenia
- The Kinks - The Village Green Preservation Society
- The Kinks - Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)
- The Kinks - Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One
- Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II
- Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III
- Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV
- Led Zeppelin - Houses Of The Holy
- Led Zeppelin - Presence
- Led Zeppelin - Coda
- Pink Floyd - Ummagumma
- Pink Floyd - Meddle
- Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon
- Pink Floyd - The Wall
- Yes - Fragile
- Yes - Yessongs
- Roxy Music - Roxy Music
- Public Image Ltd - Metal Box (Second Edition)
- Siouxsie and the Banshees - Join Hands
- The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace
- The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
- The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico
- Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde
- Bob Dylan and The Band - The Basement Tapes
- The Mothers of Invention - Freak Out!
- The Mothers of Invention - We're Only in It for the Money
- Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica
- The Doors - The Soft Parade
- The Doors - Morrison Hotel
- The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Axis: Bold as Love
- The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland
- Ten Years After - Ssssh
- Ten Years After - Cricklewood Green
- Ten Years After - Rock & Roll Music To The World
- Uriah Heep - Demons & Wizards
- Uriah Heep - The Magician's Birthday
- MC5 - Kick Out the Jams
- The Stooges - Fun House
- Jesus Christ Superstar
- Jethro Tull - Stand Up
- Jethro Tull - Aqualung
- Jethro Tull - Minstrel In The Gallery
- Deep Purple - Fireball
- Deep Purple - Machine Head
- Deep Purple - Who Do We Think We Are
- Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
- Black Sabbath - Paranoid
- Black Sabbath - Volume IV
- Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
- Blue Oyster Cult - Agents Of Fortune
- The Jackson 5 - Maybe Tomorrow
- Michael Jackson - Off the Wall
- Stevie Wonder - Innervisions
- Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
- King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
- The Allman Brothers Band - Eat a Peach
- Carole King - Tapestry
- Mötley Crüe - Shout at the Devil
- Lana Del Rey - Born to Die
In other publishing
Gatefold ads and highlights are often used as extensions of the covers of publications, folded either outside to overlap the cover or inside to unfold when the cover is opened. Similar folds include the split gatefold and the spadea.