Music Of The Middle East
Mohammed El-Bakkar And His Oriental Ensemble
Audio Fidelity AFLP 1833
1957
The cover model is credited as Nejla Ates, dancing star of "Fanny". Read about her colorful life.
Port Said
Music Of The Middle East
Mohammed El-Bakkar And His Oriental Ensemble
Audio Fidelity AFLP 1833
1958
Sultan Of Bagdad
Music Of The Middle East Vol. 2
Audio Fidelity AFSD 5834
1958
Music Of The African Arab
Mohammed El-Bakkar And His Oriental Ensemble
Vol. 3
Audio Fidelity AFSD 5858
1958
Dances Of Port Said
Mohammed El-Bakkar And His Oriental Ensemble
Vol. 5
Audio Fidelity AFSD 5922
1960
Here is volume 5 sporting another cheesecake cover. In this case, the model was actually topless when photographed. The "pasties" were added in production (cut and paste).
Exotic Music Of
The Belly Dancer
Mohammed El Bakker & His Oriental Ensemble
Audio Fidelity SFSD 6154
1966
Music For A Belly Dancer
Audio Fidelity Records AF 2411
1973
This is a gatefold jacket 2 record set repressing of AFSD 5895 The Magic Carpet and AFSD 5834 Sultan Of Bagdad.
Orient SLPO161
Rashid Sales Co., Brooklyn, N.Y.
1979
I have at least 1 El Bakkar record purchased initially for the fabulous cover and I wound up really liking the music
ReplyDeleteThank you for the high quality artwork scans of El Bakkar. I have purchased the albums on iTunes but replaced the artwork with you scans, they are much higher quality and of course the original. On iTunes someone seems to have censored the artwork to show less flesh on the belly dancers!
ReplyDeleteI have studied raqs sharqi--"Belly Dancing" as we call it in the West. There is nothing authentic about any of these covers, as delicious as they are. Strictly a fantasy of some very American Man Man advertising. I suspect they were marketed in larger metropolitan areas, NYC, LA, Chicago, etc and/or advertised in the back of men's magazines, such as True, etc.
ReplyDelete