Thomas Hauck
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“Put the Needle on the Record” by Matthew Chojnacki

From 1976 to 1983 I had the privilege of being a member of the Boston pop-punk band The Atlantics. We enjoyed regional success and released one national LP, “Big City Rock,” on ABC Records. But our biggest hit was our own indy 45 RPM single, “Lonelyhearts” b/w “Can’t Wait Forever,” which we released in 1980.

We’re honored to have the “Lonelyhearts” single cover included in a wonderful new book by Matthew Chojnacki – “Put the Needle on the Record.” It’s a collection of over 250 single covers by artists ranging from The Ramones to Pat Benatar to Run-D.M.C. The covers are accompanied by comments from the artists; our lead guitarist, Fred Pineau, whose memory is perhaps less impaired than other members of the band, offers his reflections on the night the cover photos were taken in NYC by Stu Chernoff. The “Lonelyhearts” cover was designed by Tibor Kalman, who had recently started M&Co, which became a leading design firm. When we first met with Tibor, he had several other ideas for the cover; one of them was to cover the sleeve with sandpaper (the rough side out!). We and our manager, Fred Munao, thought this was a cool idea but it would not endear us to record retailers or radio stations. The cover concept that we went with – the rows of tiny photos of members of the band – was an instant hit, and luckily the song was too.

 

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