John Berg, the veteran Columbia Records art designer who shaped iconic album covers for the likes of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Chicago and who was rewarded with four Grammy Awards for his exemplary work, has passed away at the age of 83.
Berg joined Columbia in 1961 and went on to enjoy a prolific career. In the quarter century until he retired in 1985 as a vice president, Berg was responsible for more than 5,000 album covers. Many of them unforgettable.
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None were more famous than the backlit photo of Dylan which adorned the singer-songwriter’s 1967 Greatest Hits album, which was produced under Berg’s direction and photographed by Rowland Scherman. It also produced one of his four Grammys. His work on 1963’s The Barbra Streisand Album, Thelonious Monk’s Underground from 1968 and Chicago X from 1976 also yielded Grammys.
Berg passed away Sunday (Oct. 11) in Southampton, N.Y. after a battle with pneumonia, according to the New York Times.