Talk:Commercial Album

The faces on the cover

Stated in the Miscellanea section; "The faces on the cover are John Travolta and Barbra Streisand." The faces on the cover are Ryan O'Niel and Barbara Striesand not John Travolta and Barbara Striesand, easy enough to understand the error though. 'Still' taken from the film "Whats up Doc" methinks. Surprised no one has noticed this error! T.Boulton 26-3-2007

You're full of it, dude. Your knowledge of what Ryan O'Neal looks like is obviously on a par with your ability to spell his name. It's Travolta. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.138.230.41 (talk) 19:59, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

Ok dude, so I dont know how to spell Ryan O'Neal but that doesn't take away the fact that I believe it is him in the image on the Commercial Album cover. Why would "The Ressies" use pictures of JT with BS when they never appeared in films together, whereas RON did appear with her in two films,"Whats up Doc" & "The Main Event" so it seems obvious to me that the pic is of O'Neal and Striesand, not sure which film the image is taken from but WUD would appear to suit BS's hairstyle.

If it is Travolta as you state then what is your source? T.Boulton 7-1-2010 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.112.7.122 (talk) 13:08, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

I thought for sure you were right and that it was O'Neal, but it is indeed Travolta. The original photo is here: [] and the Streisand photo is here: [] Richard K. Carson (talk) 01:28, 27 August 2013 (UTC)

It IS John Travolta & Barbara Streisand. They were considered to be the U.S. cinema's biggest box office draw at the time. Thus, to further sell the "commercial appeal" of the album, they were selling out and using America's biggest stars - albeit on their own terms. I seem to recall - no source - that they may have gotten into some trouble over the usage of the faces, over photographer copyrights. For a more recent article on the subject: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/when-the-residents-sold-out/ ~2026-85811-7 (talk) 00:57, 8 February 2026 (UTC)

WP:FAROUT tells us that Far Out magazine is not reliable, so don't cite it. The photo of Streisand is from a December 1964 studio session with Picturelux, when Travolta was ten years old. She posed solo, not with a man. That means the guy's face is pasted in, not part of the original photo portrait. The dot on his chin is probably why people think it is Travolta, who has a prominent cleft chin.

Since the guy's photo is pasted in, it could be any guy from any time.

I think the guy on the cover looks more like Iggy Pop who sometimes shows a smaller indentation on his chin. But no sources agree with me on this, so there goes that theory. Binksternet (talk) 02:37, 8 February 2026 (UTC)

So ... the people used had to be from the same photo? (The Beatles have a LOT of explaining to do with Sgt.Pepper!) But seriously, it's a collage, and I'm not here for a flame war. Interpret it as you will. ~2026-85811-7 (talk) 20:20, 17 February 2026 (UTC)