Teasin'" sheet music cover, with photo of Vincent Lopez and his orchestra
The pattern
This still is filed under Lettered cover hook.
Define
The cover is the hook, and the hook is lettering: a title treated as an image.
Mechanism
Type as bait. The words are drawn so they stop the hand before the contents are known.
Verdict
A journal, book, or issue must sell itself on a rack or a feed
Why it works
The cover is really two advertisements bolted together. The photograph is the borrowed-authority half: a documentary, unretouched picture of a named orchestra in the middle of an entirely invented decorative field, and the contrast between the two makes the photograph read as proof rather than illustration. FEATURED AND RECORDED BY is the whole sales argument in four words - it tells the buyer this is not an unknown tune but one they have already heard on a record, which is how sheet music competed once records existed. The title is set in outlined yellow so it reads at counter distance in a crowded rack, and the single apostrophe that drops the g does the entire job of signalling the song's register. The flapper figure carries no information at all; she is there to date the object to this season, which is exactly what a disposable product needs.
Steal this when
You are selling a version, edition or licence of something the buyer may already have encountered elsewhere, and the strongest lever is who else has used it. Put the recognisable name and the documentary photograph in the middle of the composition, and let the decoration around it do the era-signalling.