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The coolest, best, greatest, near iconic, most famous anthology covers of all-time. It doesn't really matter what sort of adjective yous want to put information technology in forepart of the words "album cover," considering lists of this sort of are e'er incredibly subjective. What we can say for sure, though, is that album covers are vitally important to how a record is received by the public. (It's hard to imagine Sgt. Pepper's with the cover to the White Anthology and vice versa.) Even in today's digital age, a cool record cover can take a huge bear on. (Artists as varied as Immature Thug and Glass Animals tin adjure to that.) And then, without further ado, here is our pick of just 100 of the greatest record covers of all-time.
100: The Flamin' Groovies: Supersnazz (design by Cyril Jordan)
Bandleader Cyril Hashemite kingdom of jordan's terrific comic art has turned upwardly on numerous The Flamin' Groovies covers and posters over the decades. On their 1969 debut, the cavorting characters were at that place to remind you how much fun rock'northward'curlicue was supposed to be.
99: The Bee Gees: Odessa
If The Beatles could do a double "White Album," the Bee Gees could do a fuzzy red i. The ruby-red velvet cover, with gold embossed lettering, served notice that Odessa was going to be unique and beautiful, which it was.
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98: The Rolling Stones: Beggars Banquet (design by Barry Feinstein)
Beggars Banquet is a rare example where an album's two famous covers really complement each other. Put the notorious bathroom cover together with the engraved invitation on the US replacement, and you've got the yin and the yang of The Rolling Stones at the time.
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97: Ol' Muddied Bounder: Return to the 36 Chambers: The Muddy Version (pattern by Alli Truch, photo by Danny Clinch)
Whenever hip-hop started to take itself too seriously, ODB was there to disrupt, agitate, and give the heart finger to convention. Forgoing any blinged-out tropes, the former Wu-Tang member put a doctored version of his welfare ID carte on the front end cover of his solo debut, as both a reminder of where he came from and to destigmatize being on public assistance. As he rapped on Wu-Tang's "Canis familiaris Sh_t,": "Got meals simply however grill that old expert welfare cheese."
96: Nick Lowe: Jesus of Cool/Pure Pop for Now People (design by Barney Bubbles)
On an anthology that made a mad dash through the whole of pop history, Nick Lowe pictured himself in a agglomeration of different guises, from rockabilly hoodlum to sensitive balladeer (at that place were different pics on the U.s. and UK versions), all with tongue firmly in cheek.
95: Jefferson Airplane: Long John Silverish (pattern by Pacific Eye & Ear)
Jefferson Plane's Long John Silvery hails from the gold age of elaborate album covers. Since people were already using LPs to store and make clean marijuana, the Airplane gave y'all a cardboard box holder for it, along with the pot, or at least a realistic-looking photo.
94: Billie Eilish: When We All Autumn Comatose, Where Do We Go? (blueprint by Kenneth Cappello)
Any artist who dares to look this terrifying on the cover of their get-go album deserves all the platinum success they get. Inspired by the album's themes of the subconscious, the dark sleeve of Billie Eilish's When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do Nosotros Become? served notice that Eilish was here to mess with your head.
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93: Parliament: Mothership Connection (photo past David Alexander, design by Gribbitth)
George Clinton's gonzoid take on outer-space adventure plant its perfect friction match in the effortlessly cool spaceship-party cover for Parliament's Mothership Connection . The fact that it looked remarkably low upkeep merely made it funkier.
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92: Geto Boys: We Can't Be Stopped (design by Cliff Blodget)
Walking a razor-thin line between exploitation and cultural commentary was the Geto Boys' modus operandi, and goose egg exemplified this dynamic more than their famous 1991 album cover art. The graphic photo of Bushwick Bill at the infirmary was every bit unflinching equally their music.
91: The Cars: Candy-O (design by Alberto Vargas)
Alberto Vargas was already the most famous pin-upwardly artist before designing the famous cover for The Cars classic 1979 album Processed-O, but this painting of a stylish redhead, on a car of course, became his most famous piece. Candy-O is 1 of the two best uses of pin-upward art on a stone tape, along with…
90: Courtney Love: America'southward Sweetheart (design by Olivia De Berardinis)
For her debut solo album, Courtney Love took the Cars' concept a step further past enlisting the younger, edgier pin-up creative person (known professionally as Olivia) to paint her. Of course, it got an extra dimension past playing with Love's ain image at the time.
89: The Rolling Stones: Their Satanic Majesties Request (design by Michael Cooper)
The Rolling Stones probably couldn't crush the Beatles for a psychedelic anthology in 1967, but they arguably had the cooler anthology cover, the first 3D sleeve in rock. Ten points if you can detect where the Beatles are hiding in the 3D paradigm on Their Satanic Majesties Request.
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88: Public Image Ltd: The Flowers of Romance
PiL's follow-up to their famous Metal Box album comprehend was even libation, showing non-performing bandmember Jeanette Lee with a rose in her teeth, a weapon in her mitt, and a murderous look in her eyes.
87: The Velvet Undercover: The Velvet Underground & Nico (blueprint past Andy Warhol)
It was weird, it was witty, it was Warhol. The famous minimalism of The Velvet Underground & Nico peel-abroad banana album cover became an influence on punk visual style many years later and remains one of the greatest album covers.
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86: The Miracles: How-do-you-do, We're The Miracles (design past Wakefield & Mitchell)
The cool album cover for The Miracles' 1961 debut encapsulates the former-schoolhouse showbiz that Motown would soon lead the world away from. Only it'south and so cheerful that you nonetheless have to love it.
85: The Go-Gos: Beauty & the Beat (design by Ginger Canzoneri, Mike Doud, Mick Haggerty, Vartan)
The Get-Become'south sense of playful subversion extended to their sendup of glamorous comprehend photos on their hit debut, Beauty & The Beat . It was their party; you could bring together if they allow you.
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84: Dr. Dre: The Chronic (design by Michael Benabib)
This famous album cover did wonders with its simple strategy. On his Dr. Dre's solo debut The Chronic , the blueprint assumed that Dre was already an icon and presented him accordingly.
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83: Quincy Jones: The Dude (design by Fanizani Akuda)
Jeff Bridges' got zip on the original "The Dude," the effortlessly cool and quixotic album encompass character that appears on Quincy Jones' genre-blending solo debut. Q always had an ear for talent – as his cross-cultural LP proved – but he also had an center for blueprint. (He spotted the eponymous "Dude" statue at an art gallery and took it abode for inspiration.)
82: Cocteau Twins: Sky or Las Vegas (blueprint past Paul Westward)
The design-centric 4AD label did some of its finest work for the Cocteau Twins album covers. This shimmering image is undeniably beautiful, however you never know just what it ways…just like their music.
81: James Chocolate-brown: Hell (design by Joe Belt)
Arriving ane year after his milestone anthology The Payback , Brown delivered the double-album Hell, which called out societal ills both on record and on the elaborately illustrated cover. Designed by artist Joe Belt, who made his proper noun capturing the characters of the Wild West, Belt trained his aim on another dark chapter of American history, depicting fallen soldiers, addicts, and an imprisoned populace. One of the most famous funk album covers ever.
80: Slayer: Reign in Claret (design by Larry Carroll)
One of the greatest metallic covers always designed, designer Larry Carroll packed a thousand nightmares into this Bosch-like painting for Slayer'southward thrash masterpiece Reign in Blood , which influenced metal imagery for decades to come.
79: Male monarch Reddish: In the Courtroom of the Ruby King (blueprint past Barry Godber)
Robert Fripp saw this dramatic painting after In the Courtroom of the Crimson King was completed and knew information technology perfectly suited the music, with the crazed encompass figure every bit the 21st century schizoid man. Sadly, the creative person passed away but months afterwards.
78: Moby Grape: Wow (design by Bob Cato)
One of the psych era'due south great hallucinations, the famous album cover for Moby Grape's 1968 double LP Wow showed an otherworldly landscape with the world's largest bunch of grapes. Wow indeed.
77: Kayne W: Yeezus (design by Kanye Westward and Virgil Abloh)
Ane of the most famous anthology covers of recent vintage. Kanye W brings the minimalist "White Album" concept to the CD era. You could likewise come across Yeezus as the terminal celebration of the physical CD before information technology disappeared.
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76: Elvis Presley: fifty,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong (design by Bob Jones)
Ultra-absurd Elvis (in his shiny gilt Nudie adapt) gets multiplied in 1 of the most enduring early 60s images and greatest album covers. If there are that many Elvis fans, we volition, of grade, need 15 Elvises.
75: Black Flag: My State of war (blueprint past Raymond Pettibon)
Black Flag's trailblazing punk-metallic wouldn't have been the same without Pettibon's grisly comic images, though in this example, not quite as grisly as the anthology itself.
74: Talking Heads: Speaking in Tongues (blueprint past Robert Rauschenberg)
The abstraction of the Talking Heads' beautiful, moving-parts cover for their 1983 tape Speaking in Tongues couldn't take improve represented the music within. It would take been rated higher if the thing wasn't so tough to store.
73: The Mothers of Invention: We're Only In It for the Money (pattern by Cal Schenkel)
Frank Zappa wrapped his skewering of hippie civilization Nosotros're Only In It for the Money in an equally barbarous parody of the famous Sgt. Pepper album encompass to great success.
72: The Pogues: Peace and Love (blueprint by Simon Ryan)
One of the greatest joke album covers, the boxer was already a perfect image for the Pogues, but don't miss the subtle bit of play here. (The word "peace" of course has five messages.)
71: Rush: Moving Pictures (design past Hugh Syme)
Rush's greatest album covers expressed both their thou concepts and their cerebral humour. In this staged cover for Moving Pictures , which features many of the characters from the songs, we observe at least three different visual plays on the anthology's title.
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lxx: The Beatles: Abbey Route (design by John Kosh)
As information technology turns out, The Beatles were only as well lazy to become to Mt. Everest – yes, that was the original plan – and so they came upward with something just as memorable past leaving the studio and crossing the street, resulting in the famous Abbey Road anthology comprehend. Information technology's since gone done as i of the greatest of all fourth dimension.
69: Marvin Gaye: I Want You (design by Ernie Barnes)
All of Marvin Gaye'due south cool album covers are works of art in a fashion, simply Ernie Barnes'southward 'Sugar Shack,' which graces the encompass of I Want You , is the only one currently hanging in a museum. Barnes'south sensual figures and jubilant dancers reflected the carnal nature of Gaye's 1976 album.
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68: Joe Jackson: I'yard the Homo (pattern by Michael Ross)
There'due south enough of punk mental attitude on Joe Jackson's album cover for I'm the Human being, where he portrays the hero of the championship song – a sleazy character who'll sell yous anything – as long as you don't really need it.
67: The Beatles: Yesterday and Today (blueprint past Robert Whitaker)
Okay, so information technology was a petty graphic and provocative, simply equally the single most controversial matter The Beatles always did (and the most expensive for an original), the comprehend of Yesterday and Today surely earns a identify on a list of the greatest album covers.
66: Alice Cooper: School's Out (design by Craig Braun)
At that place were most as many copies of Alice Cooper'south School's Out in 1970s loftier schools as there were actual school desks. Ten points if you got the original with the underwear inner sleeve.
65: Aerosmith: Draw the Line (design by Al Hirshfeld)
Anyone who went to plays or read the New York Times in the 70s will recognize the work of the line-drawing caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, who did his magic on Aerosmith's members here. As always, his girl Nina's name was hidden a few times in this famous album cover.
64: Eric B. & Rakim: Paid in Total (design by Ron Contarsy)
Betwixt the rappers' Gucci-manner outfits and the piles of money in the groundwork, the embrace for Eric B. and Rakim's sophomore album Paid in Full said it all near going bigtime in 1987 and is considered i of the greatest album covers in hip-hop.
63: Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures (design by Peter Saville)
The cover of Joy Division's 1979 debut record is an bodily depiction of radio waves. This stark blackness-and-white cover became then iconic that it's now worn proudly on T-shirts by teens who've never heard of the ring.
62: Funkadelic: Maggot Brain (photo by Joel Brodsky, design past The Graffiteria/Paula Bisacca)
P-funk's wild fusion of funk, surrealism, and pop art extended beyond music, resulting in some of the most provocative LP covers of the era. Model Barbara Cheeseborough'southward screaming visage on the embrace captured the swirling chaos of the 70s and searing funk-rock of Maggot Brain.
61: Family: Fearless
Ah, the days when bands had the money to comport out their wildest ideas. The cover for the British prog-rock outfit Family's 1971 album is a multi-foldout extravaganza and features an early computer graphic, adding the individual band photos to each other until they become the pretty blur at tiptop right.
sixty: The Beatles: See the Beatles! (design past Robert Freeman)
The somber, shadowed photo featured on both the U.s.a. and UK album version of Come across The Beatles! was just the contrary of the grinning pic that everybody expected to see, and the first of many comport-overs from the Beatles' art-school days.
59: Pink Floyd: Ummagumma (blueprint by Hipgnosis)
Most of Pink Floyd'southward covers would be in the running for a list of the greatest album covers, but we wanted to highlight something that wasn't Night Side of the Moon. This burst of Storm Thorgerson / Hipgnosis imagination features four versions of the aforementioned photo (except that the band rotates ane position in each), matching their sense of surrealism.
58: Metallica: …And Justice For All (pattern by Stephen Gorman)
Metallica's trademark mix of shock value and social commentary had few better expressions than this epitome of a modern take on Lady Justice for their famous 1988 album encompass to …And Justice For All .
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57: The Mamas & The Papas: If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (design by Guy Webster)
With all four bandmembers together in a bathtub, the cover said more virtually The Mamas & The Papas than what was probably intended. The toilet on the original cover of If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears also proved to be a no-no in 1966.
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56: Madonna: Madonna (design by Carin Goldberg)
All of Madonna's album covers are hitting in their own way, but in that location'due south something special about her 1983 self-titled debut. She looks similar she can meet everything that'due south going to happen to her in the adjacent 40 years.
55: 10cc: X Out Of 10 (design by Hipgnosis)
The cover for Ten Out Of 10 remains one of Hipgnosis' fiendishly clever 10cc covers and one of their more disregarded albums. Here they're on the 10th floor of a hotel continuing at the precipice, and only one of the guys seems concerned about it.
54: Thelonious Monk: Underground (photo past Horn Grinner Studios; fine art direction/design: John Berg and Richard Mantel)
A nod to how Thelonious Monk must've felt as a pioneering jazz artist, Underground casts the pianist as a French Resistance fighter in WWII. Columbia Records art managing director John Berg was responsible for iconic covers like Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits and Bruce Springsteen's Built-in To Run, but this was likely 1 of his more than expensive: They congenital an entire set, complete with costumed extras, to create Monk's absorbing album cover.
53: Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin II (design by David Juniper)
It was an fine art-school friend of Jimmy Page's who created this mythic comprehend by superimposing the bandmembers over a famous shot of WWI German fighter pilot the "Red Businesswoman" and his crew. Many Americans wondered what Lucille Ball was doing there just it was really French actress Delphine Seyrig.
52: The Small Faces: Ogden's Nut Gone Chip (design by Nick Tweddell and Pete Brown)
I of the first round covers, the tobacco-tin design for this psychedelic precious stone stood out in the racks and prepared you for the cheerful surrealism of the anthology's main suite.
51: Dave Mason: Lone Together (pattern by Barry Feinstein and Tom Wilkes)
This anthology cover was more than of a multimedia aggregation, incorporating the die-cut edges and the marble-swirled disc into the overall design and giving an instant visual image to the top-hatted Dave Mason.
fifty: Elton John: Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player (blueprint by David Larkham and Michael Ross)
Some of Elton's greatest album covers were a bit splashy, others a little somber. The one for Don't Shoot Me I'1000 Just the Pianoforte Player was just correct, cartoon from his soon-to-exist-legendary love of movies.
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49: Ian Dury: New Boots and Panties!! (design by Barney Bubbling)
One of many bully Stiff Records album covers, this defenseless Ian Dury's personality and stood in stark contrast to the elaborate sleeves on the market at that time. Barney Bubbling besides did the handwritten notes, ofttimes mistaken for Dury's.
48: Dave Brubeck: Time Out (cover by Neil Fujita)
Dave Brubeck's 1959 album Time Out is likely the virtually famous use of pop art on a jazz encompass. In this example, the interlocking geometric shapes are a visual answer to the album's innovative fourth dimension signatures.
47: Wendy Carlos: Switched-On Bach (design by Chika Azuma)
Sporting a photo of JS Bach with a Moog synthesizer, Wendy Carlos' pioneering electronic album Switched-On Bach was unlike anything people had seen (or heard) before in 1968. Every bit the first classical album to go platinum in America, Carlos helped to bring Bach… to the future. Enhance your manus if yous also thought the cat was a head of lettuce.
46: Pinkish Floyd: Animals (pattern past Hipgnosis)
Not every band would fly a squealer over Battersea Power Station, but few other bands would brand an album that admittedly called for it.
45: Hüsker Dü: Warehouse: Songs and Stories (design by Daniel Corrigan, Hüsker Dü)
The anthology comprehend for Hüsker Dü's final studio album is one of those cases where a cover is exactly like the album: brilliant, colorful and jarring in a welcoming mode.
44: Chelsea Wolfe: Hiss Spun (pattern past John Crawford)
Like all goth-influenced artists, Chelsea Wolfe has a stiff sense of the dramatic. The coiled-up trunk on the cover of her 2017 album embodies all the personal changes the songs bargain with.
43: Blondie: Parallel Lines (blueprint by Ramey Communications)
The great thing about the famous Blondie Parallel Lines anthology comprehend isn't but the blackness-and-white composition but the way Debbie Harry (the only 1 non smiling) exudes power, while all the guys look a fleck goofy.
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42: Utopia: Swing to the Right (pattern by John Wagman)
This Reagan-era concept anthology makes its visual point past using a photo of Beatles records being burned that followed John Lennon's "more popular than Jesus" remarks. But in this case, the photograph is a Mobius strip, and the anthology they're burning is the very 1 they're standing in.
41: Taylor Swift: 1989 (design by Austin Hale and Amy Fucci)
On a throwback-themed anthology, Taylor Swift presents an old Polaroid of herself, just incomplete and out of focus. The mysterious paradigm on 1989 'south cover was an easy one for her fans to re-create, and they did.
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twoscore: Apprehensive Pie: Rock On (design by John Kelly)
Why in the world did Apprehensive Pie go a bunch of policemen to class a man pyramid? Considering they could, of course.
39: The Rascals: Once Upon a Dream (blueprint by Dino Danelli)
One of the many imaginative trips from the late 60s, this aggregation – by the ring's drummer – represents various personal dreams of the band members.
38: PJ Harvey: To Bring Yous My Honey (pattern by Valerie Phillips)
Information technology may be a more than glamorous cover afterward her first two, but this photo of PJ Harvey – in which she could easily be mistaken for Shakespeare's Ophelia – implied that a newer, softer image comes at a cost.
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37: Oasis: Definitely Maybe (design past Brian Cannon)
Their debut album pictured Oasis in the world's coolest crash pad, showing every ring of the era how it ought to exist living.
36: Grace Jones: Island Life (design by Jean-Paul Goude)
Graphic designer and art managing director Jean-Paul Goude met his match, and his muse, with Grace Jones. Goude's visual re-imagining of the androgynous singer led to some of the best album covers in music history, from Nightclubbing to Slave to the Rhythm and the arabesque grandeur of Isle Life. "It looked correct to me and how I felt," said Jones. "Able-bodied, artistic, and alien."
35: A Tribe Called Quest: Midnight Marauders (photo by Terrence A Reese, design by Nick Gamma)
Like a proto XXL "Freshman Grade", the three alternate covers of A Tribe Call Quest's classic tertiary album Midnight Marauders featured a collage of 71 hip-hop personalities from Afrika Bambaataa to the Beastie Boys, like the Sgt Pepper of hip-hop. Concepted past Q-Tip, the Afrocentric cover came to fruition with the assistance of Nick Gamma, the former art manager at Jive Records.
34: Fleetwood Mac: Rumours (design by Desmond Strobel)
Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood looked impeccably stylish doing any it was they were doing on the famous Rumours album cover. It's fair that the cover was a little mysterious since the songs revealed everything else.
33: Steely Dan: Pretzel Logic (design by Raeanne Rubenstein)
Though Steely Dan was long associated with Los Angeles, the cover for Pretzel Logic (actually shot at 5th Avenue and 79th Street) looks, feels, and tastes like New York.
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32: Smashing Pumpkins: Admire (design by Yelena Yemchuk)
Smashing Pumpkins' anthology covers were often softer and prettier than the music, simply this embrace (created by Baton Corgan's and so-girlfriend) is the perfect translation of the obsessively romantic theme of Adore.
31: Ohio Players: Climax (design by Joel Brodsky)
All the Ohio Players covers were legendary, and the early Westbound ones were considerably more than daring than the hitting-era ones for Mercury. Equally the ring often claimed, fewer people would accept bought the albums if they'd put themselves on the covers.
xxx: The Louvin Brothers: Satan is Existent (design by Ira Louvin)
Modern death metal bands got nada on land duo The Louvin Brothers, who went to the inferno in 1959 and looked great in white suits while doing it.
29: David Bowie: Heroes (pattern by Masayoshi Sukita)
David Bowie has at least v of the most iconic anthology covers of all fourth dimension. From the lightning commodities on Aladdin Sane to Ziggy Stardust, it'southward difficult to pick. Merely the sublime strangeness of this David Bowie photo tells you lot everything you lot need to know virtually the creative madness of his Berlin catamenia. The comprehend was memorably defaced past Bowie himself decades afterward.
28: Kate Bush: The Kicking Inside (design by Jay Myrdal)
The more commonly known Usa cover is squeamish enough merely makes it look like a conventional vocalizer-songwriter album and Kate Bush is annihilation merely. We're referring to the original UK "kite" cover that introduced the strangeness and sensuality that Bush was all about.
27: Janelle Monáe: Dingy Estimator (pattern by Joe Perez )
The perfect encompass for a cool, sensual and futuristic concept album, this captures Janelle Monáe's depth and mystery and is a beautiful piece of art in its own right.
26: Miles Davis: Bitches Brew (design by Mati Klarwein)
Since Miles Davis' Bitches Brew sounded similar no other previous jazz albums, information technology couldn't await like i either. It took a German painter schooled in surrealism to create its mix of African folk art and psychedelia.
25: David Bowie: The Next Day (design by Jonathan Barnbrook)
Every fan did an immediate double-take when they saw Bowie's human activity of self-sabotage here. Past defacing the Heroes cover, Bowie institute the most dramatic way of saying "that was and then, this is now".
24: Jethro Tull: Thick as a Brick (design past Roy Eldridge)
Largely written past bandmembers Ian Anderson, John Evan, and Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond (with help from Chrysalis staffer and former announcer Roy Eldridge), the famous paper embrace of Thick as a Brick is full of cantankerous-references and cerebral wit – just like the music – and Anderson said it took just as much work.
23: Nirvana: Nevermind (pattern by Robert Fisher)
The prototype of a baby grasping at a dollar bill became i of grunge'southward coolest and about enduring symbols, an album cover that captured the mental attitude of Nevermind and the era. The baby in question, Spencer Elden, fifty-fifty recreated the photo 25 years later.
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22: The Who: Who's Next (blueprint past Ethan Russell)
The iconic cover for Who's Next worked on two levels: beginning as a futuristic epitome of The Who against a monolith; and second, when y'all noticed their zippers and realized what the guys had been doing.
21: Uriah Heep: The Wizard's Birthday (design past Roger Dean)
This encompass is Roger Dean at his most vivid. When yous walked into a record store, yous could see this album clear across the room.
20: Foam: Disraeli Gears (comprehend past Martin Sharp)
Psychedelic album covers were an art class in themselves, and the explosion of colour (with the band looking suitably avuncular) made Cream's Disraeli Gears ane of the definitive ones. The designer also wrote one of the anthology's almost bright lyrics on "Tales of Brave Ulysses."
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19: Santana: Lotus (design past Tadanori Yokoo)
You don't necessarily go a thing of rare beauty when you load a cover with as many fold-out panels and elaborate paintings as an 11-inch disc can hold, but Santana certainly did in this case, thanks to famed Japanese designer Tadanori Yokoo. Recorded alive during Santana's performances in Osaka, Nihon, the total sleeve art is an amalgamation of Buddhist and Christian imagery, along with Yokoo's signature pop art mode.
18: 10cc: How Dare You! (design past Hipgnosis)
The ubiquitous Hipgnosis team outdid itself with this ultra-clever 10cc sleeve, which is not only inspired by one of the songs (the phone sex-themed "Don't Hang Up") but is full of subconscious gags, with the same people turning up in each of the iv chief photos.
17: XTC: Go 2 (design by Hipgnosis)
Another Hipgnosis chore, the famous album cover for XTC's Become 2 boasts a dense block of typed copy that taunts and messes with the anthology buyer'south caput. No wonder the clever lads in XTC loved it.
sixteen: Bruce Springsteen: Built-in to Run (design by Eric Meola)
It'due south hard to pick ane Bruce Springsteen comprehend, when and then many have ascended to iconic condition. It could have just equally hands been Built-in in the USA, with its Annie Liebovitz photo and Bruce in a white t-shirt and bluish jeans in front of an American flag. We decided to go instead with this kinetic photograph that captured the camaraderie of the band and the sense of rock'n'roll mission. While the album made an instant star out of Springsteen, the cover did the aforementioned for E Street Band's sax man Clarence Clemons.
xv: Ramones: Ramones (pattern past Roberta Bayley)
The cover of The Ramone's 1976 cocky-titled debut is pure punk rock in all its black-and-white grittiness. A proficient embrace became a smashing i the moment when a bored Johnny Ramone decided to give the photographer the finger.
14: Pixies: Surfer Rosa (blueprint past Vaughan Oliver)
The Pixies' debut cover is sexy, sinister, and full of secret meanings, starting with a vintage-looking softcore photo that was staged for the cover shoot.
13: Yeah: Relayer (blueprint by Roger Dean)
Roger Dean's fantasy paintings became as much a part of prog-rock iconography as the music. He fittingly put his coolest album encompass on Yes' most artistic album, an icy winterscape that illuminates the anthology's war-and-peace theme.
12: Frank Sinatra: Come up Fly With Me (design by Jon Jonson)
Each one of Sinatra'southward Capitol-era album covers was absurd and classic in its own style, from the alone scenes on the ballad albums to the visual swagger on the swingers. The cover of Come Wing With Me defenseless both Sinatra's natural charisma and the allure of the jet-set era.
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11: Patti Smith: Horses (design by Robert Mapplethorpe)
If Horses wasn't enough to make Patti Smith an instant icon of maverick cool, the Robert Mapplethorpe album comprehend certainly was. Nobody ever slung a jacket over their shoulder that well.
10: Talking Heads: Little Creatures (blueprint by Howard Finster)
Howard Finster's uniquely Southern folk art was a perfect match for Talking Heads' back-to-roots album (and for R.E.Thou.'s Reckoning around the same time). While some of Finster'south work had a darker streak, for this album he appropriately chose sunshine and wonderment.
9: John Coltrane: Blue Railroad train (blueprint by Reid Miles, photo by Francis Wolff)
Most of the archetype Blue Note covers were full of bright graphics and exuberant photos (and lots of assertion marks!). Not so with John Coltrane'southward Blue Train, whose cool anthology cover photo and mood lighting marked it as a work to take seriously.
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viii: Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass: Whipped Cream & Other Delights (design by Peter Whorf Graphics)
This iconic album embrace said it all about coy mid-60s sexuality, available-pad style. Despite its daring appearance, if you looked closely, the whipped-foam clad model was actually wearing a wedding clothes.
7: Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp A Butterfly (photo by Denis Rouvre, design by Kendrick Lamar and Dave Gratis)
Finding album art that captured the genre-pushing appetite of To Pimp A Butterfly was a tall order, but Kendrick Lamar and TDE were up to the job, as Thousand dot assembled his hometown crew for a victorious party on the White House lawn, stomping on the symbol of a weaponized criminal justice system.
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6: The Rolling Stones: Let It Bleed (design past Robert Brownjohn)
The Rolling Stones always had cool, attention-grabbing album covers. Just while Sticky Fingers has a great story, Permit Information technology Bleed was equally unique and surreal. Taking its inspiration from the album'southward original title Automatic Changer, the front has the album on a turntable stacked with all sorts of other things. We assume the mess on the behind happened after someone pressed "showtime."
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v: Big Blood brother & the Holding Company: Cheap Thrills (pattern by R. Crumb)
Arguably the coolest 60s album cover of all, the art for Big Brother & the Holding Company's sophomore record was also most people's introduction to the fashion of underground comic art perfected by R. Crumb. This fashion of fine art would exist associated with psychedelic music from here on out, though Nibble was a bit anti-hippie himself.
4: The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper'due south Lonely Hearts Club Band (design by Peter Blake)
Peter Blake'south pop-art assemblage on Sgt. Pepper'southward famous album inverse record covers forever, and kept many of us occupied for weeks trying to place everybody at the ceremony.
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3: Elvis Presley: Elvis Presley (pattern by Robertson & Fresch)
RCA wasted no time in cleaning up Elvis, who'd wait completely respectable on all hereafter albums. Meanwhile, his debut allowed him to look like the crazed hillbilly anybody's parents feared he was, captured in mid-song at the Fort Homer Hesterly Arsenal in Tampa, Florida. Which of class leads us to…
two: The Clash: London Calling (photo by Pennie Smith, design by Ray Lowry)
A rare example where a parody (of the above Elvis cover) becomes a work of art in itself. The effortlessly cool anthology cover image of bassist Paul Simonon dandy his guitar practically screams rock'n'roll, merely like the music inside.
i: The Beastie Boys: Paul's Boutique (blueprint by Nathaniel Hornblower/Jeremy Shatan)
This beautiful, panoramic view of Ludlow Street in NYC on the anthology comprehend of Paul's Boutique did everything possible to put yous right into the Beastie Boys' world, making it await both funky and inviting. It also made information technology essential to own the original, fold-out vinyl.
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Looking for more? Discover the worst album covers of all time.
Source: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/the-100-greatest-album-covers/