Greatest Album Covers

Ok – so now I’m obsessed. Having decided on what I thought were the worst album covers I thought I would assemble my list of best covers. To me a great album cover would be ICONIC, immediately recognizable and something that you would like to frame and put up on your wall (as art). I googled “Greatest album covers of all time” – and the result was SO disappointing: everything was so obvious. For example, the Beatles’ White Album appears in most lists: this is not a cover – it is a fudge. The complete package – including booklet and pictures was great, but c’mon. Other album covers that I cannot abide – such as “Candy-O” by the Cars, “Koo Koo” by Debbie Harry, “Nothing’s Shocking” by Janes’ Addiction, “Playing Possum” by Carly Simon, “Blind Faith” by Blind Faith and “See Jungle” by Bow Wow Wow – make the Top 30 of Rolling Stone’s readers poll.

Of course, any discussion of great album covers should include ECM, Blue Note and Impulse Records, but that’s for elsewhere. Here is my list of the greatest album covers of the Rock ‘n’ Roll era (excluding jazz, blues and classical). Some of these are fairly obvious, for obvious reasons, the rest are pure personal opinion.

  1. Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd
  2. Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band – Beatles
  3. Sticky Fingers (zipper version) – Rolling Stones
  4. Physical Graffiti – Led Zeppelin
  5. Never Mind the Bollocks – Sex Pistols
  6. London Calling – The Clash
  7. Deep Purple – In Rock
  8. In the Court of King Crimson – King Crimson
  9. Velvet Underground and Nico – Velvet Underground
  10. The Stone Roses – Stone Roses
  11. Bringing it all back home – Bob Dylan
  12. Laughing Stock – Talk Talk
  13. Bat Out of Hell – Meat Loaf
  14. Layla – Derek and the Dominos
  15. Born in the USA – Bruce Springsteen
  16. The Freewheelin Bob Dylan – Bob Dylan
  17. Parallel Lines – Blondie
  18. Breakfast in America – Supertramp
  19. At Filmore East – Allman Brothers
  20. Caravan – In the Land of Grey and Pink
  21. Time Fades Away – Neil Young
  22. Nuggets – Various Artists
  23. Achtung Baby – U2
  24. Traffic – Low Spark of High Healed Boys
  25. Cheap Thrills – Big Brother and the Holding Company
  26. Screamadelica – Primal Scream
  27. Nick Drake – Pink Moon
  28. Abbey Road – The Beatles
  29. Oxygene – Jean Michele Jarre
  30. Nevermind – Nirvana
  31. The Nightfly – Donald Fagen
  32. Animals – Pink Floyd
  33. Out of the Blue – ELO
  34. What’s the Story (morning glory) – Oasis
  35. Unknown Pleasures – Joy Division
  36. East of Eden – Mercator Projected
  37. Like a Virgin – Madonna
  38. Ok Computer – Radiohead
  39. Rising – Rainbow
  40. The Royal Scam – Steely Dan
  41. Fragile – Yes
  42. Pure Cane Sugar –  Sugarman 3
  43. We’re only in it for the money – Frank Zappa
  44. On the Beach – Neil Young
  45. Battles – Mirrored
  46. Through the Window Pane – Guillemts
  47. If You Want Blood – ACDC
  48. Some Girls – Rolling Stones
  49. Robert Plant – Mighty Rearranger
  50. Little Creatures – Talking Heads
  51. Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
  52. Mars Volta – Frances the Mute
  53. Lemon Jelly – Lost Horizons
  54. Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters
  55. Worlds Apart – Trail of Dead
  56. The Back Room – Editors
  57. Band on the Run – Wings
  58. Calexico – Carried to Dust
  59. Brian Eno – Lux
  60. Steve Wilson – Monkey Minds
  61. Lateralus – Tool
  62. Brain Salad Surgery – Emerson Lake & Palmer
  63. The Unforgettable Fire – U2

~ by Pat Neligan on July 25, 2013.

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