The Best Album Covers: 100 Pioneering Record Designs
From indelible images to perfect portraits, the 100 greatest album covers provoke and awe just as much as the contents inside.
The coolest, best, greatest, most iconic, most famous album covers of all-time. It doesn’t really matter what sort of adjective you want to put it in front of the words “album cover,” because lists of this sort of are always 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 Album and vice versa.) Even in today’s digital age, a cool record cover can have a huge impact. (Artists as varied as Young Thug and Glass Animals can attest to that.) So, 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 Jordan’s terrific comic art has turned up on numerous The Flamin’ Groovies covers and posters over the decades. On their 1969 debut, the cavorting characters were there to remind you how much fun rock’n’roll 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 one. The 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 case 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’ Dirty Bastard: Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version (design 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 middle finger to convention. Forgoing any blinged-out tropes, the former Wu-Tang member put a doctored version of his welfare ID card on the front 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 “Dog Sh_t,”: “Got meals but still grill that old good welfare cheese.”
96: Nick Lowe: Jesus of Cool/Pure Pop for Now People (design by Barney Bubbles)
On an album that made a mad dash through the whole of pop history, Nick Lowe pictured himself in a bunch of different guises, from rockabilly hoodlum to sensitive balladeer (there were different pics on the US and UK versions), all with tongue firmly in cheek.
95: Jefferson Airplane: Long John Silver (design by Pacific Eye & Ear)
Jefferson Airplane’s Long John Silver hails from the golden age of elaborate album covers. Since people were already using LPs to store and clean marijuana, the Airplane gave you a cardboard box holder for it, along with the pot, or at least a realistic-looking photo.
94: Billie Eilish: When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (design by Kenneth Cappello)
Any artist who dares to look this terrifying on the cover of their first 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 We Go? served notice that Eilish was here to mess with your head.
93: Parliament: Mothership Connection (photo by David Alexander, design by Gribbitth)
George Clinton’s gonzoid take on outer-space adventure found its perfect match in the effortlessly cool spaceship-party cover for Parliament’s Mothership Connection. The fact that it looked remarkably low budget only made it funkier.
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 nothing exemplified this dynamic more than their famous 1991 album cover art. The graphic photo of Bushwick Bill at the hospital was as unflinching as their music.
91: The Cars: Candy-O (design by Alberto Vargas)
Alberto Vargas was already the most famous pin-up artist before designing the famous cover for The Cars classic 1979 album Candy-O, but this painting of a stylish redhead, on a car of course, became his most famous piece. Candy-O is one of the two best uses of pin-up art on a rock record, along with…
90: Courtney Love: America’s Sweetheart (design by Olivia De Berardinis)
For her debut solo album, Courtney Love took the Cars’ concept a step further by enlisting the younger, edgier pin-up artist (known professionally as Olivia) to paint her. Of course, it got an extra dimension by playing with Love’s own image at the time.
89: The Rolling Stones: Their Satanic Majesties Request (design by Michael Cooper)
The Rolling Stones probably couldn’t beat the Beatles for a psychedelic album in 1967, but they arguably had the cooler album cover, the first 3D sleeve in rock. Ten points if you can find where the Beatles are hiding in the 3D image on Their Satanic Majesties Request.
88: Public Image Ltd: The Flowers of Romance
PiL’s follow-up to their famous Metal Box album cover was even cooler, showing non-performing bandmember Jeanette Lee with a rose in her teeth, a weapon in her hand, and a murderous look in her eyes.
87: The Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground & Nico (design by Andy Warhol)
It was weird, it was witty, it was Warhol. The famous minimalism of The Velvet Underground & Nico peel-away banana album cover became an influence on punk visual style many years later and remains one of the greatest album covers.
86: The Miracles: Hi, We’re The Miracles (design by Wakefield & Mitchell)
The cool album cover for The Miracles’ 1961 debut encapsulates the old-school showbiz that Motown would soon lead the world away from. But it’s so cheerful that you still have to love it.
85: The Go-Gos: Beauty & the Beat (design by Ginger Canzoneri, Mike Doud, Mick Haggerty, Vartan)
The Go-Go’s sense of playful subversion extended to their sendup of glamorous cover photos on their hit debut, Beauty & The Beat. It was their party; you could join if they let you.
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 design assumed that Dre was already an icon and presented him accordingly.
83: Quincy Jones: The Dude (design by Fanizani Akuda)
Jeff Bridges’ got nothing on the original “The Dude,” the effortlessly cool and quixotic album cover 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 eye for design. (He spotted the eponymous “Dude” statue at an art gallery and took it home for inspiration.)
82: Cocteau Twins: Heaven or Las Vegas (design by Paul West)
The design-centric 4AD label did some of its finest work for the Cocteau Twins album covers. This shimmering image is undeniably beautiful, yet you never know just what it means…just like their music.
81: James Brown: Hell (design by Joe Belt)
Arriving one year after his milestone album 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 name 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 Blood (design by Larry Carroll)
One of the greatest metal covers ever designed, designer Larry Carroll packed a thousand nightmares into this Bosch-like painting for Slayer’s thrash masterpiece Reign in Blood, which influenced metal imagery for decades to come.
79: King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King (design by Barry Godber)
Robert Fripp saw this dramatic painting after In the Court of the Crimson King was completed and knew it perfectly suited the music, with the crazed cover figure as the 21st century schizoid man. Sadly, the artist passed away only months afterwards.
78: Moby Grape: Wow (design by Bob Cato)
One of the psych era’s 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 West: Yeezus (design by Kanye West and Virgil Abloh)
One of the most famous album covers of recent vintage. Kanye West brings the minimalist “White Album” concept to the CD era. You could also see Yeezus as the last celebration of the physical CD before it disappeared.
76: Elvis Presley: 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong (design by Bob Jones)
Ultra-cool Elvis (in his shiny gold Nudie suit) gets multiplied in one of the most enduring early 60s images and greatest album covers. If there are that many Elvis fans, we will, of course, need 15 Elvises.
75: Black Flag: My War (design by Raymond Pettibon)
Black Flag’s trailblazing punk-metal wouldn’t have been the same without Pettibon’s grisly comic images, though in this case, not quite as grisly as the album itself.
74: Talking Heads: Speaking in Tongues (design by Robert Rauschenberg)
The abstraction of the Talking Heads’ beautiful, moving-parts cover for their 1983 record Speaking in Tongues couldn’t have better represented the music within. It would have 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 (design by Cal Schenkel)
Frank Zappa wrapped his skewering of hippie culture We’re Only In It for the Money in an equally vicious parody of the famous Sgt. Pepper album cover to great success.
72: The Pogues: Peace and Love (design 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 letters.)
71: Rush: Moving Pictures (design by Hugh Syme)
Rush’s greatest album covers expressed both their grand concepts and their cerebral sense of humor. In this staged cover for Moving Pictures, which features many of the characters from the songs, we detect at least three different visual plays on the album’s title.
70: The Beatles: Abbey Road (design by John Kosh)
As it turns out, The Beatles were just too lazy to go to Mt. Everest – yes, that was the original plan – so they came up with something just as memorable by leaving the studio and crossing the street, resulting in the famous Abbey Road album cover. It’s since gone done as one of the greatest of all time.
69: Marvin Gaye: I Want You (design by Ernie Barnes)
All of Marvin Gaye’s cool album covers are works of art in a way, but Ernie Barnes’s ‘Sugar Shack,’ which graces the cover of I Want You, is the only one currently hanging in a museum. Barnes’s sensual figures and jubilant dancers reflected the carnal nature of Gaye’s 1976 album.
68: Joe Jackson: I’m the Man (design by Michael Ross)
There’s plenty of punk attitude on Joe Jackson’s album cover for I’m the Man, where he portrays the hero of the title song – a sleazy character who’ll sell you anything – as long as you don’t really need it.
67: The Beatles: Yesterday and Today (design by Robert Whitaker)
Okay, so it was a little graphic and provocative, but as the single most controversial thing The Beatles ever did (and the most expensive for an original), the cover of Yesterday and Today surely earns a place on a list of the greatest album covers.
66: Alice Cooper: School’s Out (design by Craig Braun)
There were nearly as many copies of Alice Cooper’s School’s Out in 1970s high 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 daughter Nina’s name was hidden a few times in this famous album cover.
64: Eric B. & Rakim: Paid in Full (design by Ron Contarsy)
Between the rappers’ Gucci-style outfits and the piles of money in the background, the cover for Eric B. and Rakim’s sophomore album Paid in Full said it all about going bigtime in 1987 and is considered one 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 actual depiction of radio waves. This stark black-and-white cover became so iconic that it’s now worn proudly on T-shirts by teens who’ve never heard of the band.
62: Funkadelic: Maggot Brain (photo by Joel Brodsky, design by 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’s screaming visage on the cover 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 carry 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 top right.
60: The Beatles: Meet the Beatles! (design by Robert Freeman)
The somber, shadowed photo featured on both the US and UK album version of Meet The Beatles! was just the opposite of the grinning pic that everybody expected to see, and the first of many carry-overs from the Beatles’ art-school days.
59: Pink Floyd: Ummagumma (design by Hipgnosis)
Most of Pink Floyd’s covers would be in the running for a list of the greatest album covers, but we wanted to highlight something that wasn’t Dark Side of the Moon. This burst of Storm Thorgerson / Hipgnosis imagination features four versions of the same photo (except that the band rotates one position in each), matching their sense of surrealism.
58: Metallica: …And Justice For All (design by Stephen Gorman)
Metallica’s trademark mix of shock value and social commentary had few better expressions than this image of a modern take on Lady Justice for their famous 1988 album cover to …And Justice For All.
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 about 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.
56: Madonna: Madonna (design by Carin Goldberg)
All of Madonna’s album covers are striking in their own way, but there’s something special about her 1983 self-titled debut. She looks like she can see everything that’s going to happen to her in the next 40 years.
55: 10cc: Ten 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 overlooked albums. Here they’re on the 10th floor of a hotel standing at the precipice, and only one of the guys seems concerned about it.
54: Thelonious Monk: Underground (photo by Horn Grinner Studios; 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 director John Berg was responsible for iconic covers like Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits and Bruce Springsteen’s Born To Run, but this was likely one of his more expensive: They built an entire set, complete with costumed extras, to create Monk’s arresting album cover.
53: Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin II (design by David Juniper)
It was an art-school friend of Jimmy Page’s who created this mythic cover by superimposing the bandmembers over a famous shot of WWI German fighter pilot the “Red Baron” and his crew. Many Americans wondered what Lucille Ball was doing there but it was actually French actress Delphine Seyrig.
52: The Small Faces: Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake (design by Nick Tweddell and Pete Brown)
One of the first circular covers, the tobacco-tin design for this psychedelic gem stood out in the racks and prepared you for the cheerful surrealism of the album’s main suite.
51: Dave Mason: Alone Together (design by Barry Feinstein and Tom Wilkes)
This album cover was more of a multimedia assemblage, 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.
50: Elton John: Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player (design 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’m Only the Piano Player was just right, drawing from his soon-to-be-legendary love of movies.
49: Ian Dury: New Boots and Panties!! (design by Barney Bubbles)
One of many great Stiff Records album covers, this caught Ian Dury’s personality and stood in stark contrast to the elaborate sleeves on the market at that time. Barney Bubbles also did the handwritten notes, oft mistaken for Dury’s.
48: Dave Brubeck: Time Out (cover by Neil Fujita)
Dave Brubeck’s 1959 album Time Out is likely the most famous use of pop art on a jazz cover. In this case, the interlocking geometric shapes are a visual answer to the album’s innovative time 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. As the first classical album to go platinum in America, Carlos helped to bring Bach… to the future. Raise your hand if you also thought the cat was a head of lettuce.
46: Pink Floyd: Animals (design by Hipgnosis)
Not every band would fly a pig over Battersea Power Station, but few other bands would make an album that absolutely called for it.
45: Hüsker Dü: Warehouse: Songs and Stories (design by Daniel Corrigan, Hüsker Dü)
The album cover for Hüsker Dü’s final studio album is one of those cases where a cover is exactly like the album: vivid, colorful and jarring in a welcoming way.
44: Chelsea Wolfe: Hiss Spun (design by John Crawford)
Like all goth-influenced artists, Chelsea Wolfe has a strong sense of the dramatic. The coiled-up body on the cover of her 2017 album embodies all the personal changes the songs deal with.
43: Blondie: Parallel Lines (design by Ramey Communications)
The great thing about the famous Blondie Parallel Lines album cover isn’t just the black-and-white composition but the way Debbie Harry (the only one not smiling) exudes power, while all the guys look a bit goofy.
42: Utopia: Swing to the Right (design by John Wagman)
This Reagan-era concept album makes its visual point by using a photo of Beatles records being burned that followed John Lennon’s “more popular than Jesus” remarks. But in this case, the photo is a Mobius strip, and the album they’re burning is the very one they’re standing in.
41: Taylor Swift: 1989 (design by Austin Hale and Amy Fucci)
On a throwback-themed album, Taylor Swift presents an old Polaroid of herself, but incomplete and out of focus. The mysterious image on 1989’s cover was an easy one for her fans to copy, and they did.
40: Humble Pie: Rock On (design by John Kelly)
Why in the world did Humble Pie get a bunch of policemen to form a human pyramid? Because they could, of course.
39: The Rascals: Once Upon a Dream (design by Dino Danelli)
One of the many imaginative trips from the late 60s, this assemblage – by the band’s drummer – represents various personal dreams of the band members.
38: PJ Harvey: To Bring You My Love (design by Valerie Phillips)
It may be a more glamorous cover after 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.
37: Oasis: Definitely Maybe (design by Brian Cannon)
Their debut album pictured Oasis in the world’s coolest crash pad, showing every band of the era how it ought to be living.
36: Grace Jones: Island Life (design by Jean-Paul Goude)
Graphic designer and art 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 Island Life. “It looked right to me and how I felt,” said Jones. “Athletic, artistic, and alien.”
35: A Tribe Called Quest: Midnight Marauders (photo by Terrence A Reese, design by Nick Gamma)
Like a proto XXL “Freshman Class”, the three alternate covers of A Tribe Call Quest’s classic third 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 by Q-Tip, the Afrocentric cover came to fruition with the help of Nick Gamma, the former art director at Jive Records.
34: Fleetwood Mac: Rumours (design by Desmond Strobel)
Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood looked impeccably stylish doing whatever 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 Fifth Avenue and 79th Street) looks, feels, and tastes like New York.
32: Smashing Pumpkins: Adore (design by Yelena Yemchuk)
Smashing Pumpkins’ album covers were often softer and prettier than the music, but this cover (created by Billy Corgan’s then-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 daring than the hit-era ones for Mercury. As the band often claimed, fewer people would have bought the albums if they’d put themselves on the covers.
30: The Louvin Brothers: Satan is Real (design by Ira Louvin)
Modern death metal bands got nothing on country duo The Louvin Brothers, who went to the inferno in 1959 and looked great in white suits while doing it.
29: David Bowie: Heroes (design by Masayoshi Sukita)
David Bowie has at least five of the most iconic album covers of all time. From the lightning bolt on Aladdin Sane to Ziggy Stardust, it’s hard to pick. But the sublime strangeness of this David Bowie photo tells you everything you need to know about the creative madness of his Berlin period. The cover was memorably defaced by Bowie himself decades later.
28: Kate Bush: The Kick Inside (design by Jay Myrdal)
The more commonly known US cover is nice enough but makes it look like a conventional singer-songwriter album and Kate Bush is anything but. We’re referring to the original UK “kite” cover that introduced the strangeness and sensuality that Bush was all about.
27: Janelle Monáe: Dirty Computer (design by Joe Perez )
The perfect cover 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 like no other previous jazz albums, it couldn’t look like one 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 act of self-sabotage here. By defacing the Heroes cover, Bowie found the most dramatic way of saying “that was then, this is now”.
24: Jethro Tull: Thick as a Brick (design by Roy Eldridge)
Largely written by bandmembers Ian Anderson, John Evan, and Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond (with help from Chrysalis staffer and former journalist Roy Eldridge), the famous newspaper cover of Thick as a Brick is full of cross-references and cerebral wit – just like the music – and Anderson said it took just as much work.
23: Nirvana: Nevermind (design by Robert Fisher)
The image of a baby grasping at a dollar bill became one of grunge’s coolest and most enduring symbols, an album cover that captured the attitude of Nevermind and the era. The baby in question, Spencer Elden, even recreated the photo 25 years later.
22: The Who: Who’s Next (design by Ethan Russell)
The iconic cover for Who’s Next worked on two levels: first as a futuristic image of The Who against a monolith; and second, when you noticed their zippers and realized what the guys had been doing.
21: Uriah Heep: The Magician’s Birthday (design by Roger Dean)
This cover is Roger Dean at his most vivid. When you walked into a record store, you could see this album clear across the room.
20: Cream: Disraeli Gears (cover by Martin Sharp)
Psychedelic album covers were an art form in themselves, and the explosion of color (with the band looking suitably avuncular) made Cream’s Disraeli Gears one of the definitive ones. The designer also wrote one of the album’s most vivid lyrics on “Tales of Brave Ulysses.”
19: Santana: Lotus (design by Tadanori Yokoo)
You don’t necessarily get 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 live during Santana’s performances in Osaka, Japan, the full sleeve art is an amalgamation of Buddhist and Christian imagery, along with Yokoo’s signature pop art style.
18: 10cc: How Dare You! (design by 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 hidden gags, with the same people turning up in each of the four main photos.
17: XTC: Go 2 (design by Hipgnosis)
Another Hipgnosis job, the famous album cover for XTC’s Go 2 boasts a dense block of typed copy that taunts and messes with the album buyer’s head. No wonder the clever lads in XTC loved it.
16: Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run (design by Eric Meola)
It’s hard to pick one Bruce Springsteen cover, when so many have ascended to iconic status. It could have just as easily been Born in the USA, with its Annie Liebovitz photo and Bruce in a white t-shirt and blue jeans in front of an American flag. We decided to go instead with this kinetic photo 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 same for E Street Band’s sax man Clarence Clemons.
15: Ramones: Ramones (design by Roberta Bayley)
The cover of The Ramone’s 1976 self-titled debut is pure punk rock in all its black-and-white grittiness. A good cover became a great one the moment when a bored Johnny Ramone decided to give the photographer the finger.
14: Pixies: Surfer Rosa (design by 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: Yes: Relayer (design 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 cover on Yes’ most creative album, an icy winterscape that illuminates the album’s war-and-peace theme.
12: Frank Sinatra: Come Fly With Me (design by Jon Jonson)
Each one of Sinatra’s Capitol-era album covers was cool and classic in its own way, from the lonely scenes on the ballad albums to the visual swagger on the swingers. The cover of Come Fly With Me caught both Sinatra’s natural charisma and the allure of the jet-set era.
11: Patti Smith: Horses (design by Robert Mapplethorpe)
If Horses wasn’t enough to make Patti Smith an instant icon of bohemian cool, the Robert Mapplethorpe album cover certainly was. Nobody ever slung a jacket over their shoulder that well.
10: Talking Heads: Little Creatures (design 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.M.’s Reckoning around the same time). While some of Finster’s work had a darker streak, for this album he appropriately chose sunshine and wonderment.
9: John Coltrane: Blue Train (design by Reid Miles, photo by Francis Wolff)
Most of the classic Blue Note covers were full of bright graphics and exuberant photos (and lots of exclamation marks!). Not so with John Coltrane’s Blue Train, whose cool album cover photo and mood lighting marked it as a work to take seriously.
8: Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass: Whipped Cream & Other Delights (design by Peter Whorf Graphics)
This iconic album cover said it all about coy mid-60s sexuality, bachelor-pad style. Despite its daring appearance, if you looked closely, the whipped-cream clad model was actually wearing a wedding dress.
7: Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp A Butterfly (photo by Denis Rouvre, design by Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free)
Finding album art that captured the genre-pushing ambition of To Pimp A Butterfly was a tall order, but Kendrick Lamar and TDE were up to the task, as K dot assembled his hometown crew for a victorious party on the White House lawn, stomping on the symbol of a weaponized criminal justice system.
6: The Rolling Stones: Let It Bleed (design by Robert Brownjohn)
The Rolling Stones always had cool, attention-grabbing album covers. But while Sticky Fingers has a great story, Let It Bleed was equally unique and surreal. Taking its inspiration from the album’s 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 backside happened after someone pressed “start.”
5: Big Brother & the Holding Company: Cheap Thrills (design 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 style of underground comic art perfected by R. Crumb. This style of art would be associated with psychedelic music from here on out, though Crumb was a bit anti-hippie himself.
4: The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (design by Peter Blake)
Peter Blake’s pop-art assemblage on Sgt. Pepper’s famous album changed record covers forever, and kept many of us occupied for weeks trying to identify everybody at the ceremony.
3: Elvis Presley: Elvis Presley (design by Robertson & Fresch)
RCA wasted no time in cleaning up Elvis, who’d look completely respectable on all future albums. Meanwhile, his debut allowed him to look like the crazed hillbilly everyone’s parents feared he was, captured in mid-song at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in Tampa, Florida. Which of course leads us to…
2: The Clash: London Calling (photo by Pennie Smith, design by Ray Lowry)
A rare case where a parody (of the above Elvis cover) becomes a work of art in itself. The effortlessly cool album cover image of bassist Paul Simonon smashing his guitar practically screams rock’n’roll, just like the music inside.
1: The Beastie Boys: Paul’s Boutique (design by Nathaniel Hornblower/Jeremy Shatan)
This beautiful, panoramic view of Ludlow Street in NYC on the album cover of Paul’s Boutique did everything possible to put you right into the Beastie Boys’ world, making it look both funky and inviting. It also made it essential to own the original, fold-out vinyl.
Looking for more? Discover the worst album covers of all time.
Eduard Antoniu
October 27, 2015 at 6:56 pm
Some are arguable!
MIke
December 10, 2015 at 8:48 pm
and some are laughable
Neil
December 11, 2015 at 1:59 am
Bob Dylan’s ‘Self Portrait’ is among the 100 best covers of all time? Are you kidding me? Tbh a fair few of these are not even close to being top 500 never mind ‘100”. Black Moses by Isaac Hayes! You are not being serious here…
Mark_Sumner1
February 4, 2017 at 1:04 pm
How come the Destroyer album from Kiss or Love Gun for that matter didn’t make the cut? Or any Molly Hatchet cover?
Dave Mackenna
May 23, 2018 at 9:05 am
Kiss Alive 1 captured the raw live energy deffo should have been there.
Also Alice Cooper Billion Dollar Babies snakeskin wallet cover or the Schools Out School desk cover one of these should be there
Nesto
June 21, 2019 at 1:05 am
The desk is the best
Lorraine Barlett
September 23, 2020 at 8:12 pm
You did not feature Roling Stones “Sticky Fingers”?? Or Cindy Lauper’s “Shes So Unusual”? Or “Jagged Little Pill”? The list is too P.C. for me.
J.W.Goette
December 12, 2015 at 12:15 am
Robin Trower’s BRIDGE OF SIGH’S, Come on people ?
Rick Schillinger
November 12, 2016 at 12:00 am
One of my favorite albums too!
Marc
April 3, 2016 at 5:25 pm
Really???? these are the top 100?…What about Jimi Hendrix…Electric Ladyland…or…. The James Gang…a Myriad of others…The Moody Blues alone should have at least 2 of their awesome art on this display….. Although…you have captured many….
Tommy Haynes
April 7, 2016 at 7:33 pm
Ladyland was there..check again
Zoso
March 9, 2018 at 8:56 am
Even Hendrix hated that one! That wasn’t what he wanted at all!
Paul
September 7, 2020 at 5:43 pm
Live Adventures by Kooper and Bloomfield didn’t make the top 10? The only rock album cover ever painted by Norman Rockwell.
Ken Glance
June 22, 2018 at 8:56 am
Yes I agree. Moody Blues had many! And how about the single album by Blind Faith?
Nicholas Gambella
September 7, 2020 at 2:12 pm
what about Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers?
peter cohen
October 12, 2016 at 7:49 am
Very much so, any album cover from Yes shoild be there
Mike_R
January 5, 2020 at 10:31 pm
Agreed. Roger Dean along with Hipgnosis and maybe a few others is one of the most noteworthy album cover artists who did some of the most recognizable art work especially for progressive rock bands.
Mark
April 7, 2018 at 4:55 am
Some? More like most.
Mark Allen
April 8, 2018 at 12:49 pm
Where is Argus by Wishbone Ash?
John
June 8, 2018 at 9:34 pm
No Savoy Brown. No credibility.
Gondo
April 12, 2019 at 6:20 pm
Where is Quicksilver Happy Tails ? It’s got to make the top 100 easily .
Rick Griffin artwork
john
April 28, 2019 at 6:21 pm
What? No Uriah Heep? They had some of the best album cover art
in the 1970’s. “The Magician’s Birthday” to name one.
Omission faux pas in my eyes to this list. Shame.
Errol Arias
September 18, 2020 at 11:44 pm
Magicians birthday was there.. Check again.. Number 21 or 22
Rod Lan
April 13, 2020 at 9:10 pm
no Nas Illmatic? Pearl Jam Choices?
Mark I
September 8, 2020 at 9:57 am
Santana Abraxax
DaNuck
September 16, 2020 at 6:35 pm
Bogus list, how in the world could they not include any grateful dead covers ????
Terry Sear
September 26, 2020 at 6:31 pm
forgot “welcome to the canteen”! dah!
Larry
October 27, 2015 at 7:20 pm
I think Supertramp’s “Crime of the Century” belongs here, more than “Breakfast in America”. For the artwork AND the music.
JMO.
James
November 6, 2015 at 8:17 pm
Agreed on both counts
Tony
October 27, 2015 at 7:50 pm
Kate Bush ‘ Never for ever”
Patrick Gleeson
October 28, 2015 at 9:16 am
Good call 🙂
HannuKalervo
October 27, 2015 at 8:12 pm
Hatfield And The North: Rotter’s Club
Kerry
October 27, 2015 at 8:20 pm
Not one Moody Blues album cover….unfrickinbelievable!!!
Zoso
November 1, 2015 at 2:22 am
Exactly! So many Moodies covers are way better than a lot here, even albums I love!
David
November 8, 2015 at 8:18 pm
Here here! Not one Moody Blues album cover?
MikeRobWil
May 13, 2020 at 1:34 am
Agree! The Moody Blues had at least six or seven albums that were better than most everything on this list!
Joe R
October 27, 2015 at 8:42 pm
What’s up the fifth Ramone?
Kai
October 27, 2015 at 9:24 pm
Many great covers here, but The Police’s “Ghost in the Machine” should have been included.
Jeff
November 9, 2015 at 8:05 pm
Agree! Maybe even Synchronicity or Zenyette Mondetta.
Scott
October 27, 2015 at 9:26 pm
Not a terrible list, but I’d have thought Weather Report – Heavy Weather, would have somehow made that list.
Steve Jobs
October 27, 2015 at 9:32 pm
Shouldn’t Jean-Michel Jarre’s Oxygene be in that list? Great graphics on that one.
Patrick Gleeson
November 21, 2015 at 3:36 pm
Absolutely Steve. An iconic cover – and album …
Kay
October 27, 2015 at 9:38 pm
Great Selection, with a bit of a bias for British and U. S. Productions. I would have liked to see some European covers, for instance:
Can – Ege Bamyasi
Kraftwerk
or Reggae artists:
Linton Kwesi Johnson – Bass Culture
And what about Cal Schenkel’s work for Frank Zappa – for instance Uncle Meat.
Jim
December 12, 2015 at 5:54 pm
Agreed! Tubular Bells should be on here.. Bow Wow Wow should be off.
Jim Gordon
January 20, 2018 at 7:44 pm
Absolutely right! Tubular Bells is one of the best ever; much better than the Top 100!
Mark
October 27, 2015 at 10:00 pm
Animal Notes by Crack the Sky, 2nd Street by Back Street Crawler, Warrior on the Edge of Time by Hawkwind? Just to name a few.
David Niblick
December 12, 2015 at 8:28 am
This is the first time I’ve heard somebody besides myself mention Crawler or Back Street Crawler in any way . It sort of makes me ” Stone Cold Sober “
Scott christiansen
December 12, 2015 at 8:58 pm
So good to hear of Crawler again. Ya know people today don’t even understand the concept of an album cover. Here are 2 that sprang to mind. The Doors ” Full Circle ” (great cover, crappy album. And, Guitars that destroyed the world. Great album, great cover
Andrew Massey
October 27, 2015 at 10:01 pm
What is it wit all the Beatles albums???? Talk about overkill. The White Album??? Seriously???? I do like the Beatles but unfortunately they are rammed down peoples throats.
j
November 1, 2015 at 3:55 am
The so-called “White Album” was innovative; the first LP cover to come out with no picture! It was creativity to the nth degree, man! Without it, AC/DC’s “Back In Black”, for example, would not have been created. If you had any serious knowledge about The Beatles and their influence on the entire world with fashion, language, music and more, you would not ask this question. Read some good books about them. Explore their music with more than just one ear and you’ll discover that they were not only unique and groundbreaking, they WERE music for a period of time. Everybody since has been influenced by their music and creative style. If you had actually lived through the 60s you would know what it meant to the world of music.
KRT
April 26, 2016 at 2:43 am
Well said. The Beatles influence cannot be measured.
Gary
August 21, 2016 at 11:39 am
Erm, didn’t the Velvet Underground release White Light White Heat (the black album!) about 10 months earlier? Also with no picture.
Dan
November 15, 2015 at 2:54 am
I agree…the white album? A plain white cover with the band name… SOOO artistic!
Jim
December 12, 2015 at 5:56 pm
And how many other bands numbered their albums before the white album?
rick
December 14, 2015 at 12:03 am
Are you a friend of Donald Trump or did you come by your ignorance honestly. Fool
B MAC
September 24, 2016 at 5:34 pm
You wish you were ignorant enough to have $450 billion dollars. Obviously, killary can count on one more fool’s vote for the “of the government, by the government, for the government” system that has and will forever more forget the wants and needs of “it’s” own citizens. We know now who the real fool really is…
GH
July 11, 2020 at 10:37 pm
Yes, the Beatles were a brilliant band, the springboard for EVERYTH8NG THAT CAME AFTER. And when I hear people bitch that their MUSIC is no better or worse than, say, Sammy Hagar or Sublime, I don’t even enter that conversation, cuz that’s stupid, if you have EARS and you don’t like ANYTHING the Beatles did, you’re just a Mary Mary quite contrary. But, album covers are another thing, and I don’t think that every single shit the Beatles ever took needs to be lionized as genius. The White Album is a good cover, but come on, man, it’s a blank page.
Dave
October 27, 2015 at 10:11 pm
Supertramp – Indelibly Stamped
Rick
November 9, 2015 at 1:03 pm
Nice knockers.
lawrence
October 27, 2015 at 10:22 pm
No “LIVE” cover for GFR? My first album (x2) that my Grandma bought me cause I told her I liked it; Mom was not pleased when I opened it at XMas and played LOUD! Then came Black Sabbath….
Alan Hopwood
October 27, 2015 at 10:36 pm
Rush-Hemispheres or Pink Floyd’s Meddle.
Bluesman Ron
October 28, 2015 at 12:13 am
Didn’t see Wheels Of Fire from Cream, the first platinum album, what about King Crimson’s first album?
Jake
November 1, 2015 at 9:50 pm
Crimson’s first album cover is on the list.
Jim_Dunphy
February 5, 2017 at 7:04 pm
Sorry Guv, the first Platinum album was In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly.
Bill
October 28, 2015 at 12:35 am
Pump by Aerosmith
Animal Tracks by The Animaks
Help by The Beatles
Freewheel By Bob Dylan
This Was by Jethro Tull
Pedro
October 28, 2015 at 1:57 am
Pawn Hearts of Vander Graaf Generator
Pablo
April 18, 2018 at 11:47 pm
And The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Donald
October 28, 2015 at 2:02 am
Here is what you left out:
Vagabonds of the Western World – Thin Lizzy
Black Rose – Thin Lizzy
Live and Dangerous – Thin Lizzy
Bridge of Sighs – Robin Trower
Lotus – Santana
Fish Out of Water – Chris Squire
Gone Fishin – Flipper
Axis:Bold As Love – Jimi Hendrix
Paul
October 28, 2015 at 2:28 am
A good compilation but with some notable omissions: (here’s only a few)
– Overnight Sensation by Frank Zappa
– Close to the Edge by Yes
– Pretty much any Dead album, but Blues for Allah is my favorite cover
– Pretty much anything created by Hipgnosis, including 10cc Deceptive Bends
– Spirits in the Material World by The Police
– The B-52s first two albums
– Animals by Pink Floyd
– Highway to Hell by AC/DC
Mike_R
January 5, 2020 at 10:29 pm
Those are all iconic albums(or most of them anyway)but not necessarily iconic album covers. However, when an album itself becomes iconic(for example Close to the Edge by Yes)then usually the cover becomes iconic too. Not always but a lot of the time.
Tony
October 28, 2015 at 2:49 am
None of ABBA albums is listed in 100 which is not right, I wonder why this is on Agnetha’s Face Book. Albums like ABBA Greatest Hit Volume One and Arrival are very classic look or Super Trouper could be easily picked.
Yogi
October 28, 2015 at 4:04 am
very Anglo American centric
Stef
October 28, 2015 at 5:36 am
Depeche Mode – Violator
U2 – Achtung Baby
Sigur Ros all
Stef
October 28, 2015 at 5:36 am
Depeche Mode – Violator
U2 – Achtung Baby
Sigur Ros all
Markku Kemppainen
October 28, 2015 at 8:23 am
Well, the list is almost purely anglo-american. you have quite ignored the rest of the world.
Paul H
October 28, 2015 at 8:50 am
Where is Let it bled.
Patrick Gleeson
October 28, 2015 at 9:18 am
Jean-Michel Jarre – Oxygene
Yanick
December 10, 2015 at 5:48 pm
and Zoolook…
jari
October 28, 2015 at 9:50 am
nice version of the ramones :)))))
very official
Henk O.
October 28, 2015 at 11:09 am
…and all those magnificent Uriah Heep covers?
Jayell
October 30, 2015 at 9:01 pm
ABSOLUTELY!!
Paul
October 28, 2015 at 11:26 am
Alice Cooper: From The Inside
Yes: Yessongs
Genesis: Seconds Out
Tangerine Dream: Stratosfear
Kraftwerk: Computer World
Edgar Froese: Macula Transfer
The Pre New: Music For People Who Hate Themselves
Paul
October 28, 2015 at 11:26 am
Missing: Vs. – Pearl Jam; Workingman’s Dead – Grateful Dead; Live at Fillmore East – Allman Bros.; Loaded – The Velvet Underground; Destroyer – Kiss; The Bends – Radiohead; Blood on the Tracks – Bob Dylan; Marquee Moon – Television; Pet Sounds – Beach Boys; Rage Against the Machine – RATM; Harvest – Neil Young;
Jim
October 28, 2015 at 11:51 am
Todd Rundgren – A Wizard A True Star
Vodalus
October 28, 2015 at 12:31 pm
This reminds me of the Guerrilla Girls campaign “Do women have to be naked to get into the Met?”. Basically no female artists and the women that appear on the covers of the albums of the male artists are all showing their tits. You’d think this list was made in the 1950s.
Here are some suggestions that might bring a bit more balance to the list:
Tori Amos – Boys for Pele
Nico – The Marble Index
Beth Orton – Trailer Park
PJ Harvey – To Bring You My Love
Kate Bush – Lionheart
Suzanne Vega – Days of Open Hand
Björk – Homogenic
Carole King – Tapestry
Diamanda Galás – The Divine Punishment
The Breeders – Last Splash
Shakespears Sister – Hormonally Yours
Joanna Newsom – The Milk Eyed Mender
Cat Power – You Are Free
…to name but a few.
Fab
November 17, 2015 at 3:44 pm
Cool list. A bit arty probably but nice choice.
Alexander
October 28, 2015 at 12:42 pm
It’s not the original Ramones co
ver but fake!
Ian
October 28, 2015 at 2:32 pm
America – Homecoming
Be Bop Deluxe – Sunburst Finish
Definitely Ziggy cover
Eno – Here come the warm jets
Kevin
October 28, 2015 at 2:53 pm
Glad to see the original Electric Ladyland cover. I would have included the Crown of Creation cover by Jefferson Airlplane and the Beatles’ Yesterday and Today Butcher cover. As in any list it is a daunting task because it’s all subjective.
Russ
October 28, 2015 at 4:53 pm
…and we must not forget Captain Beyond’s “Sufficiently Breathless”, Genesis “Live”, Charlie Daniels Band “Fire on the Mountain”, Yes “Relayer”, all the crazy Blue Oyster Cult covers, Joe Walsh’s “The Smoker you Drink, the Player you Get”…just the title alone …Jesus, come on.
Glynn Jones
October 28, 2015 at 7:15 pm
Interesting that they all seem to be from the vinyl era,no cd artwork
Juicy Lucy?
Osibisa ?
Dan
October 28, 2015 at 11:06 pm
The Who by Numbers
BTO’s “Not Fragile”
ELOs “Out of the Blue”
Kansas’s “Leftoverture”
Jay
October 29, 2015 at 12:20 am
Blind Faith, Cheap Thrills- Big Brother, The Who sings My Generation, Love It To Death-Alice Cooper, Everybody’s In Showbiz-The Kinks, The Tubes (especially the back cover-yowza), The Slits, New York Dolls, MC5- Live at The Grande Ballroom, Captain Beefheart- Clear Spot, Moby Grape- Apple Pie, Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks- Where’s The Money, Ohio Players-Honey, etc, etc.
chuck
October 29, 2015 at 12:26 am
Jethro Tull you got Aqualung but left out Thick as a Brick, the newspaper, really that wasn’t inventive and awesome to work the song into little Gerald Bostock?
Don
October 29, 2015 at 7:56 pm
I would have like to see Jethro Tull’s STAND UP album
Michael O'Reilly
February 15, 2019 at 9:53 pm
Spot on re Tulls Stand Up-well at least the version with the pop up
Paul E
October 29, 2015 at 1:00 am
What no Alice Cooper?
School ‘s Out
Billion Dollar Babies
Lucy
October 29, 2015 at 1:15 am
Breakfast in America is one of my all time favorite albums that I can listen to over and over. Roger Hodgson’s title track is as fresh today as when it was released. Can’t wait to see Roger, the voice and co-founder of Supertramp, on his tour this summer in Europe. I have planned my holidays around his tour dates. Hope to see him when he comes to the US and Canada next month and in Dec, too. Anyone who was or is a fan of Supertramp needs to see Roger’s show – it’s fantastic – his voice is incredible and what a band he has. Check this out – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMLNeSbtVN0
Ryno
October 29, 2015 at 3:11 am
you neglected the all time best album cover ever (at least for college age males such as myself in the early 70’s):
Carly Simon’s “No Secrets”
swisscott
July 17, 2016 at 1:37 am
Carly Simon… seriously? because of what, the nipples? …. duhhh…
charles
December 11, 2016 at 10:50 pm
I love Carly’s nipples
Rodrigo
January 9, 2017 at 2:18 am
Yes. The nipples
Sandra Ford
October 29, 2015 at 11:03 am
Lots of lovely covers for well-loved albums, but I didn’t spot any Magnum. Rodney Matthews did a superb job especially on my personal favourite ‘On a Storyteller’s Night’, but there are many more worthy of inclusion in this list..
Darryl
October 29, 2015 at 11:46 am
I am happy Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake is presented. But, I would rank that, Sgt Pepper’s and Revolver over the White Album both in terms of the quality and impression of the Album covers and the significance of the albums in the history of popular music as well as with their musical content.
Jacobus
October 29, 2015 at 1:11 pm
The Tubes – What Do You Want From Life
goce pagano
November 8, 2015 at 9:16 pm
wow !!
you know the tubes ??
great !!
Bob
October 29, 2015 at 1:41 pm
First Kiss album? Or even Kiss Alive?
Kevin
October 29, 2015 at 3:57 pm
I would suggest Vangelis – Heaven and Hell , Manfred Mann – Angle Station , and Alan Parsons Project – I Robot.
Gilson
October 29, 2015 at 10:17 pm
Some Ramones’ fans will get very angry! Lol… And what is so special about U2’s The Joshua Tree cover???
Jack
October 29, 2015 at 11:44 pm
I thought the first Bad Company had a very iconic look to it…the large logo against the stark black background.
CHAS
October 30, 2015 at 1:58 pm
What, no Soft Machine??
mk1
October 30, 2015 at 7:16 pm
ELO – Time
Dire Straits – Love Over Gold
Police – Ghost In The Machine
Jackson Browne – Running On Empty
alex
October 30, 2015 at 8:46 pm
Iron Maiden, The Number of The Beast.
Jack
August 13, 2016 at 10:39 pm
Agree….. or any Maiden cover all great
Scorpions…Blackout
alex
October 30, 2015 at 8:54 pm
Rainbow : Rising
Kiss: Destroyer
Iron Maiden :Somewhere in Time
Metálica : Ride The Ligthning
Scorpions : Lonesome Crown
Ken Baumgardner Sr.
November 20, 2018 at 11:16 am
Yeah,my first tattoo was Rainbow Rising…think that artwork rocks..along with the album naturally
Paul Weekes
December 12, 2019 at 7:25 pm
Definitely Rainbow Rising
Jayell
October 30, 2015 at 8:56 pm
Black Sabbath-Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (front & back), Black Sabbath-Heaven & Hell, Atomic Rooster-Death Walks Behind You, Slade-Amazing Kamikaze Syndrome, Bad Company-Run with the Pack, Bad Company-Straight Shooter, Frank Zappa-Joe’s Garage, Roger Glover & Friends-Butterfly Ball, to name a few,
Seemann
October 30, 2015 at 9:25 pm
Greenslade – Time and Tide
Pink Floyd – Ummagumma
Led Zeppelin III
tony tice
October 30, 2015 at 10:24 pm
Rainbow Rising
Jim Todd
October 30, 2015 at 11:13 pm
How about Tom Waites “Small Change”?
Diesel
October 31, 2015 at 1:17 am
Dire Straits – Brothers in Arms? Seriously why was this omitted?
kaptain beyond
October 31, 2015 at 2:31 am
i think what’s going on here is some of these albums became really popular hence the covers became somewhat iconic. i’m thinking of ACDC’s back in black, come on, it’s hardly a great cover. arc of a diver? yuk. even better than cream’s disraeli gears which is almost an eyesore is their wheels of fire cover, same artist, but way less of a dogs breakfast, cleaner and classy and silver, a refined version without the cliche dayglow.
how about moby grape’s wow! or beach boys smiley smile, or beach boys live in concert double lp from ’73, never mentioned as one of the cheekiest, or even rudest covers ever! dennis wilson holding the mikestand from his crotch into the audience with that look on his face. come on, nobody noticed? or endless summer, their comp from 74 that put them back on top of the world! hilarious drawing of a bunch of hairy guys supposed to be the beach boys, i think, tho i have no idea who is who!
Janne
October 31, 2015 at 12:10 pm
Mott The Hoople – The Hoople
David
October 31, 2015 at 12:20 pm
Seriously no Rodney Matthews in there. But the talking heads black cover is in there.
Chris Squires
October 31, 2015 at 12:21 pm
Some for consideration….
Kate Bush – The Dreaming (with a kiss, I’d pass they key)
ELO – Out of the Blue
Mike Oldfield Tubular Bells
Kevin
October 31, 2015 at 12:57 pm
Disappointed but not surprised to see no Iron Maiden or Megadeth covers in there. I think Adam Ant (and the Ants) should be included as well. Adam created some of the most iconic visuals in musical history.
PhiloBike
October 31, 2015 at 1:03 pm
Missing Jethro Tull’s “Thick As A Brick” (newspaper you can open and read), Jerry Lee Lewis’s “Live At The Star Club Hamburg” (a map of Hamburg in cartoon style when you open it), Led Zeppelin’s “III” (the wheel you can turn) and rare old french edition of Jimi Hendrix’s “Electric Ladyland” (artwork by heroic fantasy cartoonist Philippe Druillet) ..
oh ! and the famous 1st US edition of Faces 1st LP, named by mistake Small Faces on the cover ..
… hmmm .. in fact, missing many more ^^
Gina
October 31, 2015 at 5:08 pm
What about Steppenwolf “Monsters”? That came to mind immediately.
Steve Giovanetti
October 31, 2015 at 5:11 pm
Joe Walsh- “But Seriously Folks” is a definite must for this list ..
Felicity
October 31, 2015 at 6:57 pm
De ja Vu – Crosby, Stills Nash & Young
Steve Adey
October 31, 2015 at 10:54 pm
Kimono My House – Sparks
Darren
October 31, 2015 at 11:05 pm
No Iron Maiden or KISS at all???!!! C’mon Iron Maiden: Killers and KISS: Rock and Roll Over are the greatest cover arts of all time!
Zoso
November 1, 2015 at 2:24 am
This list is so lame! A lot of good covers here from good albums. But so many are so lame, even stuff that I like! There are better Zeppelin covers, and I would think at least 1 from the Moody Blues would be on here! Really? Who made this list? Would be nice to actually officially credit them too!
Kevin Kunreuther
November 1, 2015 at 6:06 am
I do not know where you culled the images for this article, but whoever was responsible is clearly a dunderhead. The image for The Ramones debut album is incorrect, it is an image that has someone had a non-Ramone cut and pasted onto the cover. Also, try to get images from original LP and not the CD. I’m talking about the image chosen for Meat Loaf’s Bat Out Of Hell album. Most fucking annoying.
Dan Smith
November 1, 2015 at 5:40 pm
Playing Possum – Carly Simon
Of course, this a personal preference. It’s hard to choose ONLY 100!
Jake
November 1, 2015 at 9:58 pm
Basically any Genesis cover could’ve made it here. Sabbath’s Paranoid and Rage Against the Machine’s self title could’ve easily made the list. And what about Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea? Pretty iconic.
Ken Goodey
November 2, 2015 at 10:50 am
Loads of albums that should be here and aren’t, however I will only mention one that I think is the most perfect album cover of all time…Frank Zappa Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch.
Mark
November 5, 2015 at 11:39 pm
Captain Beyond Sufficiently Breathless.
Jan van Amsterdam
November 6, 2015 at 7:34 pm
Where is the magnificant album of Blind Faith
Deric
November 7, 2015 at 12:12 am
They definitely left off Blind Faith
LARRY
November 7, 2015 at 12:31 am
CCR Madigras album cover
dion
November 7, 2015 at 2:04 am
no nektar. pink floyds a nice pair. born to run? really? some of these covers are just bands posing. jethro tull a passion play. yessongs, blind faith, bustin` out,
phillip
November 7, 2015 at 3:02 am
BYRDS-TURN,TURN,TURN
Lou Buc
November 7, 2015 at 5:42 am
Gotta go with just about any of the 30 or so covers Warhol designed,
just because of his name, the rarity, and therefore their collectibility…
Sticky Fingers and Banana covers are among the most recognizable.
TwoWaaka
November 7, 2015 at 1:30 pm
How about some love for the greatest live album ever recorded? Little Feat – Waiting for Columbus Killer artwork, killer shows
David
November 7, 2015 at 3:22 pm
Where is Mahogany Rush.Maxoom, 10 CC. Deceptive Bends and Kansas Left Overture to name a few..
Jim
November 7, 2015 at 4:28 pm
Okay, you have “Sailing Shoes”. Check.
Where’s Led Zeppelin I?
ROD
November 8, 2015 at 12:18 am
The album cover that started it all the most iconic Herb Alpert and the Tiajuana Brass the one with the naked girl covered in whipped cream , WTF how could this not be included really
Wolfpat
December 13, 2015 at 4:41 pm
That was my first thought too. That album included the classic “A Taste of Honey.”
Bill from the 60s
July 16, 2016 at 11:39 pm
My thoughts exactly. If you’re doing the 100 Greatest Rock Album Covers, I could see excluding Whipped Cream and Other Delights because Herb Alpert and the TJB probably wouldn’t be classified as “rock.” If, however, you’re not putting sideboards on the category, Whipped Cream and Other Delights should be in there somewhere. Iconic is a great word to describe that album cover. It’s probably responsible for more teenage boys wanting to join the high school band and more trumpet sales than any other single event.
martin
November 15, 2018 at 7:58 pm
You suppose she was naked. You were there when the photo was taken?
Joe
April 27, 2019 at 10:48 pm
What are you trying to prove? Are you saying she wasn’t naked? Who cares??? That cover is supposed to suggest she WAS naked because she could easily have been. Maybe it’s not a rock album but it’s certainly one of the most iconic covers of all. It has really good music also. Have a mono and a stereo copy. Many of Alpert’s albums are excellent. Anyway, the WCAOD cover is lot more iconic than quite a few of those 100 covers in that dumb review. Covers that don’t belong even if it were the 1000 greatest ones.
I think I’ll suggest A few really worthy ones.
Children Of the Future (Steve Miller Band), Blues For Allah (The Grateful Dead), In Search Of the Lost Chord (The Moody Blues), Just For Love (Quicksilver Messenger Service), Outside Inside (Blue Cheer), Escape (Journey), Tubular Bells (Mike Oldfield), Firefall (S/T), The Royal Scam (Steely Dan), Pink Moon (Nick Drake), Dire Straits (S/T), In Rock (Deep Purple), Mellow Yellow (Donovan), Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd), Misfits (The Kinks), Santana (S/T) and there’s so many more that I could list too.
Joe Giersher
April 28, 2019 at 9:17 pm
I forgot City To City (Jerry Rafferty). FAR better than many of those 100 original covers.
Angelo
November 8, 2015 at 10:07 am
It doesn’t make much sense , we always mix cover art with album content, or we like a cover with no special art because it reflects so well album content that we love so much, or a period, or because she reminds a girlfirend… so is this meaningful?
r
November 8, 2015 at 5:14 pm
wet willie dripping wet!!!!!
keith
November 8, 2015 at 5:23 pm
Nick Haeffner – The Great Indoors
Dukes of Stratosphere – 25 o clock
Steven Wilson – Hand cannot erase
Agree that there are many Grateful Dead album covers that are better than those in the list.
gary
November 8, 2015 at 5:57 pm
Jethro Tull Stand up
Savoy Brown Street corner talking
Bolero
November 8, 2015 at 6:36 pm
My favorite album cover is Blow By Blow from Jeff Beck! The reason? The cover depicts one of the greatest rock guitarists in his prime! It’s simply a great illustrated picture of Jeff in 70’s hippie attire with his Les Paul guitar! A masterpiece!
Gary Hambley
November 8, 2015 at 6:39 pm
As art and not the music inside, Beatles White Album and AC DC’s Back In Black can go and put these two in. Tommy James & The Shondells “Crimson and Clover and Jethro Tull’s, “Broadsword And The Beast”.
Dafyn
November 8, 2015 at 6:41 pm
Didn’t see ELO Out of the Blue or Discovery, both very lush pieces of artwork
Hugh Jaynus
November 8, 2015 at 7:06 pm
NRBQ At Yankee Stadium is a classic cover and album.
Don Killaby
November 8, 2015 at 8:19 pm
absolutely amazed that After The Goldrush isn’t on here
Margaret
November 8, 2015 at 9:35 pm
Where is Blood, Sweat and Tears “Child is Father to the Man”? and “Don’t Crust that Dwarf, Hand me the Pliers”?
Brian
November 8, 2015 at 10:27 pm
Alice Cooper – “Killer”
Carly Simon – “No Secrets”
UFO – “Phenomenon”
Yardbirds – “Roger The Engineer”
The Who – “The Who Sell Out”
Wings – “Venus And Mars”
Scorpions – “Lovedrive”
Pink Floyd – “The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn”
Steely Dan – “The Royal Scam”
Robert
November 8, 2015 at 10:54 pm
T Rex electric warrior. If you have sergeant pepper’s then you should have we’re only in it for the money by the Mothers of Invention. And their album absolutely free as well. Good thing that several people remember the 3d captain beyond cover. Scorpions fly to the rainbow. Neil Young on the beach. The British cover of the Bonzo Dog Band with King Kong, and their other early albums.
Paul
November 8, 2015 at 11:19 pm
XTC’s Drums and Wires because of the way the band’s name is incorporated into the portrait. The Police’s Ghost in the Machine’s minimalist digital portrait of the band members. The Band’s brown album (The Band) is a break with the period’s psychedelic imagery and music. Everything in the cover, from the sepia tone photo, to the clothes to the typography was the antithesis of the sixties aesthetic and announced a new music rooted in the past. Steely Dan’s Aja cover is a mysterious minimalist image with a striking slash of red and white fabric on black background, partial profile of an Asian woman and brush stroke typography of the title which suggests Japanese calligraphy, all of which is a play on Aja/Asia. Talking Heads’ The Name of This Band is Talking Heads is a double live album with the quartet on one album/cover and the 11 piece band on the second album/cover. The two covers tell you everything you need to know about the band’s duality and the sound of each album in the set. You included the original/European cover Jimi Hendrix’ Electric Ladyland, which Hendrix hated. I’d suggest the cover with the red/yellow profile picture of Hendrix which was used in North America. It’s striking, captures the psychedelic spirit of the times, is an iconic image always associated with Hendrix and it’s the cover most people are familiar with.
Joe
September 11, 2020 at 7:30 pm
The best Electric Ladyland cover was the one with all the nude girls on it…..I still have my copy of it, they were on the front and back of the album. One big picture…
C J
November 9, 2015 at 1:14 am
Come on no one has even said Goats Head Soup!
Bill
November 9, 2015 at 2:33 am
Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass — Whipped Cream and Other Delights
Jim Bergeson
November 9, 2015 at 3:26 am
Interesting! I grew up shopping in the vinyl era, and there were so many great covers then. I’d suggest more from Psychedelia, say the double live album by the Grateful Dead, I think one of the best ever, or the first Cream album, that came at a time that there looks and styles were very influential, and Ginger Baker’s leather flight jacket set the style on fire for decades!
Bolero
November 9, 2015 at 6:33 pm
I still like that first Grateful Dead album cover too!
Randall M. Kozitka
January 31, 2019 at 6:47 pm
#metoo
Dennidlky
November 9, 2015 at 9:44 am
hey, Rush Fly by Night!!!!
Brian
November 9, 2015 at 10:28 am
What about some of the Moody Blues albums? The artwork is fabulous!!
clayspur
November 9, 2015 at 10:54 am
John & Yoko TWO VIRGINS
Rick
November 9, 2015 at 1:08 pm
Foghat – Rock and Roll, Energized
Santana – First two albums
Free – Heartbreaker
Rush – 2112
Richard
November 9, 2015 at 2:32 pm
While everyone of these are worthy, there are so many that could be included that a top 100 best covers list seems woefully inadequate.
Example: ANYTHING by either Storm Thorgerson, Hipgnosis or Roger Dean as an album cover deserves consideration.
Captain Beyond: Sufficiently Breathless
Thin Lizzy: Jailbreak
Nazareth: Hair of The Dog…
Attempting to limit a list to only 100 covers overall is ridiculous. Select a genre and a sub-genre, let the winners of the fight decide which artists should be included in that genre/sub-genre and THEN pick the top 100 album covers for each might be a way to be a bit more fair all around, but it would still leave so many deserving visual artists out of the final mix it would be pointless.
Archie
April 7, 2016 at 10:04 pm
Nazareth: Hair of The Dog – well done! One of the best covers ever!
Brent Speicher
April 21, 2016 at 6:01 pm
I agree! Nazareth: Hair of the Dog hands down the best album cover of all time. Turns out to be the first CD I ever bought.
Mike
November 9, 2015 at 6:19 pm
nearly 1/2 of these covers don’t deserve to be on this list…a lot of much better covers aren’t even represented here, from bands represented here and from lesser known bands. what a joke!
Bolero
November 9, 2015 at 6:32 pm
Agreed! It’s all subjective. Have a 100 people pick out a favorite car and there will be 100 different cars! These type of lists are irrelevant. There were so many great covers that could replace all of these, in my opinion!
Jeff
November 9, 2015 at 8:07 pm
How is XTC “Go 2” not included?
Jeff
November 9, 2015 at 8:21 pm
The Black Crows – “Amorica”
tim eno
November 10, 2015 at 1:15 am
i didn’t see that herb alpert one with the girl in the whipped cream.
William
November 10, 2015 at 2:40 am
Thin Lizzy Night life, Mike Oldfield Tubular bells
john
November 10, 2015 at 10:15 pm
moody blues on a threshold of a dream.and jeff beck becola
paul carpanini
December 4, 2015 at 7:20 pm
Most of these album covers ain`t that great.
Patrik
December 4, 2015 at 8:14 pm
Well, I don’t agree. Especially as you didn’t included Maggot Brain by Funkadelic.
James
December 10, 2015 at 10:43 am
Blind Faith
Dave Ginner
December 10, 2015 at 2:46 pm
No Molly Hatchet covers? No Moody Blues? No Steppenwolf? Some good ones did get missed as pointed out in here. Interesting to look over the ones here thanks! Leaves a lot to debate on.
Joe Skotnicki
December 10, 2015 at 3:30 pm
Some of my favorite album covers are not mainstream. I’d include Budgie’s Bandolier, he first Captain Beyond album in 3D, Nazareth’s No Mean City and Lucifer Friend’s first album. Blue Cheer’s Outsideinside fascinated me as a youngster, checking out my cousin’s music.
Jeff
December 10, 2015 at 4:54 pm
KISS DESTROYER, KISS LOVE GUN, KISS HOTTER THAN HELL, NINE INCH NAILS DOWNWARD SPIRAL, NIRVANA IN UTERO, METALLICA LOAD, NAZARETH HAIR OF THE DOG, AC/DC HIGHWAY TO HELL, DANZIG DEMONSWEATLIVE, QUEEN NEWS OF THE WORLD
Jude collie
December 10, 2015 at 6:25 pm
Can’t believe no-one’s mentioned it yet- Cat Stevens tea for the tillerman and/or teaser and the firecat. Drawn by cat himself and very iconic. Confused by t rex’s the slider over electric warrior which is clearly the superior cover. Also born to run, top 10? Whatever. Some good covers in there but all subjective and hard to disconnect with the music the covers represent.
stonoguy
December 10, 2015 at 8:54 pm
Savoy Brown’s ‘Lookin’ In’
Blue Oyster Cults’s 1st LP
There are others that should replace a “few” of these!
Konstantin
December 11, 2015 at 6:18 pm
The Beatles Rubber Soul,Sgt Pepper… Led Zeppelin 3, In Through the Outdoor Deep Purple in Rock, Stormbringer Jethro Tull Stand Up, Thick As A Brick Peter Gabriel 2, Joy Division Closer, Cocteau Twins Treasure, Dead Can Dance Within the Realm of a Dying Sun Therapy? Troublegum Paul McCartney Press to Play
JD
April 26, 2016 at 3:19 am
Or how about Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division?
Ken Clem
December 11, 2015 at 9:27 pm
Blue Cheer “Outsideinside” their 2nd LP has very creative cover art.
Phil Grabar
December 11, 2015 at 10:38 pm
What’s with the Ramones cover?!? Who is the nitwit in the middle?
Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited belongs – Self Portrait doesn’t.
C J
December 12, 2015 at 4:39 am
Goat’s Head Soup – The Rolling Stones, cd packaging is a different size as well.
GES
December 12, 2015 at 4:46 am
AND no thick as a brick
David Seelig
December 12, 2015 at 8:08 am
Where is the first Moby Grape cover and no Jefferson Airplane cover ???? Too much british and not enough America
Michael Ige
December 12, 2015 at 9:33 am
Captain Beyond- Captain Beyond (3D cover)
Jim
December 12, 2015 at 7:08 pm
I would toss the Asia cover for any of the Yes albums.
Dave
December 12, 2015 at 7:48 pm
Rotary Connection ( 1st album )
baz
December 12, 2015 at 8:06 pm
Where’s The Incredible String Bands gem 5000 spirits.?
baz
December 12, 2015 at 8:14 pm
Spyro gyra morning dance
Arnaldo
December 12, 2015 at 8:33 pm
Faltaram muitas bandas como: UFO, Triunvirat, Uriah Heep, Nazareth, Creedence, Boston, The Moody Blues, The Birds, muitas outras e principalmente Iron Maiden.
Kent
December 12, 2015 at 9:45 pm
The London Howlin’ Wolf Sessions…Clapton, Winwood, Wyman, Watts all on the cover.
Tim C
December 12, 2015 at 9:55 pm
What about including some Budgie album covers. Bandolier belongs on this list.
Martin J
September 18, 2020 at 7:01 pm
At last someone actually mentioned “Budgie ” Great LP covers.
dayv
December 12, 2015 at 11:45 pm
So almost all white guys from the seventies…..so much missing because of this narrow scope.
Spreckles
December 13, 2015 at 1:50 am
Patto – Hold Your Fire
Taste – On The Boards
Jeff Beck – Truth
Jeff Beck – Beck Ola
Led Zeppelin 111
fourth stooge
December 13, 2015 at 3:39 am
Grand Funk – E Pluribus Funk a nd Survivors
fourth stooge
December 13, 2015 at 3:41 am
Alice Cooper Schools Out and Billion Dollar Babies
Steve
December 13, 2015 at 5:49 am
“A Taste of Honey” by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass
Jerry Wood
December 13, 2015 at 6:08 am
The covers are great but I prefer the ones with the best music.
Arti
December 18, 2015 at 12:47 pm
No Peter Saville or Vaughan Oliver works? C’mon – it devaluates this list!
Severn Savage
December 19, 2015 at 6:47 pm
“Bleeker & McDougal”-Fred Neil
“Sweet Moments With The Blue Velvet Band” for the Eric Von Schmidt designed board game on the INSIDE of the fold out cover.
Patrick lopez
December 23, 2015 at 8:41 pm
Many good picks here and I was happy to see perhaps my favorite album ever,The new riders “the adventures of Panama red, although I,m not sure if it deserved it. But how could they leave off the album of one of the most iconic and longest playing bands of the late 20th century with perhaps their most identifiable icon on it,s cover,The Grateful Dead,s “Steal your face”? ! In any case, there was no way to do this list without SOME argument was there ? Next time shoot for 250 and you,d still better prepare for some flack.
Adam Jennings
January 25, 2016 at 9:38 pm
You should know better to dare put together a list like this and call it Greatest….no one is ever happy or appreciates the work put into it.
Joe Cogan
February 11, 2016 at 2:05 pm
Wishbone Ash’s “Argus” and Uriah Heep’s “Demons and Wizards” should be here.
ben zuk
April 12, 2016 at 7:31 am
finally someone brought up Argus by Wishbone Ash
Rob Spencer
January 7, 2017 at 12:39 pm
The Argus cover stuck with me through all these years. I also remember There’s the Rub as a cover that led me to buy the album.
Joe Fiedler
April 3, 2016 at 3:13 am
Well, I’ll just put my personal fav into the mix. And although they had other great album covers,I will submit Quicksilver Messenger Service and “Happy Trails”.
As an aside,did I miss the Greatful Dead’s Iconic “Skull and Roses” ?
Axel
April 3, 2016 at 3:23 pm
Grateful Dead – Blues for Allah ?
Gravy Train – A Ballad of a peaceful Man ?
Axel
April 3, 2016 at 3:27 pm
ACCEPT – Breaker ?
ACCEPT – Balls to the Wall
Axel
April 3, 2016 at 3:30 pm
DUST – DUST ?
DUST – HARD ATTACK ?
Axel
April 3, 2016 at 3:37 pm
MESSAGE – FROM BOOKS AND DREAMS ?
POINT BLANK
Christopher.J
April 3, 2016 at 3:41 pm
ABBA – The Album – great artwork.
JIM COTTER
April 3, 2016 at 5:20 pm
HOW COULD YOU FORGET CHEECH & CHONG’S “BIG BAMBU” WITH THE GIANT ROLLING PAPER INSIDE.
Keith
April 6, 2016 at 4:04 am
No Kate Bush? Surprising.
Wallstein
April 6, 2016 at 7:47 am
I agree with many of these, I certainly agree with the recommendation of Carole King’s Tapestry. However, I appreciated Unknown Pleasures (JD) is ‘difficult audibly, as covers go it must slightly trump Power, Corruption and Lies?
hans
April 6, 2016 at 3:21 pm
no genesis covers, it’s a shame
bobby parker
April 6, 2016 at 6:03 pm
Thank You for such a wonderful list even though you overlooked some of my personal favourites. Alice Cooper – Billion Dollar Babies. Luxurious Snake skin cover with a fabulous interior, lush with band portrait,Lyrics and One Billion Dollar Bill.. Jackson Browne-Late for the Sky. L.A. suburbia meets Rene Magritte. The Byrds- Sweetheart of the Rodeo. An ultimate Nudie back patch with intricate stitching as befits the Dandy 60s Combo. Bob Dylan-Blonde on Blonde. The most extra terrestrial capture of El Zim casting further questions on just what planet did Bob arrive from? Genesis-Nursery Cryme. Fear and Surreal apprehension in an English Country Garden. Croquet Anyone? Alice Again-School’s Out. Desk Graffiti , Girls Panties and All. No wonder they had Questions in The House. and Finally , the Mona Lisa of Rock and Roll… Pavlov’s Dog-Pampered Menial. Luscious embossed gatefold featuring Edmund Landseer’s celebrated depiction of Scottish Highland ‘Low Life’. .
raul a
April 6, 2016 at 8:35 pm
excelent …………Which one si the most important sleeve of all times???………………….maybe dark side of the moon??……..or …….exile on main street,,,,,,or maybe…..atom hearth mother?
Tommy Blikeng
April 7, 2016 at 4:42 pm
A list like this NOT including Hawkwind’s Space Ritual cover does NOT deserve to be taken serious…!
Eric Hall
April 7, 2016 at 4:59 pm
How can you have a list of the 100 best album covers and NOT feature –
Be Good To Yourself by Man
Stand Up by Jethro Tull
Two of the most innovative album covers of all time
Michael Bounds
April 25, 2016 at 4:39 pm
Definitely Stand Up with the woodcut popup gatefold. It won NME’s award for best album artwork in 1969.
martin
November 15, 2018 at 8:06 pm
Those who have chosen the list looked at books, as the themselves state. They probably don’t know the inside of the sleeves!
Archie
April 7, 2016 at 10:06 pm
No GENESIS – total shame!
YES – RELAYER – my favourite!
tom Stein
April 8, 2016 at 9:02 pm
I miss the Band`s Music from big pink and Country Joe Mc Donald`s I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die
Alan
April 8, 2016 at 11:33 pm
How can Steppenwolf 7 not be in the list? It’s an amazing cover.
Donald
April 12, 2016 at 6:07 am
Left off
Jimi Hendrix EXP -Axis Bold As Love
Santana – Lotus
Mountain – Twin Peaks
Thin Lizzy – Live and Dangerous
Thin Lizzy – Black Rose
Tangerine Dream – Poland
Cabaret Voltaire – Microphones
Flipper – Gone Fishin
Darren Winter
April 25, 2016 at 4:09 pm
I thought the list was overall pretty good. Couple faves of mine were missing, like Savoy Brown -Looking In and Quicksilver Messenger Service- Happy Trails, but the truly iconic ones were there.
keith
April 25, 2016 at 4:18 pm
Not a bad selection,but how could you leave out Axis Bold as love or several of the Moody Blues lp covers?
Michael Bounds
April 25, 2016 at 4:41 pm
I was glad to see one Roger Dean work, but how about his cover for Osibisa’s debut LP?
Rootman
April 25, 2016 at 6:43 pm
Uriah Heep – Demons & Wizards
Hans-Werner Terhechte
April 25, 2016 at 7:44 pm
Jethro Tull – Stand Up – Golden Earring – Moontan, and one of an early Klaus Doldinger “Passport” Cover! And Neil Young – On the Beach!
William Bernardi
April 25, 2016 at 10:54 pm
Where is “Whipped Cream & Other Delights” by Herb Alpert????
Ugwamp
April 26, 2016 at 2:05 am
Joe Walsh–But Seriously Folks
Andrew Nichols
April 26, 2016 at 9:09 am
Where are any of those incredible Yes covers like Yessongs? Roger Dean was a genius.
Dave Marin
April 26, 2016 at 2:36 pm
Little known fact about the London Calling album cover-the date of the bass smash photo (9/21/79) is incorrect. Photo was actually taken on the 20th. Here’s proof: https://youtu.be/QARxQsSJo58
Stuart Ezrin
April 26, 2016 at 4:15 pm
The live adventures of Al Kooper & Michael Bloofield. Cover done by Norman Rockwell.
Stuart Ezrin
April 26, 2016 at 4:17 pm
Oh, I forgot to note that all covers done by Neon Park for all Little Feat albums.
john
April 26, 2016 at 8:49 pm
cheap thrills
john
April 26, 2016 at 8:49 pm
where is cheap thrills
Kenny Anderson
April 28, 2016 at 3:29 pm
The Byrds Fifth Dimension and Younger than Yesterday
Chaim Caran
November 20, 2018 at 7:53 pm
agree!
Glenn Speake
April 28, 2016 at 7:37 pm
Nazareth,,,any of them but especially No Mean City !
Nick
June 28, 2016 at 5:54 pm
I think Sakis Gouzonis’s first album, “First Contact,” belongs here as well. http://www.sakisgouzonis.com
Kelly
July 16, 2016 at 8:28 pm
Where is Fleetwood Mac’s Mystery to Me cover??? IMO best of all time.
Rolfie
July 16, 2016 at 9:53 pm
Ok, not bad. Some real turkeys crept in there so I’ll correct you on a few you blatantly missed 😉
The Stranglers – Rattus Norvegicus
Ian Dury – New Boots and Panties (how the hell did you miss this ?)
Neil Young – Harvest or After the Goldrush
The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses
Paul Simon – Graceland
The Smiths – The Smiths
Nice list otherwise !
Harley
July 16, 2016 at 11:47 pm
That’s not the original Ramones cover… -_-
Nancy
July 17, 2016 at 8:21 am
Brothers In Arms Dire Straits best cover
Moody Blues big oversight
Nancy
July 17, 2016 at 8:25 am
glad to see Love Forever Changes!!!
Nancy
July 17, 2016 at 8:30 am
Carly Simon’s first album or No Secrets were awesome covers
Pierrock
July 17, 2016 at 10:56 am
From this list my favourite would be Revolver but, as many others already commented, I would say Moody Blues are missing from the list. And also, Eels, Daisie of the galaxy, Gong, Flying Teapot and Camembert Electrique, Zappa Hot Rats, Christophe, Pas vu pas pris (the kitchiest one !), JJ Cale Shades and so many others…
Ian
July 19, 2016 at 2:22 pm
Not much of a list! Agree with many entries (Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and Nirvana’s Nevermind are among the most iconic). But, the topic of conversation is ‘album covers’ – not the quality/enjoyability of music on the album itself. Consequently where is Mike Oldfield’s ‘Tubular Bells’? Deep Purple’s ‘Deep Purple in Rock’ and The Beatle’s ‘Abbey Road’?
RICHARD HICKMAN
August 11, 2016 at 4:34 pm
Black & White The Stranglers
Ian Dury New Boots and Panties
Tubeway Army Replicas
Cris
August 11, 2016 at 5:39 pm
I think it would be better to have 1 cover per artist on the list because there are so many great ones. There are a lot great suggestions, but my list would have included Blind Faith, The Who By Numbers, Alice Cooper’s Schools Out, Iron Maiden Killers, Dio, Iggy Pop Raw Power, Ted Nugent Cat Scratch Fever, Leon Russell Live, Cream Wheels of Fire. Basically, you’re going to cover more bases if you don’t get stuck on insisting on including 5 Beatles albums.
Daryl
August 11, 2016 at 9:58 pm
There were some Nazereth , Molly Hatchet Albums that had real great Art. Both used a few of Frank Frazetta art.
Greg MacDonald
August 11, 2016 at 10:43 pm
Blown Pig,pigs head,headphones,sunglasses,a smoke,hilarious.
Angus Whitehead
August 12, 2016 at 12:11 am
I like the list, but my personal Favourite covers include Kevin Coyne, ‘millionaires and teddy bears’, Ian Dury, ‘new boots and panties’, jungle brothers, ‘done by the forces of nature’, Julian cope, ‘dark orgasm’, beck, ‘morning phase’, Peaches, ‘fatherfucker’, van Morrison, ‘astral weeks’ and the john Lee Hooker and canned heat collaboration.
Gary
August 12, 2016 at 7:46 am
I don’t think half of these deserve to be on this list.
Here are just a few of the ones you forgot.
Steppenwolf: 7
Iron Butterfly: In-A-Gadda-da-Vida (and Live)
Deep Purple: Machine Head
Uriah Heep: Demons and Wizards and The Magician’s Birthday
The Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour
peter cohen
August 12, 2016 at 10:00 am
Any album cover by yes
Joel
August 12, 2016 at 3:52 pm
No ABBA on it ?
They have some good cover better than some shown. The album and the visitors have to be on it.
Mike
August 12, 2016 at 5:50 pm
How could Music From Big Pink by the Band not be on here?
Others missing
Rush – Moving Pictures
Eric Clapton – 461 Ocean Blvd
Bob Marley – Natty Dread
The Doors – Morrison Hotel
Neil Young – After the Goldrush
Rudy Baegher
August 12, 2016 at 5:56 pm
Anthem of the Sun
Sonia Bailey
August 12, 2016 at 8:12 pm
No mention of Family! What about ‘It’s only a Movie’ with the ‘Banger’ inside?!
Charles Ressler
August 12, 2016 at 8:35 pm
I would certainly add The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper with album artwork by Norman Rockwell.
Sonia Bailey
August 12, 2016 at 9:04 pm
No mention by anyone of Family! What about ‘It’s only a Movie’, with the free Banger inside?!
Jim Parnell
August 13, 2016 at 9:29 am
Where’s “Rock and Rolling with Fats Domino”? http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4c/Rock_and_Rolling_with_Fats.jpg
Agustin Az
August 13, 2016 at 6:00 pm
Everything is subjective but… whipped cream, santana 1 and Blind Faith are iconic.
Einar Madsen
August 14, 2016 at 11:45 am
You forgot Alrune Rod’s album Alrune Rod http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/3109/cover_17659102009.jpg
Lordsea
August 14, 2016 at 11:39 pm
My Top 10: Check Out.!
Freddie Hubbard – Hub Tones
Burial – Untrue
Hank Mobley – Hank Mobley
Bauhaus – The Sky’s Gone Out
Sigur Rós – Ágætis Byrjun
Wes Montgomery – Road Song
Einstürzende Neubauten – Strategies Against Architecture
Jane’s Addiction – Nothing’s Shocking
Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha
Miker
August 22, 2016 at 3:55 am
Where’s the Jefferson Airplane, Spooky Tooth, Aorta, the Dead 72,.good stuff , but please don’t put a number on them. Can think of twenty more pieces of art that deserve to be here.
sean sewell
August 22, 2016 at 2:41 pm
Gotta have ‘Dr Feelgood – Stupidity’ in there, an iconic image of their live show/album.
John
August 26, 2016 at 6:40 pm
KISS Destroyers LP Cover for sure.
tisha b
September 20, 2016 at 6:04 pm
leftoverture by Kansas, donovon boston
B MAC
September 24, 2016 at 5:41 pm
VAN HALEN “VAN HALEN” OR 1984 SHOULD HAVE SURELY MADE THE LIST. BOTH ARE ICONIC AND VERY RECOGNIZABLE!! BOTH ARE DIAMOND CERTIFIED ALBUMS AND WERE MADE BY THE BEST AMERICAN HARD ROCK BAND IN HISTORY!! VH 4-LIFE!!
B MAC
September 24, 2016 at 5:45 pm
must’ve missed the Van Halen 1984 album cover. guess I scrolled too fast….
August Hayes
October 5, 2016 at 1:51 am
I was hoping to see the Jackson 5 Skywriter LP
bb
October 10, 2016 at 10:46 pm
Axis:Bold As Love – Jimi Hendrix
LGL
October 10, 2016 at 11:48 pm
Lot there i’ve got, lot that aren’t there that should be, and a lot that shouldn’t be there.
Michael
October 11, 2016 at 1:07 am
Passion and Warfare?
Sledge Hammer
October 11, 2016 at 6:47 am
ELO-Discovery, anything by Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, or Megadeth, Huey Lewis & the News-Sports (since Born To Run made the list), Police-pick an album cover, KISS-many to choose from, RATT-Out Of The Cellar, INXS-Kick, Duran Duran-Rio, Red Hot Chili Peppers-Blood Sugar Sex Magik, David Lee Roth-Skyscraper, Scorpions-pick an album cover, Quiet Riot-Metal Health, and a couple hundred others that I can’t think of at the moment. I don’t know why I keep looking at these top 100 lists, they always annoy me with who they have on the list and who they leave off.
Alain
October 11, 2016 at 8:08 pm
SANTANA: LOTUS
Goldielocks
October 12, 2016 at 10:22 am
How about the iconic Woodstock album?
Groundhogs
October 15, 2016 at 11:14 pm
Deep Purple in Rock. Zeppelin III. Tubular Bells to name but three.
bkuz
October 28, 2016 at 7:31 am
Wishbone Ash: Argus
Russell Cox
November 4, 2016 at 7:33 pm
The Jam – All Mod Cons and Sound Affects, The Style Council – Our Favourite Shop, Paul Weller Stanley Road, The Stranglers Rattus Norvegicus should all be on the list, but all far too ‘English’ for this list
Chuck
November 5, 2016 at 5:51 am
Santana’s first album, Deja Vu, Blue Oyster Cult such as Extraterrestrial or Agents of Fortune
Markus
November 7, 2016 at 2:12 am
Primal Scream – Screamadelica
ELP – Tarkus
Captain
November 7, 2016 at 2:06 pm
I was doing this thing at home of putting up framed album covers. I chose LP’s from musicians that I liked – that were done by fine artists of note and were interesting to look at. I ended up with Sticky Fingers – Warhol, Weasel’s Ripped MF – Neon Parks, Disreali Gears – Martin Sharp etc.
You may want to reconsider Yellow Submarine – by Heinz Edelman – (not Peter Max) and Hot Rats by Cal Schenkel.
Roland Morris
November 8, 2016 at 4:04 pm
Wheels of Fire
jd
November 8, 2016 at 8:16 pm
Savoy Brown,Outside Looking in.. My opinion the Best Cover art ever
John Miller
November 9, 2016 at 10:16 am
These covers are aggressively random!
Mike Ellis
November 9, 2016 at 6:23 pm
Be Bop Deluxe “Axe Victim ” and “Sunburst Finish”
Savoy Brown “Looking In”
Pink Floyd “Meddle ”
Roxygen Music “Siren”
Wishbone Ash “Argus “
Mooney
November 10, 2016 at 8:26 pm
Frampton Comes Alive
CJ
November 10, 2016 at 8:53 pm
MOBY GRAPE!!??
Rick Davis
November 11, 2016 at 12:24 am
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown “I bring you to burn …”
Chris Miller
November 11, 2016 at 12:47 am
Not one Iron Maiden album? Are you kidding me? The Art work on Powerslave is so incredibly detailed, it should in the top ten.
J. Paul DiMaggio
November 13, 2016 at 2:47 am
Suavacito by Malo — a classic!
Terry Mulcahy
November 13, 2016 at 3:40 am
There are some truly great album covers here, but one hell of a lot of these are great albums with OK covers. This is not even close to 100 of the greatest covers. What about the Mom’s Apple Pie album? It is possibly the most pornographic album cover ever, but subtle enough to circulate for a long time before someone noticed and it received new censored artwork. Most people don’t even notice the details of this cover at first. I framed it and hung it on my wall. It’s sublte ambiguity makes it a great cover, even though the music wasn’t great.
Speaking of censorship, what about the uproar over Blind Faith’s album? It wasn’t just the banned cover, but the freshness of the young girl, the invoking up the future with the rocket-like model, and the underage girl who appeared in place of her older sister, and with her parent’s consent. Classic. And a great album too.
Someone
November 16, 2016 at 9:35 am
Disturbed has some rather good album covers (e.g. Indestructible), and Hybrid Theory (LINKIN PARK) beats several of the ones on this list.
LES
December 3, 2016 at 4:13 pm
Grateful Dead’s “Blues for Allah” is one of my favorites!!
Lists like this are always subjective! Impossible to achieve.
Signed, An OLD rocker
Neil
December 21, 2016 at 6:00 am
Todd Rundgren – Something/Anything?
The Who – Quadrophenia
Allen Toussaint – Southern Nights
Wendy Waldman – Strange Company
John Cale – Walking on Locusts
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
Richard
January 7, 2017 at 3:32 pm
Any early Genesis cover should be there, especially “Trick Of The Tail” or “Selling England By The Pound”
slet boi vim
January 7, 2017 at 4:10 pm
no Doe Maar, Herman Brood and no Nits all to Dutch for ya……..
mehmet cakal
January 7, 2017 at 5:30 pm
andy warhol forever
Tim
January 8, 2017 at 3:15 am
Zappa “We are only in it for the Money”
Iron Butterfly “Metamorphosis”
All the Mountain covers are missing
Not a single Cannibal Corpse cover. All these covers are DOPE.
The first Santana
How could you leave out the Blind Faith cover
Ten Years After “SSSSH, “Stonehenge”, and Cricklewood Green”
All the 3 inches of Blood covers are missing
All the Mastodon covers are missing
Humble Pie “Rock On”
Iimu
January 8, 2017 at 12:21 pm
What the heck are the Beatles covers doing in this list? Are they so great? No they are not.
Duncaniw
January 8, 2017 at 5:43 pm
Be Good To Yourself At Least Once A Day by Man – if only for the fantastic origami map of Wales.
yatesy
January 9, 2017 at 6:33 am
why on earth is Ian Dury & The Blockheads ‘Do It Yourself’ not on that list and covers like Madness and Elvis Costello are?
Do It Yourself was issued in at least 32 different wall paper sleeves and was designed by the great Barney Bubbles.
Disgraceful.
Erland Eikestad
January 20, 2017 at 9:23 am
To pick one single Cover; is Impossible, plain and simple.
I could make a list of a hundred by myself, in which many of the listed ones here would be as well.
The Gimmick- Covers of the 60s and 70s, and Storm Thorgerson’s “Hipgnosis”- Designs ranks very near the top, I’d say!
But also the more “Adult” Art-Photo and Graphics Covers of the ECM- Label had som great Covers in the 70s and 80s.
The most interesting development in Cover Art through the 20th century on the other hand; happened in the Classical genre, where either photo of Performer in Penguin-Suit / Evening Dress or a Romantic Landscape Painting were the strict code, definitely loosened up by the late 80s and forward up to our time.(So has the Interpretation Of Classical Works.)
Jérôme
January 27, 2017 at 3:52 pm
Why never name the covers artists? Are not they important?
Jaeden Hunter
February 3, 2017 at 7:29 pm
No Blind Faith…wow
Captain
February 4, 2017 at 4:30 pm
LOSE -. AC/DC and Meatloaf, Talking Heads, Elvis, Bob Dylan Asia, Most Pink Floyds LOOK AT THE COVERS ON THESE BABES Hot Rats, Zappa Wazoo, We’re Only in it for the Money, and Freak Out by Zappa, most Grateful Dead covers Eno, Another Green World and check The Chocolate Watchband. The Beatles Rubber Soul is also Santana put out some FNA covers.
José Alberto Leal Pereira
February 5, 2017 at 3:29 pm
E Pluribus Funk (a da moeda): Grand Funk Railroad…
Fred Purple
February 11, 2017 at 2:36 am
Good selection. One really missing is Deep Purple In rock.
…would probably add some Scorpions, Iron Maiden (Powerslave/Aces high), Zappa, Axis:Bold As Love…
Sean Nickens
February 16, 2017 at 5:17 pm
You guys must have never seen TLC’S FANMAIL CD COVER IN 3D! Even years later it’s haunting yet sexy and compels you to stare at it!
james
March 13, 2017 at 12:31 pm
Nothing to much iconic about that selection, where is Symarips Skinhead Moonstomp cover, now that itself is well known for all old BootBoys old and new,
Alan Smith
May 18, 2017 at 12:44 am
Budgie – Squawk
Golden Earring – Moontan
Allan Brother’s – Eat A Peach
Gentle Giant – In A Glass House
Rick Frost
May 20, 2017 at 10:49 pm
Great album covers but would have to add
Axis:Bold As Love- Jimi Hendrix Experience
Looking In- Savoy Brown
AROL
July 24, 2017 at 11:26 pm
OMG – Where are the judges? I would love to laugh in their faces. Too many dumb (actually sad) choices to call out.
Scott
November 22, 2017 at 4:48 am
Carly Simon – Playing Possum
Batesy
February 7, 2018 at 11:03 pm
What Ho! Anyone still interested in this old thread? One has to consider “The Prodigy – Fat of the land” surely? It is difficult because it might be 101 on the list, but it should be up there, and arguably better than some in the top 100 I would say (1/7.4 billion isn’t much of an opinion I know) sorry the rest of you geezers…
Batesy
February 7, 2018 at 11:04 pm
I forgot to mention, Def Leppard, High and dry, this ought to be on this list
Batesy
February 7, 2018 at 11:08 pm
And come to think of it, Def Leppard. On Through the night, what is wrong with you guys? Sort it out
Jackce
February 14, 2018 at 8:37 pm
Be-Bop Deluxe – Sunburst Finish
And not just because she is nude!!!
Brian Martin
March 1, 2018 at 8:49 pm
Saucerful of Secrets?
Jerry W Newman
March 2, 2018 at 5:06 pm
They’re all good
Nutlinyl
March 2, 2018 at 7:05 pm
There are quite a few Arguably, not to mention Questionable choices here.
The Led Zeppelin “III” cover is a far more Original and Iconic Cover even though “HOTH” is one of Hipgnosis’ most beautiful designs. It should, however, have been pictured with the “Belly-Belt”.
Jethro Tull’s “Living In The Past” with its “Book” design (The Hardback one!) and Textured Goldprint rather than “Aqualung”.
Wings’ “Band On The Run” is missing.Really, it IS!
Rolling Stones’ original “Beggars Banquet” Cover is Missing. It was banned for decades and should really have been here.
As a Personal request, I’d say that Roy Harper’s “Lifemask”, with its split centre -and-fold-back Definitely’s got a place amongst the 100 most Unique Record-Covers.
Deep Purple’s “In Rock” Mount Rushmore- Cover’s Truly Is a Unique Record Cover and on of Rock and Roll’s most Famous ones. (Suddenly I’m in doubt; Is it actually there?).
I totally Agree with the one that Requested “Crime Of The Century” rather than “Breakfast In America” of Supertramp’s Covers.
However; In the end, such Lists are Tough choices, Luckilly! 😀
Nutlinyl
March 2, 2018 at 7:08 pm
And the one that I’m Pictured holding in my Profile Photo:
Sly & The Family Stone’s “There’s a Riot Going On” (Even though My copy is the one with Title printed on the front.)
How could I forget?
See? TOUGH CHOICES! 😀
PG
March 3, 2018 at 3:40 am
Powerslave
Vic
March 3, 2018 at 5:52 am
The Groundhogs – Who Will Save The World?
Brian Eno – Another Green World
Hatfield & The North – The Rotters Club
George Harrison – Wonderwall
Mountain – Nantucket Sleighride
Robert Palmer – Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley
Charles Lloyd – Geeta
I miss LP vinyl artwork. CD size artwork is just too small
ken
March 5, 2018 at 5:31 am
Left off: Jimi Hendrix Cry of Love; Osibisa “Osibisa”; Osibisa “Woyaya”; Suntreaser “Zin-Zin”; Babe Ruth “First Base”; Uriah Heep “Demons and Wizards”; Blue Cheer “Blue Cheer”; Blue Oyster Cult “Blue Oyster Cult”; Colosseum “the Grass Is Greener”; Babe Ruth “The Best of Babe Ruth”; Lenny White “Venusian Summer”; Pink Floyd “Relics” (US LP); Blind Faith “Blind Faith” (banned coved); Suzi Quatro “Suzi Quatro”; Buddy Miles “Them Changes”; Golden Earring “Moontan” (US banned cover); Kate Bush “Kick Inside” (Yugoslavian cover & red socks cover); Hard Stuff “Bolex Dementia” (US cover); Rory Gallagher “Tattoo”; Linda Ronstadt “Don’t Cry Now”; Dolly Parton “Something Special”; Tanya Tucker “Tanya Tucker”; Helen Reddy “Reddy”; Julie London “Make Love to Me”; Jaye P. Morgan “Just You Just Me”; June Christy “June’s Got Rhythm”….etc.
John Mason
March 5, 2018 at 5:57 pm
Served its purpose no doubt in keeping a hungover intern busy for an afternoon copying and pasting images and not otherwise effing up an important (sic) project. But the lack of copy-proofing–is the first round ’10’ or ‘100’?–and the absence of full-gatefold shots, inside or out, of examples like Zep’s Houses is all too indicative of a rush job generated just to fill space.
Mark Allen
April 8, 2018 at 12:54 pm
You omitted both Argus & New England by Wishbone Ash. 2 great Hipgnosis-designed covers. Awesome.
Jay Kahl
April 9, 2018 at 6:00 am
Absolutely on all the Hipgnosis and Warhol albums. My favorite album cover though is Klaatu’s “Hope”.
Talking Heads “Speaking in Tongues” should be on the list.
Violent Femmes “Hallowed Ground” is another.
Elkardz
May 21, 2018 at 11:41 pm
Ok. Some good covers. But not top 100. I have trouble in doing the top 500, imagine top 100…
complexity is the miracle, who tries to say it all?
Bob
May 22, 2018 at 5:56 am
Who made this list obviously never saw a Uriah jeep album cover smh
Fred
May 22, 2018 at 8:00 pm
Bitches Brew but no Time Out?
Big Red Jonson
May 22, 2018 at 9:18 pm
Missing from list:
Deep Purple – Machine Head
Blue Oyster Cult – Agents Of Fortune
BTO – Not Fragile
Bad Company – Straight Shooter
Santana – debut (lion)
Jeff Beck – Blow By Blow
Blind Faith
Iron Maiden – Number Of the Beast
Allman Bros. Band – Eat a Peach
Lynyrd Skynyrd – Street Survivors
Big Red Jonson
May 22, 2018 at 9:22 pm
Taking a second look at the list, I discovered “Eat a Peach” is included.
Tom Kolde
May 23, 2018 at 3:23 am
Can’t believe some of what they entered….but I think Styx’s “Equinox & Grand Illusion” along with Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” And Kansas’s “Audio Visions, Song For America, & Leftoverature” were neat album artwork/photography. There are a couple of Yes albums too that I can think of also. Dream Weaver was a neat cover also.
Tom Kolde
May 23, 2018 at 3:24 am
I do see “Wish You Were Here” is listed. My bad. Sorry.
Antonios
May 23, 2018 at 7:14 am
No 4AD’s?
Matt Jones
May 25, 2018 at 12:58 am
Def Maybe by Oasis is a great cover and photo…shame it didn’t make it.
Very “old” list
fons
June 22, 2018 at 12:01 am
atomic rooster made in england
Rob Luna Music
August 6, 2018 at 8:43 pm
These covers are awesome, we got some covers too at RobLunaMusic.com
ken
November 15, 2018 at 4:21 pm
Other cover suggestions: Mama Lion – Preserve Wildlife, Birtha – Can’t Stop the Madness, The first two Osibisa albums, Uriah Heep – Demons and Wizards, Colosseum – The Grass Is Greener, Helen Reddy – Reddy, Babe Ruth – The Best of Babe Ruth (with a salute to Jenny Haan), Agnetha Faltskog’s first solo LP, Ofra Haza – Broken Days, Dolly Parton – The Best of (volume 2 / RCA), Lynn Anderson – The World of Lynn Anderson, Tanya Tucker – Tanya Tucker, Savoy Brown – Looking In, Lulu – Lulu (Alfa label), Golden Earring – Moontan (original banned cover), Strawbs – Burning for You, The Mahavishnu Orchestra – Birds of Fire, Thelonious Monk – The Unique Thelonious Monk, Abbey Lincoln – That’s Him!, June Christy – This Is June Christy, Julie London – Make Love to Me. How’s that for a diverse list?
Chaim Caran
November 20, 2018 at 7:46 pm
Album covers that give me good feelings besides quite a few in the presented list: Allman Brothers Band -Brothers ans Sisters;Emerson Lake And Palmer first album; Fairport Convention- What we did on our holidays;Gram Parsons-GP;J.J.Cale-Naturally;Jefferson Airplane-Volunteers;The Kinks-Percy ,and Lola versus Powerman & Money go round; The Mamas & The Papas-Deliver;Neil Young-Everybody knows this is Nowhere; The Lovin’ Spoonful -Best of the Lovin’ Spoonful (with the cartoon immages);Dylan -Blonde on Blonde; Doug Sahm-Doug Sahm and Band
70schicknproudofit
December 7, 2018 at 3:05 pm
You missed one–Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” album cover was one of the cleverest ever designed.
Randall M. Kozitka
January 31, 2019 at 6:36 pm
Axis Bold as Love
Nima
February 4, 2019 at 9:08 pm
This list has so many wrongs…
Carlos
March 7, 2019 at 6:34 pm
Where can I buy or print some of these album covers?, 45 rpm singles also (7 inch). Just the album cover, not necessarily the vinyl.
Anyone?.
Thank you!
Gondo
April 12, 2019 at 6:23 pm
Quicksilver Happy Trails not in the top 100 ? should be in the top 10
Rick Griffin artwork !
Doug
June 23, 2019 at 9:18 pm
How can you have missed Bebop Deluxe Axe Victim
Scott
September 27, 2019 at 3:45 am
Carly Simon – Really, all of them, but Playing Possum is a classic!
cliff
October 12, 2019 at 2:15 pm
And here’s my top 100:
https://100bestalbumcovers.blogspot.com/
Mike_R
January 5, 2020 at 10:27 pm
Nice to see a few prog rock albums in there this time(other than just Dark Side of the Moon that is). I’m sure you could probably add another 100 albums too.
chris
June 24, 2020 at 1:04 am
Needed: Sgt Peppers of course; Beatles “Butcher” cover: Woodstock; Smiths Meat is Murder; Dead Kennedys Plastic Surgery Disasters; Soundgarden: Louder than Love; Alice Cooper: Pretties for You; Jefferson Airplane: Crown of Creation; Buffalo Springfield: Retrospective; The Flaming Lips: Transmissions from the Satellite Heart
Kevin
September 2, 2020 at 9:39 am
Not even one of the first 5 Roxy Music albums or Enos Another Green World or Here Come The Warm Jets. Any of the First 3 Waterboys album covers. Your having a laugh………Not all but some of the sleeves chosen very poor in artistic design.
Logan Weckert
September 3, 2020 at 2:02 am
Not a bad list, however I found it hard to believe neither Lil Boat 2 or Nuthin’ 2 Prove by Lil Yachty made the cut…
David
September 7, 2020 at 5:22 am
Prince Sign ‘O’ The Times.
Gisabun
September 8, 2020 at 4:18 pm
There are plenty of albums that should of been listed and quite a few above that shouldn’t. Just about anything from Mark Wilkinson [Iron Maiden, Marillion, Fish, etc.] plus Carl Glover, Storm Thorgerson, etc.
No DSOTM? Misplaced Childhood? Number of the Beast?
Willie Hobbs
September 10, 2020 at 2:25 am
Moody Blues – In Search Of The Lost Chord
Santana – Abraxas
Parliament – Clones Of Dr Funkenstien
Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush – Tales Of The Unexpected
Demon Fuzz – Afreaka
Ray & His Musical Court – Cookie Crumbs
tay giys
September 12, 2020 at 10:29 am
YOU MISSED A LOT RICHIE BLACKMORES RAINBOW
ShkoMi
December 27, 2020 at 2:20 am
Let’s be honest, there is no other album cover as famous as Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon”.
Besides that, I’d argue that there are a few more albums and artists definitely in 100s not mentioned: “Electric Ladyland” (Hendrix), “The Trooper” (Iron Maiden), “Mothership” (Led Zeppelin), “American Idiot” (Green Day), “The Eminem Show” (Eminem), “All Eyez on me” (2Pac), and “Straight Outta Compton”(NWA), “Hybrid Theory” (Linkin Park), “Enema of the State” (Blink182), “Seal II” (Seal), “Queen II” (Queen), “God Save the Queen” (Sex Pistols), “Destroyer” (Kiss), “The 20/20 Experience” (J. Timberlake), “The End” (Black Eyed Peas), “Demon Days” (Gorillaz)… jeez, I could make my own list. 😀
Timothy
February 20, 2021 at 5:41 am
Great to see Pixies on here, but Simon Larbalestier is the photographer; the sleeve was designed by Vaughan Oliver (RIP)
Todd Burns
March 1, 2021 at 6:42 pm
Thanks for letting us know, Timothy! That’s been fixed now.
sticky
June 30, 2021 at 8:22 pm
Judas Priest – British Steel
Beastie Boys – Licensed to Ill
Go-Go’s – Beauty & the Beat
Rolling Stones – Some Girls
Legion
July 7, 2021 at 1:35 pm
One of those web features where many of those 100 ‘pioneering’ sleeve designs are are merely chosen to provoke controversy (or ridicule). Most here are ridiculously banal – Bee Gees, Ramones, and Springsteen et al. Yet no iconic Electric Warrior or Slider covers.
Legion
July 7, 2021 at 1:50 pm
And no Never mind the Bollocks by the REAL ‘pure punk’ band The Sex Pistols? Americans might believe the Ramones with their “Hey ho let’s go” are real Punk, but no-one else does. I’m getting annoyed now. I’ll leave.
DavidB
July 15, 2021 at 11:20 am
You nailed it. My list is identical. But I don’t think the model on the Whipped Cream cover is wearing a dress though. She’s actually carefully draped in a lot of cotton batting. My 12-year-old self loved that cover!
Mike B.
July 16, 2021 at 3:07 pm
Blue Train by John Coltrane was designed by Reid Miles with a photograph by Francis Wolfe
Todd Burns
August 5, 2021 at 6:17 pm
Thanks for letting us know! We’ve updated the piece now.
Tom
July 21, 2021 at 10:26 pm
Emmanuel by Anuel AA??? that album was truly great and the cover, was a compilation of Anuel’s chains, in his hands. Thats not unique?
3rd Chris
July 25, 2021 at 4:24 pm
I did eventually see some covers that should be in a Top 100 list – otherwise it looks like you were intending a Most Banal or Bland & Uninspired list. I think you just wanted to provoke a reaction. The worst Top Album Cover list I’ve ever seen
Buck
November 13, 2021 at 6:21 pm
My top 5:
Foghat – Rock ‘n Roll
UFO – Force It
Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers
Sweet – Off The Record
Yes – Fragile
troufkats
December 8, 2021 at 4:29 pm
Iconic doesnt mean good.Here are some album covers that are better,debate me the seer,currents,igor,the money store,sinner get ready,kids see ghosts,blonde,skylarkin’,pure comedy,indicud,year of the snitch,nina,tyron,ctrl,bandana,in the future,wilderness heart,fate,twin fantasy,awaken my love,you wont get what you want and a lot more.Older isnt awlays better…
Paul Kleine
December 16, 2021 at 4:44 pm
Another dull and inaccurate list.
No ‘Never Mind The Bollocks’
No ‘Computerworld’
No ‘Showtime’
No ‘Alphabet Street’
No ‘Stratosphere’
Most of the albums on this list are chosen for anything other than their ‘striking artwork’.
Patrick Barker
December 16, 2021 at 8:52 pm
It’s Walter Carlos, not Wendy! Whatever your views are on this stuff he was Walter when it was recorded. If anyone else has said this, apologies, but I’m not going to read 400 comments!
Warren Z
December 16, 2021 at 10:37 pm
Actually it was my uncle that drew and painted the Flamin Groovies album cover. Not Cyril Jordan
Warren Z
December 16, 2021 at 10:44 pm
The Court of the Crimson King is at 79?
No Dark Side of the Moon?
What gibbering idiot(s) compiled this list?
garman sem
December 18, 2021 at 8:12 am
No Roxy Music covers? The list is a joke
Chris
December 18, 2021 at 8:19 am
I’m sorry, but this list is a joke! Not even Dark Side Of The Moon???
Roy
December 25, 2022 at 2:36 am
If I would have sent any of those to a client for their album cover, they would have sent it back with a list of revisions and notes if not completely rejected.
james
April 29, 2023 at 12:40 pm
I truly like your blog, thankyou for posting.
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Zoran Spajić
September 6, 2023 at 2:21 pm
Are we talking about ALBUM COVERS, or not? Forget the music and your favorites. Come on, spread your horizons. Sometimes leave the 60’s and 70’s. (I started in 60’s. So…!), but there’s enough great covers from 2000’s. Tame Impala-Currents, Wilco-Sky, Blue Sky, Beck-Sea Change, White Stripes-Elephant, Leftfield-Leftism (from 90’s) etc.
And some classic rock covers: Atomic Rooster-In hearing Of, Gentle Giant-Octopussy, The Allman Bro. Band-Live At filmore East, Grateful Dead-American Beauty (Reality)…
Stay well!
Zoran
Jim
September 27, 2023 at 1:12 am
Ha Ha!
Obviously a joke.
Lesson one in,’How to get a reaction’!
No Moodies,Genesis,Dark Side?
Well done chaps, it worked.