Finster Baby Mustnt Play With the Funny Money

The coolest, best, greatest, most iconic, most famous anthology covers of all-fourth dimension. It doesn't really matter what sort of describing word you lot want to put it in forepart of the words "anthology cover," because lists of this sort of are always incredibly subjective. What we tin say for sure, though, is that album covers are vitally important to how a record is received by the public. (It'due south difficult 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 take a huge touch on. (Artists as varied every bit Young Thug and Glass Animals can attest to that.) So, without further ado, here is our option of only 100 of the greatest record covers of all-time.

100: The Flamin' Groovies: Supersnazz (design by Cyril Jordan)

Bandleader Cyril Hashemite kingdom of jordan'due south terrific comic fine art has turned upward on numerous The Flamin' Groovies covers and posters over the decades. On their 1969 debut, the cavorting characters were at that place to remind you how much fun rock'n'roll was supposed to be.

99: The Bee Gees: Odessa

If The Beatles could do a double "White Anthology," the Bee Gees could exercise a fuzzy red one. The red velvet cover, with gold embossed lettering, served find that Odessa was going to be unique and cute, which it was.

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98: The Rolling Stones: Beggars Feast (design by Barry Feinstein)

Beggars Banquet is a rare instance where an anthology's two famous covers really complement each other. Put the notorious bathroom encompass together with the engraved invitation on the US replacement, and you've got the yin and the yang of The Rolling Stones at the fourth dimension.

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97: Ol' Muddied Bounder: Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dingy Version (design past Alli Truch, photo past Danny Clinch)

Whenever hip-hop started to take itself also seriously, ODB was there to disrupt, agitate, and give the eye finger to convention. Forgoing whatever blinged-out tropes, the former Wu-Tang member put a doctored version of his welfare ID carte on the front cover of his solo debut, equally both a reminder of where he came from and to destigmatize being on public aid. Equally he rapped on Wu-Tang's "Canis familiaris Sh_t,": "Got meals but nevertheless grill that old good welfare cheese."

96: Nick Lowe: Jesus of Cool/Pure Pop for At present People (design by Barney Bubbles)

On an anthology that fabricated 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 (in that location were dissimilar pics on the US and U.k. versions), all with tongue firmly in cheek.

95: Jefferson Airplane: Long John Silvery (blueprint by Pacific Eye & Ear)

Jefferson Airplane's Long John Argent hails from the golden historic period of elaborate album covers. Since people were already using LPs to store and clean marijuana, the Plane gave you a paper-thin box holder for it, forth with the pot, or at least a realistic-looking photo.

94: Billie Eilish: When We All Fall Asleep, Where Practise We Go? (design by Kenneth Cappello)

Whatever artist who dares to await this terrifying on the cover of their first anthology deserves all the platinum success they get. Inspired past the album's themes of the subconscious, the dark sleeve of Billie Eilish'south When Nosotros All Fall Comatose, Where Do We Get? served notice that Eilish was hither to mess with your head.

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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 Connexion . The fact that information technology looked remarkably depression budget simply fabricated information technology funkier.

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92: Geto Boys: We Can't Exist Stopped (pattern past Cliff Blodget)

Walking a razor-thin line betwixt exploitation and cultural commentary was the Geto Boys' modus operandi, and null exemplified this dynamic more their famous 1991 album comprehend art. The graphic photo of Bushwick Nib at the hospital was as unflinching as their music.

91: The Cars: Candy-O (design past Alberto Vargas)

Alberto Vargas was already the most famous pin-up artist earlier designing the famous encompass for The Cars classic 1979 album Processed-O, simply this painting of a stylish redhead, on a car of course, became his most famous piece. Processed-O is i of the two best uses of pin-up art on a rock record, along with…

xc: Courtney Love: America'south Sweetheart (design by Olivia De Berardinis)

For her debut solo album, Courtney Beloved took the Cars' concept a step further past enlisting the younger, edgier pin-up artist (known professionally as Olivia) to paint her. Of course, information technology got an actress 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 vanquish the Beatles for a psychedelic album in 1967, merely they arguably had the libation album encompass, the get-go 3D sleeve in rock. X points if yous can notice where the Beatles are hiding in the 3D image on Their Satanic Majesties Asking.

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88: Public Image Ltd: The Flowers of Romance

PiL'southward follow-upwardly to their famous Metal Box album embrace was even cooler, showing non-performing bandmember Jeanette Lee with a rose in her teeth, a weapon in her paw, and a murderous look in her eyes.

87: The Velvet Undercover: The Velvet Underground & Nico (design past Andy Warhol)

Information technology was weird, it was witty, it was Warhol. The famous minimalism of The Velvet Cloak-and-dagger & Nico peel-away assistant anthology encompass became an influence on punk visual style many years later and remains one of the greatest album covers.

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86: The Miracles: Hi, Nosotros're The Miracles (design by Wakefield & Mitchell)

The cool album cover for The Miracles' 1961 debut encapsulates the former-school showbiz that Motown would presently lead the world away from. But it's and so cheerful that you withal have to love it.

85: The Go-Gos: Dazzler & the Beat (design past Ginger Canzoneri, Mike Doud, Mick Haggerty, Vartan)

The Go-Become's sense of playful subversion extended to their sendup of glamorous cover photos on their hit debut, Beauty & The Beat . It was their political party; yous could join if they let y'all.

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84: Dr. Dre: The Chronic (design by Michael Benabib)

This famous album cover did wonders with its simple strategy. On his Dr. Dre's solo debut The Chronic , the design causeless that Dre was already an icon and presented him accordingly.

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83: Quincy Jones: The Dude (design by Fanizani Akuda)

Jeff Bridges' got nothing on the original "The Dude," the effortlessly cool and quixotic album cover grapheme that appears on Quincy Jones' genre-blending solo debut. Q always had an ear for talent – equally his cantankerous-cultural LP proved – but he also had an eye for pattern. (He spotted the eponymous "Dude" statue at an art gallery and took information technology home for inspiration.)

82: Cocteau Twins: Heaven or Las Vegas (blueprint by Paul W)

The design-centric 4AD label did some of its finest piece of work for the Cocteau Twins album covers. This shimmering epitome is undeniably beautiful, yet you never know just what it means…but like their music.

81: James Brown: Hell (pattern by Joe Belt)

Arriving 1 year after his milestone album The Payback , Dark-brown delivered the double-album Hell, which chosen out societal ills both on record and on the elaborately illustrated encompass. Designed past artist Joe Belt, who fabricated his name capturing the characters of the Wild West, Belt trained his aim on another nighttime 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 past Larry Carroll)

1 of the greatest metallic covers e'er designed, designer Larry Carroll packed a thousand nightmares into this Bosch-similar painting for Slayer'south thrash masterpiece Reign in Blood , which influenced metal imagery for decades to come.

79: Rex Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King (design by Barry Godber)

Robert Fripp saw this dramatic painting subsequently In the Courtroom of the Cerise 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 abroad just months subsequently.

78: Moby Grape: Wow (pattern by Bob Cato)

One of the psych era's smashing 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 about famous album covers of recent vintage. Kanye West brings the minimalist "White Album" concept to the CD era. Y'all could as well see Yeezus equally the concluding commemoration of the concrete CD before it disappeared.

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76: Elvis Presley: 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong (design by Bob Jones)

Ultra-absurd Elvis (in his shiny gold Nudie suit) gets multiplied in one of the most enduring early 60s images and greatest album covers. If at that place are that many Elvis fans, we volition, of course, need 15 Elvises.

75: Black Flag: My War (design by Raymond Pettibon)

Black Flag's trailblazing punk-metallic wouldn't have been the same without Pettibon'due south grisly comic images, though in this instance, not quite as grisly every bit the anthology itself.

74: Talking Heads: Speaking in Tongues (design by Robert Rauschenberg)

The abstraction of the Talking Heads' cute, moving-parts comprehend for their 1983 tape Speaking in Tongues couldn't have meliorate represented the music within. It would have been rated college if the thing wasn't so tough to shop.

73: The Mothers of Invention: Nosotros're Only In It for the Money (design past Cal Schenkel)

Frank Zappa wrapped his skewering of hippie civilisation Nosotros're Only In It for the Money in an equally vicious parody of the famous Sgt. Pepper album cover to swell success.

72: The Pogues: Peace and Beloved (design by Simon Ryan)

I 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 hither. (The word "peace" of grade has five messages.)

71: Rush: Moving Pictures (design by Hugh Syme)

Blitz's greatest album covers expressed both their grand concepts and their cerebral sense of humour. In this staged cover for Moving Pictures , which features many of the characters from the songs, nosotros find at to the lowest degree three different visual plays on the album'south title.

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70: The Beatles: Abbey Road (design past John Kosh)

As it turns out, The Beatles were but too lazy to go to Mt. Everest – yes, that was the original plan – and then they came up with something only as memorable by leaving the studio and crossing the street, resulting in the famous Abbey Road album embrace. It'south since gone done equally ane of the greatest of all time.

69: Marvin Gaye: I Want You (pattern by Ernie Barnes)

All of Marvin Gaye'due south cool anthology covers are works of art in a way, but Ernie Barnes's 'Saccharide Shack,' which graces the cover of I Want Y'all , is the only ane currently hanging in a museum. Barnes'due south sensual figures and celebrating dancers reflected the carnal nature of Gaye's 1976 album.

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68: Joe Jackson: I'1000 the Man (blueprint by Michael Ross)

At that place's plenty of punk attitude on Joe Jackson'due south album cover for I'm the Human being, where he portrays the hero of the championship vocal – a sleazy character who'll sell you annihilation – as long equally you don't really need it.

67: The Beatles: Yesterday and Today (design by Robert Whitaker)

Okay, then it was a little graphic and provocative, just as the single well-nigh controversial thing The Beatles always did (and the nigh 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'south Out (design by Craig Braun)

There were nearly as many copies of Alice Cooper's School's Out in 1970s loftier schools as there were actual schoolhouse desks. Ten points if you got the original with the underwear inner sleeve.

65: Aerosmith: Draw the Line (blueprint past Al Hirshfeld)

Anyone who went to plays or read the New York Times in the 70s will recognize the work of the line-cartoon caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, who did his magic on Aerosmith'south 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 (pattern past Ron Contarsy)

Between the rappers' Gucci-style outfits and the piles of coin in the background, the cover for Eric B. and Rakim'due south sophomore album Paid in Full said it all near going bigtime in 1987 and is considered one of the greatest album covers in hip-hop.

63: Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures (pattern by Peter Saville)

The cover of Joy Division'south 1979 debut tape is an actual delineation of radio waves. This stark black-and-white cover became so iconic that information technology's now worn proudly on T-shirts past teens who've never heard of the band.

62: Funkadelic: Maggot Brain (photo by Joel Brodsky, pattern by The Graffiteria/Paula Bisacca)

P-funk'south wild fusion of funk, surrealism, and pop fine 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 Encephalon.

61: Family: Fearless

Ah, the days when bands had the money to carry out their wildest ideas. The encompass for the British prog-rock outfit Family's 1971 album is a multi-foldout extravaganza and features an early calculator graphic, adding the individual band photos to each other until they become the pretty blur at meridian right.

60: The Beatles: Meet the Beatles! (pattern past Robert Freeman)

The somber, adumbral photo featured on both the U.s.a. and United kingdom anthology version of Meet The Beatles! was just the opposite of the smile pic that everybody expected to see, and the offset 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 nosotros wanted to highlight something that wasn't Dark Side of the Moon. This outburst of Tempest Thorgerson / Hipgnosis imagination features four versions of the same photograph (except that the band rotates 1 position in each), matching their sense of surrealism.

58: Metallica: …And Justice For All (pattern by Stephen Gorman)

Metallica'due south 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 anthology encompass to …And Justice For All .

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57: The Mamas & The Papas: If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (design by Guy Webster)

With all four bandmembers together in a bathtub, the encompass said more nigh The Mamas & The Papas than what was probably intended. The toilet on the original cover of If You Tin Believe Your Optics and Ears likewise proved to be a no-no in 1966.

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56: Madonna: Madonna (design by Carin Goldberg)

All of Madonna's anthology covers are striking in their ain style, but at that place's something special most her 1983 self-titled debut. She looks like she can run into everything that's going to happen to her in the next twoscore years.

55: 10cc: Ten Out Of 10 (design past Hipgnosis)

The cover for 10 Out Of 10 remains one of Hipgnosis' fiendishly clever 10cc covers and one of their more than overlooked albums. Here they're on the 10th flooring 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, Undercover casts the pianist as a French Resistance fighter in WWII. Columbia Records art director John Berg was responsible for iconic covers similar Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits and Bruce Springsteen's Built-in To Run, but this was likely one of his more expensive: They built an entire set, consummate with costumed extras, to create Monk's absorbing album cover.

53: Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin II (pattern by David Juniper)

It was an art-school friend of Jimmy Page'south who created this mythic cover past 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'due south Nut Gone Scrap (pattern by Nick Tweddell and Pete Brown)

One of the first circular covers, the tobacco-can blueprint for this psychedelic gem stood out in the racks and prepared you for the cheerful surrealism of the anthology's main suite.

51: Dave Stonemason: Alone Together (blueprint by Barry Feinstein and Tom Wilkes)

This anthology cover was more of a multimedia aggregation, incorporating the die-cutting edges and the marble-swirled disc into the overall design and giving an instant visual image to the top-hatted Dave Bricklayer.

50: Elton John: Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Thespian (pattern past David Larkham and Michael Ross)

Some of Elton's greatest anthology covers were a chip splashy, others a little somber. The one for Don't Shoot Me I'thousand Only the Piano Thespian was just correct, drawing from his before longhoped-for-legendary beloved of movies.

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49: Ian Dury: New Boots and Panties!! (design by Barney Bubbles)

One of many neat Stiff Records album covers, this caught Ian Dury's personality and stood in stark contrast to the elaborate sleeves on the market place 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'due south 1959 album Fourth dimension Out is likely the most famous apply of popular art on a jazz comprehend. In this case, the interlocking geometric shapes are a visual answer to the album's innovative fourth dimension signatures.

47: Wendy Carlos: Switched-On Bach (design by Chika Azuma)

Sporting a photograph 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 time to come. Enhance your mitt if you besides thought the cat was a head of lettuce.

46: Pink Floyd: Animals (pattern by Hipgnosis)

Non every ring would fly a sus scrofa over Battersea Power Station, simply few other bands would make an album that admittedly called for information technology.

45: Hüsker Dü: Warehouse: Songs and Stories (design by Daniel Corrigan, Hüsker Dü)

The album cover for Hüsker Dü's concluding studio album is 1 of those cases where a cover is exactly like the anthology: brilliant, 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 bargain with.

43: Blondie: Parallel Lines (design by Ramey Communications)

The great thing well-nigh the famous Blondie Parallel Lines album cover isn't just the black-and-white limerick but the mode Debbie Harry (the but one not smiling) exudes power, while all the guys look a scrap goofy.

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42: Utopia: Swing to the Right (design by John Wagman)

This Reagan-era concept anthology makes its visual betoken by using a photo of Beatles records being burned that followed John Lennon's "more popular than Jesus" remarks. But in this instance, the photo is a Mobius strip, and the album they're burning is the very one they're standing in.

41: Taylor Swift: 1989 (blueprint by Austin Hale and Amy Fucci)

On a throwback-themed album, Taylor Swift presents an old Polaroid of herself, only incomplete and out of focus. The mysterious image on 1989 'south cover was an easy i for her fans to copy, and they did.

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forty: Humble Pie: Rock On (design by John Kelly)

Why in the globe did Apprehensive Pie become a bunch of policemen to form a human being pyramid? Considering they could, of form.

39: The Rascals: In one case Upon a Dream (design by Dino Danelli)

One of the many imaginative trips from the late 60s, this assemblage – by the ring's drummer – represents various personal dreams of the band members.

38: PJ Harvey: To Bring Yous My Love (design by Valerie Phillips)

It may exist a more glamorous encompass later her starting time ii, merely this photograph of PJ Harvey – in which she could hands be mistaken for Shakespeare'due south Ophelia – implied that a newer, softer prototype comes at a cost.

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37: Haven: Definitely Possibly (design past Brian Cannon)

Their debut album pictured Haven in the world's coolest crash pad, showing every band of the era how it ought to exist living.

36: Grace Jones: Island Life (design by Jean-Paul Goude)

Graphic designer and art director Jean-Paul Goude met his lucifer, and his muse, with Grace Jones. Goude's visual re-imagining of the androgynous vocalizer 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. "Information technology looked right to me and how I felt," said Jones. "Athletic, artistic, and alien."

35: A Tribe Called Quest: Midnight Marauders (photograph by Terrence A Reese, pattern past Nick Gamma)

Similar a proto XXL "Freshman Grade", the iii alternating covers of A Tribe Phone call Quest's archetype 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 managing director at Jive Records.

34: Fleetwood Mac: Rumours (blueprint by Desmond Strobel)

Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood looked impeccably stylish doing any it was they were doing on the famous Rumours anthology cover. It'south off-white 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 (really shot at Fifth Avenue and 79th Street) looks, feels, and tastes like New York.

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32: Corking Pumpkins: Adore (blueprint past Yelena Yemchuk)

Great Pumpkins' anthology 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 past 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 (blueprint by Ira Louvin)

Modern expiry metal bands got nothing on land duo The Louvin Brothers, who went to the inferno in 1959 and looked slap-up in white suits while doing it.

29: David Bowie: Heroes (design by Masayoshi Sukita)

David Bowie has at least five of the most iconic anthology 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 yous 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 usually known US cover is dainty enough but makes it await like a conventional vocalist-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 correct.

26: Miles Davis: Bitches Brew (design past Mati Klarwein)

Since Miles Davis' Bitches Mash 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 past Jonathan Barnbrook)

Every fan did an immediate double-take when they saw Bowie'south act of self-sabotage hither. By defacing the Heroes encompass, Bowie constitute the most dramatic way of proverb "that was then, this is now".

24: Jethro Tull: Thick equally a Brick (design by Roy Eldridge)

Largely written by bandmembers Ian Anderson, John Evan, and Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond (with assist from Chrysalis staffer and sometime journalist Roy Eldridge), the famous newspaper cover of Thick equally a Brick is full of cantankerous-references and cerebral wit – merely like the music – and Anderson said it took but every bit much work.

23: Nirvana: Nevermind (design by Robert Fisher)

The image of a infant grasping at a dollar bill became 1 of grunge'due south coolest and virtually enduring symbols, an anthology cover that captured the mental attitude of Nevermind and the era. The baby in question, Spencer Elden, even recreated the photograph 25 years subsequently.

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22: The Who: Who's Next (design by Ethan Russell)

The iconic cover for Who's Next worked on two levels: get-go every bit a futuristic image of The Who against a monolith; and second, when yous noticed their zippers and realized what the guys had been doing.

21: Uriah Heep: The Magician's Birthday (blueprint past Roger Dean)

This comprehend is Roger Dean at his most vivid. When you lot walked into a record shop, you lot could run into this album clear beyond the room.

xx: 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 ane of the definitive ones. The designer too wrote one of the album's most vivid lyrics on "Tales of Brave Ulysses."

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19: Santana: Lotus (design by Tadanori Yokoo)

You don't necessarily go a thing of rare beauty when y'all load a cover with as many fold-out panels and elaborate paintings as an 11-inch disc can hold, merely Santana certainly did in this example, thanks to famed Japanese designer Tadanori Yokoo. Recorded live during Santana's performances in Osaka, Japan, the full sleeve art is an affiliation of Buddhist and Christian imagery, along with Yokoo's signature pop art manner.

eighteen: 10cc: How Cartel You! (blueprint 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 upwardly in each of the iv main photos.

17: XTC: Go 2 (pattern past Hipgnosis)

Another Hipgnosis job, the famous album comprehend for XTC'southward Go 2 boasts a dense block of typed re-create that taunts and messes with the anthology buyer's caput. No wonder the clever lads in XTC loved it.

16: Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run (design by Eric Meola)

Information technology's hard to pick 1 Bruce Springsteen comprehend, when so many have ascended to iconic condition. 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 fabricated an instant star out of Springsteen, the encompass did the same for Due east Street Band's sax man Clarence Clemons.

15: Ramones: Ramones (design past Roberta Bayley)

The cover of The Ramone'southward 1976 self-titled debut is pure punk stone in all its blackness-and-white grittiness. A skilful cover became a great one the moment when a bored Johnny Ramone decided to give the photographer the finger.

xiv: Pixies: Surfer Rosa (design by Vaughan Oliver)

The Pixies' debut cover is sexy, sinister, and full of surreptitious meanings, starting with a vintage-looking softcore photo that was staged for the cover shoot.

13: Yep: Relayer (design past 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 Aye' nearly creative anthology, an icy winterscape that illuminates the album'south war-and-peace theme.

12: Frank Sinatra: Come Wing With Me (design by Jon Jonson)

Each one of Sinatra'southward Capitol-era album covers was cool and classic in its own style, from the alone scenes on the carol albums to the visual swagger on the swingers. The cover of Come up Fly With Me caught both Sinatra's natural charisma and the attraction of the jet-gear up era.

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xi: Patti Smith: Horses (design by Robert Mapplethorpe)

If Horses wasn't enough to brand 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 lucifer for Talking Heads' back-to-roots album (and for R.E.M.'southward Reckoning around the same time). While some of Finster's work had a darker streak, for this album he accordingly chose sunshine and wonderment.

ix: John Coltrane: Bluish Train (design past Reid Miles, photograph past  Francis Wolff)

Most of the classic Blue Note covers were full of vivid graphics and exuberant photos (and lots of exclamation marks!). Not so with John Coltrane's Blue Train, whose cool album embrace photo and mood lighting marked it as a work to accept seriously.

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8: Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass: Whipped Cream & Other Delights (design by Peter Whorf Graphics)

This iconic album encompass said it all about coy mid-60s sexuality, bachelor-pad style. Despite its daring advent, if y'all looked closely, the whipped-cream clad model was actually wearing a hymeneals apparel.

vii: 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 social club, but Kendrick Lamar and TDE were up to the task, as K dot assembled his hometown coiffure for a victorious party on the White Business firm lawn, stomping on the symbol of a weaponized criminal justice system.

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6: The Rolling Stones: Let It Bleed (design by Robert Brownjohn)

The Rolling Stones e'er had absurd, attention-grabbing album covers. But while Mucilaginous Fingers has a not bad story, Let It Drain was equally unique and surreal. Taking its inspiration from the anthology'due south original title Automatic Changer, the front end has the anthology on a turntable stacked with all sorts of other things. We assume the mess on the behind happened after someone pressed "start."

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5: Big Blood 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 nigh people'southward introduction to the fashion of underground comic art perfected past R. Crumb. This way of fine art would be associated with psychedelic music from hither on out, though Crumb was a flake anti-hippie himself.

4: The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper'southward Lonely Hearts Club Band (design by Peter Blake)

Peter Blake'southward pop-art assemblage on Sgt. Pepper's famous anthology inverse record covers forever, and kept many of us occupied for weeks trying to identify everybody at the ceremony.

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3: Elvis Presley: Elvis Presley (design by Robertson & Fresch)

RCA wasted no time in cleaning upwardly Elvis, who'd look completely respectable on all futurity albums. Meanwhile, his debut immune him to wait like the crazed hillbilly anybody'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 past Pennie Smith, pattern by Ray Lowry)

A rare instance where a parody (of the to a higher place Elvis comprehend) becomes a piece of work of art in itself. The effortlessly cool album cover image of bassist Paul Simonon neat his guitar practically screams rock'n'curl, just like the music within.

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 comprehend 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 information technology essential to own the original, fold-out vinyl.

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Looking for more than? Discover the worst album covers of all time.

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Source: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/the-100-greatest-album-covers/

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