Coolest Cover Art Ever Cool Black and White Nature

The coolest, all-time, greatest, most iconic, most famous album covers of all-fourth dimension. It doesn't actually matter what sort of adjective you want to put it in forepart of the words "album comprehend," because lists of this sort of are ever incredibly subjective. What we tin can say for sure, though, is that anthology covers are vitally of import to how a record is received past the public. (It's hard to imagine Sgt. Pepper's with the embrace to the White Album and vice versa.) Even in today's digital age, a cool tape encompass tin can have a huge impact. (Artists as varied every bit Young Thug and Drinking glass Animals tin can attest to that.) So, without farther ado, here is our pick of simply 100 of the greatest record covers of all-time.

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

Bandleader Cyril Hashemite kingdom of jordan'southward 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 in that location to remind yous 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 do a fuzzy red ane. The cherry velvet cover, with gold embossed lettering, served find that Odessa was going to be unique and cute, which information technology was.

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

Beggars Banquet is a rare case where an album's 2 famous covers really complement each other. Put the notorious bathroom encompass together with the engraved invitation on the US replacement, and you lot'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 past Alli Truch, photo by Danny Assure)

Whenever hip-hop started to accept itself too seriously, ODB was there to disrupt, agitate, and give the middle finger to convention. Forgoing any blinged-out tropes, the old Wu-Tang member put a doctored version of his welfare ID card on the front embrace of his solo debut, every bit both a reminder of where he came from and to destigmatize being on public assistance. As he rapped on Wu-Tang's "Canis familiaris Sh_t,": "Got meals but all the same grill that old practiced welfare cheese."

96: Nick Lowe: Jesus of Cool/Pure Pop for Now People (design past Barney Bubbling)

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 (at that place were dissimilar pics on the US and UK versions), all with natural language firmly in cheek.

95: Jefferson Airplane: Long John Silver (design by Pacific Eye & Ear)

Jefferson Aeroplane's Long John Silverish hails from the gilded age of elaborate album covers. Since people were already using LPs to shop and make clean marijuana, the Airplane gave you a cardboard box holder for information technology, along with the pot, or at least a realistic-looking photo.

94: Billie Eilish: When Nosotros All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Become? (design by Kenneth Cappello)

Whatsoever creative person who dares to expect this terrifying on the comprehend of their beginning album deserves all the platinum success they get. Inspired by the album's themes of the hidden, the dark sleeve of Billie Eilish's When We All Fall Comatose, Where Exercise We Go? served notice that Eilish was here to mess with your head.

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93: Parliament: Mothership Connexion (photograph past David Alexander, design past Gribbitth)

George Clinton's gonzoid have on outer-infinite risk institute its perfect lucifer in the effortlessly cool spaceship-party comprehend for Parliament's Mothership Connection . The fact that it looked remarkably low budget only made it funkier.

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92: Geto Boys: We Tin't Be Stopped (design past Cliff Blodget)

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

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

Alberto Vargas was already the most famous pin-upwardly 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 2 best uses of pivot-upward art on a rock record, along with…

ninety: Courtney Dearest: 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 pivot-up artist (known professionally as Olivia) to paint her. Of form, it got an extra dimension by playing with Love'due south 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 anthology in 1967, but they arguably had the cooler album cover, the first 3D sleeve in stone. Ten points if you can observe where the Beatles are hiding in the 3D epitome on Their Satanic Majesties Request.

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88: Public Image Ltd: The Flowers of Romance

PiL's follow-upwards to their famous Metal Box album cover was fifty-fifty 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 Hole-and-corner: The Velvet Hugger-mugger & Nico (design past Andy Warhol)

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

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86: The Miracles: Hullo, We're The Miracles (pattern by Wakefield & Mitchell)

The absurd 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 accept to beloved it.

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

The Get-Go's sense of playful subversion extended to their sendup of glamorous cover photos on their hit debut, Beauty & The Shell . It was their party; yous could bring together if they allow you.

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84: Dr. Dre: The Chronic (blueprint past Michael Benabib)

This famous anthology embrace did wonders with its simple strategy. On his Dr. Dre's solo debut The Chronic , the pattern 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 nil on the original "The Dude," the effortlessly cool and quixotic album encompass character that appears on Quincy Jones' genre-blending solo debut. Q always had an ear for talent – as his cantankerous-cultural LP proved – but he also had an eye for pattern. (He spotted the eponymous "Dude" statue at an fine art gallery and took information technology dwelling house for inspiration.)

82: Cocteau Twins: Sky 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 cute, yet you never know merely what information technology means…merely like their music.

81: James Brownish: Hell (design by Joe Belt)

Arriving one twelvemonth after his milestone anthology The Payback , Chocolate-brown delivered the double-album Hell, which called out societal ills both on record and on the elaborately illustrated cover. Designed by artist Joe Chugalug, who fabricated his name capturing the characters of the Wild West, Belt trained his aim on some other dark chapter of American history, depicting fallen soldiers, addicts, and an imprisoned populace. One of the virtually famous funk album covers ever.

80: Slayer: Reign in Blood (design by Larry Carroll)

One of the greatest metal covers e'er designed, designer Larry Carroll packed a chiliad nightmares into this Bosch-like painting for Slayer'due south thrash masterpiece Reign in Claret , which influenced metallic imagery for decades to come up.

79: King Crimson: In the Court of the Cherry-red King (design by Barry Godber)

Robert Fripp saw this dramatic painting after In the Court of the Crimson King was completed and knew information technology perfectly suited the music, with the crazed comprehend effigy as the 21st century schizoid human being. Sadly, the artist passed away merely months afterwards.

78: Moby Grape: Wow (design past Bob Cato)

Ane of the psych era'south great hallucinations, the famous anthology comprehend for Moby Grape'south 1968 double LP Wow showed an otherworldly landscape with the earth's largest bunch of grapes. Wow indeed.

77: Kayne West: Yeezus (design by Kanye West and Virgil Abloh)

One of the well-nigh famous album covers of contempo vintage. Kanye West brings the minimalist "White Album" concept to the CD era. Yous could also encounter Yeezus as the last celebration of the concrete CD before it disappeared.

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76: Elvis Presley: l,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Exist Wrong (pattern past Bob Jones)

Ultra-cool Elvis (in his shiny gilt Nudie suit) gets multiplied in one of the nigh indelible early on 60s images and greatest anthology covers. If there are that many Elvis fans, we will, of course, need xv Elvises.

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

Black Flag's trailblazing punk-metal wouldn't accept been the same without Pettibon's grisly comic images, though in this example, not quite equally grisly as the anthology itself.

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

The abstraction of the Talking Heads' beautiful, moving-parts cover for their 1983 tape 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: Nosotros're Only In It for the Money (design past Cal Schenkel)

Frank Zappa wrapped his skewering of hippie culture We're Only In It for the Money in an equally cruel parody of the famous Sgt. Pepper album cover to great success.

72: The Pogues: Peace and Dear (blueprint by Simon Ryan)

Ane of the greatest joke anthology covers, the boxer was already a perfect prototype for the Pogues, just don't miss the subtle bit of play hither. (The word "peace" of course has five letters.)

71: Blitz: Moving Pictures (design past Hugh Syme)

Rush'due south greatest album covers expressed both their thousand concepts and their cerebral sense of humor. In this staged embrace for Moving Pictures , which features many of the characters from the songs, we detect at least three different visual plays on the album'due south title.

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70: The Beatles: Abbey Route (pattern by John Kosh)

As information technology turns out, The Beatles were just too lazy to go to Mt. Everest – yeah, that was the original plan – and so they came upwardly with something just every bit memorable past leaving the studio and crossing the street, resulting in the famous Abbey Road album cover. It's since gone done equally one of the greatest of all fourth dimension.

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

All of Marvin Gaye's cool album covers are works of art in a way, only Ernie Barnes'southward 'Sugar Shack,' which graces the cover of I Desire You , is the only one currently hanging in a museum. Barnes'south sensual figures and celebrating dancers reflected the carnal nature of Gaye's 1976 album.

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68: Joe Jackson: I'm the Man (design past Michael Ross)

There'due south plenty of punk attitude on Joe Jackson'due south album comprehend for I'chiliad 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 actually demand information technology.

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

Okay, so information technology was a petty graphic and provocative, simply as the unmarried most controversial thing The Beatles ever did (and the about expensive for an original), the embrace of Yesterday and Today surely earns a place on a listing of the greatest anthology covers.

66: Alice Cooper: School's Out (design by Craig Braun)

There were nearly as many copies of Alice Cooper's School'due south Out in 1970s high schools as there were actual school desks. 10 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 volition recognize the work of the line-drawing caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, who did his magic on Aerosmith's members hither. As always, his daughter Nina's proper noun was hidden a few times in this famous album cover.

64: Eric B. & Rakim: Paid in Full (blueprint by Ron Contarsy)

Between the rappers' Gucci-style outfits and the piles of coin in the background, the cover for Eric B. and Rakim'south 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 Partition: Unknown Pleasures (design by Peter Saville)

The encompass of Joy Sectionalisation'due south 1979 debut record is an actual depiction of radio waves. This stark blackness-and-white cover became and so iconic that information technology's at present worn proudly on T-shirts by teens who've never heard of the ring.

62: Funkadelic: Maggot Encephalon (photo by Joel Brodsky, pattern 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 comprehend 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 bear out their wildest ideas. The cover for the British prog-rock outfit Family's 1971 anthology is a multi-foldout extravaganza and features an early computer graphic, adding the individual ring photos to each other until they become the pretty blur at meridian right.

60: The Beatles: Encounter the Beatles! (design past Robert Freeman)

The somber, shadowed photo featured on both the US and UK album version of See The Beatles! was merely the opposite of the grinning picture that everybody expected to see, and the first of many carry-overs from the Beatles' art-school days.

59: Pink Floyd: Ummagumma (pattern by Hipgnosis)

Most of Pink Floyd's covers would be in the running for a listing 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 4 versions of the same photograph (except that the band rotates one position in each), matching their sense of surrealism.

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

Metallica'due south trademark mix of stupor value and social commentary had few better expressions than this prototype of a modern accept on Lady Justice for their famous 1988 album cover to …And Justice For All .

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57: The Mamas & The Papas: If Y'all Tin 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 Yous Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears too 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 own way, but there's something special about her 1983 self-titled debut. She looks similar she tin see everything that's going to happen to her in the side by side xl years.

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

The cover for Ten Out Of x 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 continuing at the precipice, and simply one of the guys seems concerned about it.

54: Thelonious Monk: Undercover (photograph past Horn Grinner Studios; fine art direction/design: John Berg and Richard Mantel)

A nod to how Thelonious Monk must've felt every bit a pioneering jazz creative person, Underground casts the pianist as a French Resistance fighter in WWII. Columbia Records art managing director John Berg was responsible for iconic covers like Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits and Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run, but this was likely one of his more expensive: They congenital an entire gear up, complete with costumed extras, to create Monk's arresting anthology cover.

53: Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin 2 (design by David Juniper)

It was an art-schoolhouse friend of Jimmy Page'southward who created this mythic encompass 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 at that place but it was really French extra Delphine Seyrig.

52: The Pocket-sized Faces: Ogden's Nut Gone Flake (blueprint by Nick Tweddell and Pete Brownish)

One of the first circular covers, the tobacco-tin can design for this psychedelic precious stone stood out in the racks and prepared you for the cheerful surrealism of the album's main suite.

51: Dave Stonemason: Solitary Together (blueprint 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 epitome to the top-hatted Dave Mason.

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

Some of Elton's greatest album covers were a bit splashy, others a fiddling somber. The i for Don't Shoot Me I'yard Just the Piano Player was merely right, drawing from his soonhoped-for-legendary love of movies.

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49: Ian Dury: New Boots and Panties!! (design past Barney Bubbling)

I of many slap-up Stiff Records album covers, this defenseless Ian Dury's personality and stood in stark contrast to the elaborate sleeves on the marketplace 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 anthology Time Out is probable the most famous use of pop art on a jazz cover. In this instance, 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 annihilation people had seen (or heard) before in 1968. As the first classical anthology to go platinum in America, Carlos helped to bring Bach… to the future. Raise your hand if y'all as well thought the cat was a caput of lettuce.

46: Pink Floyd: Animals (design by Hipgnosis)

Not every ring would fly a squealer over Battersea Power Station, but few other bands would make an album that absolutely called for it.

45: Hüsker Dü: Warehouse: Songs and Stories (blueprint past Daniel Corrigan, Hüsker Dü)

The album cover for Hüsker Dü'due south final studio album is ane 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 torso on the comprehend of her 2017 album embodies all the personal changes the songs deal with.

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

The great thing nearly the famous Blondie Parallel Lines album cover isn't just the black-and-white composition but the fashion Debbie Harry (the only one non grin) exudes ability, while all the guys look a bit goofy.

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

This Reagan-era concept anthology makes its visual bespeak by using a photograph of Beatles records existence burned that followed John Lennon'southward "more than popular than Jesus" remarks. But in this example, the photo is a Mobius strip, and the album they're burning is the very 1 they're continuing 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 re-create, and they did.

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twoscore: Humble Pie: Stone On (design by John Kelly)

Why in the world did Humble Pie get a bunch of policemen to form a man pyramid? Because they could, of form.

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 diverse personal dreams of the band members.

38: PJ Harvey: To Bring Y'all My Love (pattern by Valerie Phillips)

It may be a more than glamorous cover after her get-go two, but this photo of PJ Harvey – in which she could easily be mistaken for Shakespeare's Ophelia – unsaid that a newer, softer paradigm comes at a cost.

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37: Oasis: Definitely Maybe (design past Brian Cannon)

Their debut anthology pictured Oasis in the world's coolest crash pad, showing every band of the era how it ought to be living.

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

Graphic designer and art director Jean-Paul Goude met his friction match, and his muse, with Grace Jones. Goude'south 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 correct to me and how I felt," said Jones. "Athletic, artistic, and alien."

35: A Tribe Chosen Quest: Midnight Marauders (photo by Terrence A Reese, design by Nick Gamma)

Similar a proto XXL "Freshman Form", the three alternate covers of A Tribe Telephone call Quest's classic third anthology 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 sometime fine art director at Jive Records.

34: Fleetwood Mac: Rumours (pattern 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 piffling mysterious since the songs revealed everything else.

33: Steely Dan: Pretzel Logic (pattern past 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.

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32: Bully Pumpkins: Adore (design by Yelena Yemchuk)

Great Pumpkins' anthology covers were frequently softer and prettier than the music, but this encompass (created past Billy Corgan's then-girlfriend) is the perfect translation of the obsessively romantic theme of Admire.

31: Ohio Players: Climax (design by Joel Brodsky)

All the Ohio Players covers were legendary, and the early Westbound ones were considerably more than daring than the hit-era ones for Mercury. As the ring 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)

Modernistic decease 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 past 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. Simply the sublime strangeness of this David Bowie photo tells you everything you demand to know most the creative madness of his Berlin period. The encompass was memorably defaced past Bowie himself decades later on.

28: Kate Bush: The Kick Inside (pattern by Jay Myrdal)

The more commonly known US embrace is prissy plenty but makes it look like a conventional vocalizer-songwriter anthology and Kate Bush is annihilation simply. We're referring to the original United kingdom "kite" comprehend that introduced the strangeness and sensuality that Bush was all about.

27: Janelle Monáe: Dirty Computer (design past Joe Perez )

The perfect cover for a cool, sensual and futuristic concept anthology, this captures Janelle Monáe's depth and mystery and is a cute piece of art in its ain right.

26: Miles Davis: Bitches Brew (blueprint 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 High german painter schooled in surrealism to create its mix of African folk fine art and psychedelia.

25: David Bowie: The Next Mean solar day (design by Jonathan Barnbrook)

Every fan did an immediate double-accept when they saw Bowie'due south act of self-sabotage hither. By defacing the Heroes embrace, Bowie constitute 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 announcer Roy Eldridge), the famous paper cover of Thick equally a Brick is full of cantankerous-references and cerebral wit – merely like the music – and Anderson said it took simply equally much work.

23: Nirvana: Nevermind (pattern past Robert Fisher)

The prototype of a infant grasping at a dollar pecker became ane of grunge'south coolest and most indelible symbols, an anthology cover that captured the attitude of Nevermind and the era. The baby in question, Spencer Elden, even recreated the photo 25 years later.

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

The iconic embrace for Who's Side by side worked on ii levels: kickoff 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'south Birthday (blueprint by Roger Dean)

This cover is Roger Dean at his most vivid. When you lot walked into a tape shop, you could meet this album clear across the room.

20: Cream: Disraeli Gears (cover by Martin Sharp)

Psychedelic album covers were an art class 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 anthology'due south near vivid lyrics on "Tales of Brave Ulysses."

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19: Santana: Lotus (design by Tadanori Yokoo)

You don't necessarily go a affair of rare beauty when you load a comprehend with every bit many fold-out panels and elaborate paintings every bit an 11-inch disc tin hold, simply Santana certainly did in this case, thank you to famed Japanese designer Tadanori Yokoo. Recorded live during Santana'due south performances in Osaka, Japan, the total sleeve art is an amalgamation of Buddhist and Christian imagery, along with Yokoo's signature popular art manner.

eighteen: 10cc: How Dare You! (design by Hipgnosis)

The ubiquitous Hipgnosis team outdid itself with this ultra-clever 10cc sleeve, which is not but inspired by i of the songs (the telephone sex-themed "Don't Hang Up") just is full of hidden gags, with the same people turning up in each of the 4 main photos.

17: XTC: Become 2 (pattern by Hipgnosis)

Another Hipgnosis job, the famous album cover for XTC's Become 2 boasts a dense block of typed copy that taunts and messes with the anthology heir-apparent's head. No wonder the clever lads in XTC loved it.

sixteen: Bruce Springsteen: Built-in to Run (design by Eric Meola)

Information technology's difficult to selection one Bruce Springsteen cover, when so many take ascended to iconic status. It could have only as easily been Born in the U.s., with its Annie Liebovitz photo and Bruce in a white t-shirt and blue jeans in front end of an American flag. We decided to get instead with this kinetic photograph that captured the camaraderie of the band and the sense of rock'n'coil mission. While the album fabricated 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 encompass of The Ramone'south 1976 cocky-titled debut is pure punk rock in all its black-and-white grittiness. A expert cover became a great one the moment when a bored Johnny Ramone decided to give the lensman the finger.

14: Pixies: Surfer Rosa (pattern by Vaughan Oliver)

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

xiii: Yeah: Relayer (design by Roger Dean)

Roger Dean'southward 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 anthology, an icy winterscape that illuminates the anthology'southward state of war-and-peace theme.

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

Each one of Sinatra'southward Capitol-era album covers was absurd and classic in its own 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-prepare era.

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

If Horses wasn't plenty 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: Petty Creatures (pattern past Howard Finster)

Howard Finster'southward uniquely Southern folk fine art was a perfect match for Talking Heads' dorsum-to-roots album (and for R.E.1000.'south Reckoning around the same time). While some of Finster's work had a darker streak, for this album he accordingly chose sunshine and wonderment.

9: John Coltrane: Bluish Train (design by Reid Miles, photo past  Francis Wolff)

Near of the classic Blue Note covers were full of bright graphics and exuberant photos (and lots of exclamation marks!). Not so with John Coltrane'southward Bluish Railroad train, whose cool anthology comprehend photo and mood lighting marked information technology every bit a work to take seriously.

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

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

7: Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp A Butterfly (photo past Denis Rouvre, design by Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free)

Finding album art that captured the genre-pushing appetite of To Pimp A Butterfly was a tall order, but Kendrick Lamar and TDE were upward to the chore, every bit 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.

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half-dozen: The Rolling Stones: Allow It Bleed (design past Robert Brownjohn)

The Rolling Stones always had absurd, attention-grabbing album covers. But while Sticky Fingers has a keen story, Let It Bleed was equally unique and surreal. Taking its inspiration from the anthology'due south original title Automatic Changer, the front has the anthology on a turntable stacked with all sorts of other things. We presume the mess on the behind happened after someone pressed "starting time."

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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 Large Blood brother & the Holding Company's sophomore record was besides near 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 Nibble was a fleck anti-hippie himself.

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

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

Heed here:

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

RCA wasted no time in cleaning up Elvis, who'd wait 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 grade leads us to…

2: The Clash: London Calling (photo by Pennie Smith, design by Ray Lowry)

A rare instance where a parody (of the above Elvis cover) becomes a work of art in itself. The effortlessly cool album cover epitome of bassist Paul Simonon smashing his guitar practically screams rock'northward'roll, merely like the music inside.

1: The Beastie Boys: Paul'southward Boutique (design by Nathaniel Hornblower/Jeremy Shatan)

This beautiful, panoramic view of Ludlow Street in NYC on the album cover of Paul'southward Boutique did everything possible to put you right into the Beastie Boys' world, making information technology look both funky and inviting. Information technology also made it essential to ain the original, fold-out vinyl.

Listen here:

Looking for more? Find the worst anthology covers of all time.

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

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