Chello. I compiled and revised ...and re-revised this list over the last few weeks before publishing it at my website. It is of 'unforgettable' album covers. The list contains forty-seven album covers that are most unique / artful and/or are the covers that seemed to stick in many people's brains through the decades. The list is in no particular order or ranking. Yes .. naturally The Stones have a few entrees.

Cheers -

My 47 List of Unforgettable Album Covers



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-08-14 20:37 by IanBillen.

The Marvin Gaye cover they used to show at the end of the TV show Good Times as the end credits came on.

Nice Ian - I'd like to add a few:

Led Zeppelin I
Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Street Survivors (original cover)
The Clash - London Calling
The Clash - Give 'em Enough Rope
Bob Marley and the Wailers - Catch a Fire (spliff version)
Neil Young - Time Fades Away
X - Los Angeles
Woodstock
Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet (both versions)
Dead Kennedy's - In God We Trust, Inc. (12"EP)
Black Sabbath -Self titled first album
The Beatles - White Album

Just to name a few...

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-08-14 07:41 by Hairball.

The first Sabbath album cover made me feel uneasy.

Don't forget....
The Howlin' Wolf rocking chair cover …….



ROCKMAN

It's a list of great album covers...
So then they ought to list the DESIGNERS of the covers!

Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits:

Artwork
The album's cover art was designed by Ernie Cefalu and features a sepia-toned Drew Struzan illustration of the band members in front of a 1930s garage, accompanied by such period movie stars as Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Robert Taylor, Edward G. Robinson, Jean Harlow, Peter Lorre, and Groucho Marx. The inner sleeve features a similar illustration of the band surrounded by these and other stars of the 1920s, '30s and '40s, including the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in the upper middle. The album was released by Friday Music records on vinyl in 2013 with a Gatefold cover, mimicking the 1974 Australian release of the album,[2] which was the only territory where it was originally released with a Gatefold sleeve.

Let's add three more, so we have another top 50 list;

Queen II
Never mind the bollocks
Exile

Interesting choice of the Undercover LP. It comes as a splash of colour. I presume it's being listed as memorable but bad, it doesn't usually make it on to the best-of lists. Among my favourite Stones LP covers is 'Get Yer Ya Ya's Out' with Charlie jumping for joy. It often gets listed in the best-of and worst-of categories.

A good to bad list of Stones LP covers would be interesting although I think for every one of us there would be a different running order.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2019-08-14 15:51 by MrTurner.

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IanBillen
Chello. I compiled and revised and re-revised this list over the last few weeks. It is of 'unforgettable' album covers. The list contains forty-seven album covers that are most unique / artful and/or are the covers that seemed to stick in many people's brains through the decades. The list is in no particular order or ranking. Yes .. naturally The Stones have a few entrees.

Cheers -

My 47 List of Unforgettable Album Covers

I would have a tricky time explaining exactly why I think this - but I see a very common theme or estetic in your 47 choices. there is something they all share.

A relatively weak Whacko album cover made it - one that is completely forgettable - yet The Cult's ELECTRIC or SONIC TEMPLE didn't!

Stupid.

Quote
Palace Revolution 2000

Quote
IanBillen
Chello. I compiled and revised and re-revised this list over the last few weeks. It is of 'unforgettable' album covers. The list contains forty-seven album covers that are most unique / artful and/or are the covers that seemed to stick in many people's brains through the decades. The list is in no particular order or ranking. Yes .. naturally The Stones have a few entrees.

Cheers -

My 47 List of Unforgettable Album Covers

I would have a tricky time explaining exactly why I think this - but I see a very common theme or estetic in your 47 choices. there is something they all share.

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All 47 share a theme or aesthetic? I won't take offense .. and I'll honestly explain if it's so or not or whatever it is (but I have no idea what the common aesthetic or common thing could be?).

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MrTurner
Interesting choice of the Undercover LP. It comes as a splash of colour. I presume it's being listed as memorable but bad, it doesn't usually make it on to the best-of lists. Among my favourite Stones LP covers is 'Get Yer Ya Ya's Out' with Charlie jumping for joy. It often gets listed in the best-of and worst-of categories.

A good to bad list of Stones LP covers would be interesting although I think for every one of us there would be a different running order.

__________________________________________



The Undercover album cover has always been a favorite of mine. Yes .. I think it's purposefully tacky ... yet I think it's very artistic at the same time.

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nick
The Marvin Gaye cover they used to show at the end of the TV show Good Times as the end credits came on.

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Good call.

Quote
Hairball
Nice Ian - I'd like to add a few:

Led Zeppelin I
Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Street Survivors (original cover)
The Clash - London Calling
The Clash - Give 'em Enough Rope
Bob Marley and the Wailers - Catch a Fire (spliff version)
Neil Young - Time Fades Away
X - Los Angeles
Woodstock
Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet (both versions)
Dead Kennedy's - In God We Trust, Inc. (12"EP)
Black Sabbath -Self titled first album
The Beatles - White Album

Just to name a few...

_______________________________________



Nice selections.... Sa!

How could I have forgetten EXILE which is a MUST for any list such as this?!!!

Read all about it: Exile

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Some classics, some really lame pedestrian covers.

No velvet underground banana?

No dead?

Supertramp instead?

Maybe it's the version on my phone, but is there some explanations for your choices Ian, or just a list of 47 pretty covers?

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peoplewitheyes
Maybe it's the version on my phone, but is there some explanations for your choices Ian, or just a list of 47 pretty covers?

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The reasons the ones that were selected are for those that are a hand-full:

1. memorable ..
2. introduced an artist coming of age ..
3. aesthetics .. etc.
4. turning point in ones career

etc. However the basis / strongest factor was that of the aesthetic factor.


I did not want this list to be like all the others ..with London Calling .. Velvet Undergrounds first one etc. etc. I also wanted to give light to some other ones that don't get the exposure the deserve.

As well .. this list is based on the covers .. not so much the music on the release (for once ha).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-08-14 22:09 by IanBillen.

Who's Next

Good for you for staying away from some of the oft-chosen classics. I was looking forward to reading some personal reflections on each one though,,,,

I think Pink Floyd takes the album cover spot.
Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here are both great album covers
Santana Abraxis is another one.
I use to have a book called Hipgnosis which told about album covers but it was lost between moves from Australia to the States and back and back and back.

See here:

[www.amazon.com]

It's a great book if you're into artwork.

Obviously Who's Next

Axis bold as love

Bringing it all back home

Covers that actually are memorable

So Appetite For Des. is "unforgettable" ? etc
Whatever

Another Green World by Brian Eno should be here.

Rolling Stones choices are OK.

A few suggestions from memory:

Judas Priest - Stained Class, British Steel
Led Zeppelin - any cover, really, except II and III
Black Sabbath - Never Say Die!
Blondie - Plastic Letters
Cheap Trick - At Budokan
Blue Oyster Cult - On Your Feet Or On Your Knees
Rush - A Farewell To Kings, Moving Pictures
Van Halen - Van Halen
The Tubes - Remote Control, The Completion Backward Principle
Supertramp - Crime Of The Century
The Kinks - Muswell Hillbillies, Misfits, Low Budget

Van Halen 1
KISS Alive 2
AC/DC If You Want Blood
Maiden Killers or Number of the Beast
Alice Cooper Killer

Spinal Tap Smell The Glove!

Great list Ian, especially the choice of Madonna, 10CC and No Doubt......

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Velvet UG first record ... London Calling .. etc. Every list has those and some others ... and not for anything but IMO Velvet Undergrounds Banana cover by Warhol is of the most overrated album covers of all time.


*I very much appreciate everyone's perspective and what they would of chose or not chose (it's all part of the fun / pleasure of compiling such list's IMO).

However with that said .. there are explanations but there are no apologies. I chose what I thought was fitting and deserved to be on the list .. and the list will stand -


IB

I'd've added Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells!

stonesstein

Kick me like you did before
I can't even feel the pain no more
Rocks Off, 1972