RATE THE ALBUM COVERS First to…not first!

As we're getting a new album in a couple of months, which I quite like the cover (and it's a bit controversial which is great), I thought to myself, how would it rate next to everything else? So I compiled my list.

I didn’t include any I considered “non-core”, like the 21st century live releases from yesteryear. Feel free to add those to yours though.

Some of the ones I really dislike, like Dirty Work, I rate higher than say Steel Wheels. With Steel Wheels the problem with that is that it’s just so bland that I don’t care about it. They could have just put it in a white sleeve with a tongue stamp (actually that worked ok for Miss You 12”).


OK, here goes…

1. Sticky Fingers – says absolutely everything about the band, and what you’re going to hear inside. Far and away their most iconic of all time, and maybe THE most iconic of all time.
2. Treacle Fingers (Spanish Sticky) - severed hand coming out of a can of Fowler's Molasses? It's Epic!
3. Let It Bleed
4. Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out
5. Exile on Main Street
6. Between The Buttons
7. Black and Blue
8. Aftermath (UK)
9. Through The Past Darkly
10. The Rolling Stones (debut)/England’s Newest Hitmakers
11. Some Girls
12. Tattoo You
13. Hot Rocks
14. Aftermath US
15. Rolling Stones Now
16. Beggars Banquet (toilet cover)
17. Out Of Our Heads (UK)
18. Out Of Our Heads (US)
19. Made In The Shade
20. Beggars Banquet (invitation cover)
21. Rolling Stones No. 2
22. Their Satanic Majesties Request
23. Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass)
24. Foreign Tongues
25. Love You Live
26. Undercover
27. Goats Head Soup
28. It’s Only Rock and Roll
29. Stripped
30. More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies)
31. Got Live If You Want It
32. Shine A Light
33. Live Licks
34. Still Life
35. Emotional Rescue
36. Metamorphosis
37. No Security
38. Rewind
39. Jump Back
40. Voodoo Lounge
41. Hackney Diamonds
42. 40 Licks
43. A Bigger Bang
44. Dirty Work
45. Bridges To Babylon
46. GRRR!
47. Honk
48. Blue and Lonesome
49. Flashpoint
50. Steel Wheels



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2026-05-10 13:14 by bv.

Over the years I've slowly come to realize that Black and Blue, unfolded out to display the wrap-around photo, is my favorite Stones album cover.

I may list a few more later. But -- and this will be an unpopular opinion -- I've always thought that for the World's Greatest Rock n Roll Band, their tastes in graphic arts fell well short of what their music deserves.

(I've always suspected that if Mick had just turned that part entirely over to Charlie, the results would have been better... or more to my own tastes, anyway. But I'll never know,)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2026-05-07 03:45 by TheBluesHadaBaby.

Quote
TheBluesHadaBaby
Over the years I've slowly come to realize that Black and Blue, unfolded out to display the wrap-around photo, is my favorite Stones album cover.

I may list a few more later. But -- and this will be an unpopular opinion -- I've always thought that for the World's Greatest Rock n Roll Band, their tastes in graphic arts fell well short of what their music deserves.

(I've always suspected that if Mick had just turned that part entirely over to Charlie, the reaults would have been better... or more to my own tastes, anyway. But I'll never know,)

It's a great cover and the vibe of it totally meshes with the content. It's a top ten pick for me.

My top are probably

1. Sticky Fingers

2. Goats Head Soup

3. The Rolling Stones

4. The Rolling Stones No. 2

5. Tattoo You

6. Their Satanic Majesties Request

7. Let It Bleed

8. Steel Wheels

9. December's Children

10. Dirty Work (pure kitch charm!)

Exile
Tattoo
Some Girls
Sticky
Bleed
Love you live
original Beggers
undercover

Of 25 original album covers - not hits or live - I will do a top ten of what I like.

1. Tattoo You
2. Sticky Fingers
3. Some Girls
4. Let It Bleed
5. Undercover
6. Beggars Banquet - the RSVP
7. Black And Blue
8. GHS
9. IORR
10. EOMS

just the studio albums excluding some of the early us ones

1. exile
2. some girls
3. beggars (toilet version)
4. iorr
5. let it bleed
6. out of our heads (uk)
7. sticky fingers
8. the rolling stones
9. tattoo you
10. black and blue
11. foreign tongues
12. no. 2
13. goats head soup
14. undercover
15. satanic
16. voodoo
17. emotional rescue
18. flowers
19. aftermath (uk)
20. out of our heads (us)
21. dirty work
22. aftermath (us)
23. a bigger bang
24. steel wheels
25. between the buttons
26. beggars (1st version)
27. hackney diamonds
28. blue and lonesome
29. babylon

now let's do the best bootleg covers



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2026-05-07 07:14 by ProfessorWolf.

Top 10:

1. The Rolling Stones
2. Sticky Fingers
3. Some Girls
4. Exile On Main Street
5. Out Of Our Heads UK
6. Beggars Banquet (toilet)
7. Black And Blue
8. Let It Bleed
9. Their Satanic Majesties Request
10. Tattoo You

1. Sticky Fingers
2. Exile On Main St
3. Their Satanic Majesties Request
4. Black And Blue
5. Let It Bleed
6. Beggars Banquet
7. Some Girls
8. No 2
9. Out Of Our Heads
10. Goats Head Soup

1. The Rolling Stones, The Rolling Stones 2, Out Of Our Heads, Aftermath etc...
(all of them just showing 5 faces)
2. Black & Blue
3. Exile On Main Street
4. Tattoo You
5. Beggar's Banquet (the toilet version)
6. Some Girls
7. Foreign Tongues
8. Get Yer Ya Ya's Out
9. Sticky Fingers
10. Let It Bleed

Pretty much all other covers are either too ugly, stupid or mediocre.

Considering the quality of Stones music I find quite a number of their album covers quite ugly. Actually I have a sweet spot for most of their 60s catalogue. Some of the 1960s album are real piece of Art, whereas most of the album covers from It's only rock´n roll and onwards feels more or less kitchy.
My favourites:
1. Aftermath (UK)
2. December's Children
3. Between the Buttons
4. TSMR
5. Rolling Stones No 2
6. Let it Bleed

From 1970 and onwards Sticky Fingers is absolutely No 1
I would also like to give an appraisal word to the EP Covers from the 60s

Pretty sure this new one is dead last for me LOL

1-Sticky Fingers
2-Let It Bleed
3-Some Girls
4-Tattoo You
5-It‘s Only Rock and Roll.
6-Black and Blue
7-Still Life
8-Out of Our Heads (U.S.A.)
9-Beggars Banquet (No Toilette)
10-Trough The Past Dsrkly.

Quote
Lynd8
Pretty sure this new one is dead last for me LOL

and my argument, even if you find it ugly, is at least they "tried something original".

I like it but regardless, even if I hated it, for me it's better than throwing a blue tongue on the cover - just no imagination, or a gorilla named Gregory - ugly and worse, without point.

Day one of seeing the cover for FOREIGN TONGUES I thought they were attempting to unseat DIRTY WORK for worst album cover of all time.

However, the more I see it the more I like it. The absurdity of it being a mish mash in a Picasso meets... or just flat out Sebastian Krüger.

Best cover for me is defintiv "Sticky Fingers"
Everything that defines the Stones is captured in this cover !
The ugliest one is (for me) definitely the "Gregory" cover "Grrr"

1. Sticky Fingers
2. Let It Bleed
3. Beggars Banquet (toilet)
4. The Rolling Stones
5. Tattoo You
6. Big Hits (High Tide And Green Grass)
7. Some Girls
8. Their Satanic Majesties Request
9. Dirty Work
10.Exile On Main Street

The best cover, IMO, was Sticky Fingers & this new cover for Foreign Tongues is just plain ugly! It has to be the very WORST! If album sales were based on cover art, they'll be lucky to sell 1000 copies!

1 - Sticky Fingers
.
.
.
.
even Dirty Work and Grrr can't compete with
the very last - Rarities

Ya Ya’s
Tattoo You
Some Girls(unedited)
Out of our Heads
Between the Buttons
Exile
Newest Hit Makers
IORR
Satanic 3D
Foreign Tongues

Through the Past
Sticky fingers
Black n blue
Rolling Stones 1
There's Satanic

If anyone can explain what redeeming features the Undercover album cover possesses, I’d be delighted to know. I looked at it and thought ‘yuck’ 43 years ago and I look at it exactly the same way. I was busy on the day of release and asked a friend who was going into town to pick it up for me. He was not amused.

Fantastic

Through The Past Darkly UK - Undercover - Emotional Rescue - Sticky Fingers, Exile, Black and Blue, Some Girls, Tattoo You, Dirty Work, The Rolling Stones (debut), Out Of Our Heads (UK)/ December Beggars Banquet (invitation cover) Between the Buttons, Hot Rocks

Very good

Aftermath (UK), Foreign Tongues - GRRR! - Love You Live - Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out, Made In The Shade, Still Life, Rolling Stones Now, Out Of Our Heads (US), Steel Wheels, BIG HITS (HIGH TIDE AND GREEN GRASS)

Objectively good but I don't like very much

Aftermath US Goats Head Soup - Let It Bleed, Beggars Banquet (toilet cover) More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies) It’s Only Rock and Roll Flowers

Objectively so so but I like

Rewind - Live Licks Hackney Diamonds Flashpoint , Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass)

uninspired, so so and I dislike, plain bad

No Security - Shine A Light - Jump Back - Voodoo - Metamorphosis - Their Satanic Majesties Request - Blue and Lonesome - Stripped - Babylon - Honk - 40 Licks - Bigger Bang - Treacle - Fingers (sorry) Got Live If You Want It - England’s Newest Hitmakers - RS 12x5 / RS n.2


C

Quote
bakersfield
If anyone can explain what redeeming features the Undercover album cover possesses, I’d be delighted to know. I looked at it and thought ‘yuck’ 43 years ago and I look at it exactly the same way. I was busy on the day of release and asked a friend who was going into town to pick it up for me. He was not amused.

Ha ha. I disagree with you about the cover, but I have to say I understand why your friend wasn't amused. I bought it again, about a year ago, whatever the most recent reissue was, on sale at a local drugstore, London Drugs. I'm so used to the cover now you don't even think about the naked S&M woman on the cover. The sales clerk scanning it in looks at it and just looks at me - I can't imagine what she was thinking, but from her eyes I know it wasn't positive. You just have to laugh.

Damn those Rolling Stones and their ugly covers!

Quote
liddas
Fantastic

Through The Past Darkly UK - Undercover - Emotional Rescue - Sticky Fingers, Exile, Black and Blue, Some Girls, Tattoo You, Dirty Work, The Rolling Stones (debut), Out Of Our Heads (UK)/ December Beggars Banquet (invitation cover) Between the Buttons, Hot Rocks

Very good

Aftermath (UK), Foreign Tongues - GRRR! - Love You Live - Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out, Made In The Shade, Still Life, Rolling Stones Now, Out Of Our Heads (US), Steel Wheels, BIG HITS (HIGH TIDE AND GREEN GRASS)

Objectively good but I don't like very much

Aftermath US Goats Head Soup - Let It Bleed, Beggars Banquet (toilet cover) More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies) It’s Only Rock and Roll Flowers

Objectively so so but I like

Rewind - Live Licks Hackney Diamonds Flashpoint , Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass)

uninspired, so so and I dislike, plain bad

No Security - Shine A Light - Jump Back - Voodoo - Metamorphosis - Their Satanic Majesties Request - Blue and Lonesome - Stripped - Babylon - Honk - 40 Licks - Bigger Bang - Treacle - Fingers (sorry) Got Live If You Want It - England’s Newest Hitmakers - RS 12x5 / RS n.2


C

Ha ha!

Top 5

1. Sticky Fingers
2. Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out
3. The Rolling Stones (UK, no titles)
4. Stripped
5. Steel Wheels

Bottom 5

5. Honk
4. Blue And Lonesome
3. Dirty Work
2. Shine A Light
1. Grrr!

Still on the fence with Foreign Tongues. It's ugly but at least it's not generic like Blue & Lonesome or Honk. Maybe I will like it more when I see it in big, vinyl format.

Quote
bakersfield
If anyone can explain what redeeming features the Undercover album cover possesses,

Remove the stickers!

C

In no particular order, today my top 5 would be.....

Still Life
Ya-Yas
Black & Blue
Some Girls
Let it Bleed

I really like the 5x5 EP cover as well.

Best:

Exile On Main St.
Black And Blue
The Rolling Stones
Out Of Our Heads (US)
Between The Buttons (UK)
Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out
Still Life
Flashpoint
Voodoo Lounge

Worst:
Bridges To Babylon (by far!)
No Security
A Bigger Bang
Hackney Diamonds
Aftermath
Love You Live
Some Girls

(not counting compilations)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2026-05-08 19:27 by SomeGuy.

When the LP format was king album covers mattered the most. Not so much anymore. The CD format and now streaming rendered it less importance. At least to me.

Quote
Stoneage
When the LP format was king album covers mattered the most. Not so much anymore. The CD format and now streaming rendered it less importance. At least to me.

Well, if you're a dinosaur that's still buying vinyl - like me - it hasn't lessened in importance but you are likely correct.

Have to say how fun it is that my kids buy new vinyl releases from their favourite artists. A pity vinyl is so damn expensive.