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10 items

10. The Velvet Underground, ‘The Velvet Underground & Nico’

Andy Warhol got credit for producing the Velvet Underground's 1967 debut LP, but his exact role in the creation of the album has always been a little murky. The cover, however, was entirely his project. Early versions of his famous banana print cover said "peel slowly and see," and there was a peel-away banana sticker […]

9. Pink Floyd, ‘Wish You Were Here’

Hollywood stuntmen Ronnie Rondell and Danny Rogers worked on nearly 200 movies – including Speed, Titanic, Beverly Hills Cop, Bad Boys and Waterworld. They remain best known for a single photograph taken on the Warner Bros. backlot in 1975. For the cover of Wish You Were Here, Rondell wore a business suit over a flame retardant […]

8. Bruce Springsteen, ‘Born To Run’

The cover of Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run was shot by Eric Meola during just two and a half hours in June of 1975. "They came in at 10:00 a.m," Meola recalled in a 2006 interview. "They were exhausted. They looked as if they'd been up all night . . . It was a statement about […]

7. The Beatles, ‘Revolver’

German-born artist and musician Klaus Voorman was a longtime friend of the Beatles, and an obvious choice to draw the Revolver cover. The group played him their new track "Tomorrow Never Knows" before he sketched his first draft. "They were being so avant-grarde," Voorman has said. "I thought the cover has to do the same […]

6. The Rolling Stones, ‘Sticky Fingers’

The second album on our list designed by Andy Warhol, Sticky Fingers was the Rolling Stones' first album for Atlantic Records – which gave them the freedom and budget to mass-produce this cover with an actual zipper. When unzipped, it revealed white underwear with the Rolling Stones' tongue logo on it. Contrary to legend, the […]

5. The Clash, ‘London Calling’

Pennie Smith was snapping photos of the Clash at New York's Palladium in September of 1979 when she captured one of the most iconic images in rock history. Paul Simonon was annoyed by the relatively quiet audience, so he began smashing his bass against the floor. "The Palladium had fixed seating, so the audience was […]

4. The Beatles, ‘Abbey Road’

Beatles nuts who believed that Paul McCartney died around 1967 and had been replaced by a dopplegänger found a lot to examine on the cover of Abbey Road. They saw the picture as a funeral procession: John (covered in white) is the preacher, Ringo (in black) is the mourner, George (in denim) is the gravedigger […]

3. Nirvana, ‘Nevermind’

Spencer Elden, the naked baby on the cover of Nirvana's Nevermind, has a great pick-up line with the ladies: "Want to see my penis . . . again." In 2007 interview with MTV, Elden said he feels weird about his bizarre role in history. "It's kind of creepy that many people have seen me naked," he […]

2. Pink Floyd – Dark Side Of The Moon

Until Dark Side Of The Moon, Pink Floyd album covers hadn't been very memorable. British design group Hipgnosis hadn't done very good jobs with Floyd's previous two albums, Obscured By Clouds and Meddle, but they had a good track record with other acts – and so the group hired them again in 1973 for Dark […]

1. The Beatles, ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’

The cover of the Beatles' 1967 LP Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is, without a doubt, one of the most iconic images in the history of rock & roll. The photo was originally going to show the Beatles (in their Sgt. Pepper's outfits) playing in a park. That slowly evolved into the final concept, […]