It’s not all about the music in music. The sounds are the most essential component, but many other factors contribute to an album’s status as a classic. Any adjective can be used before “album cover,” as these lists are often highly subjective. All we know for confidence is that record covers considerably impact how the general public perceives a record. A well-designed album cover can still make a big impression even in this digital age. Here is our selection of the top album covers made without further ado.
1. The Beatles – ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ (1967)
Pop musicians Jann Haworth and Peter Blake designed the album cover of The Beatles’ seventh–studio album. The album’s widely mocked sleeve is a vibrant collage of The Beatles dressed as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in front of cardboard cutouts of a long list of well-known figures, including Oscar Wilde, Bob Dylan, Marlon Brando, Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Dylan Thomas, Albert Einstein, and many more. “Welcome The Rolling Stones” is printed on the doll’s jumper, which also mentions the band.
2. Pink Floyd – ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ (1973)
Created by Hipgnosis and George Hardie, this piece is based on an illustration Storm Thorgerson discovered in a 1963 physics textbook and shows light refracting from a triangular dispersive prism”. Pink Floyd considered four designs from Hipgnosis and made a unanimous choice. Decades later, Roger Waters said, “There were no arguments.” “We all pointed to the prism and told, ‘That’s the one’.”
3. Nirvana, ‘Nevermind’ (1991)
One of the most iconic record covers ever features a naked, submerged baby reaching for a dollar bill hanging on a thread, signifying the values our culture instills in our children. A judge rejected the Nevermind baby’s complaint in 2022 when it was filed three decades later, by which time he was a grown man.
4. Led Zeppelin – ‘Led Zeppelin’ (1969)
A black-and-white photograph of the Hindenburg tragedy, which took place in Manchester Township, New Jersey, on May 6, 1937, and claimed 36 lives, appears on the cover of Led Zeppelin’s self-titled first album. Using a radiograph pen and ink, graphic artist George Hardie made the cover image based on the famous shot taken by Sam Shere.
5. The Rolling Stones, ‘Sticky Fingers’ (1971)
The Rolling Stones contacted Andy Warhol in 1969 to design the cover for their next best hits album, Through the Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2). Warhol’s design for the set appears to have never been used, and the album cover for Sticky Fingers was the first to implement his idea of using a functional zipper. The set, which featured graphic design by Craig Braun and images by Warhol (which centered on the protruding pants of an anonymous male model), would be nominated for a Grammy Award for the best album cover.
6. The Clash – ‘London Calling’ (1979)
The cover art for The Clash’s ‘London Calling’ album is a black-and-white shot by Pennie Smith that shows bassist Paul Simonon destroying his Fender Precision Bass at the Palladium in New York City. Ray Lowry designed the design, which references Elvis Presley’s self-titled first album from 23 years ago with its pink and green text and black-and-white imagery.
7. Bad Company – ‘Straight Shooter’ (1975)
“Feel Like Makin’ Love,” “Shooting Star,” and “Good Lovin’ Gone Bad” are some band singles from their Straight Shooter album, which is still a masterpiece on classic rock radio, as people can also enjoy at Trusted online casino with music-themed games. One of the band’s most recognizable jacket designs is the album cover, which showed two dice in mid-throw on a gaming table. It was an eye-catching image.
8. The Who – ‘Who’s Next’ (1971)
A parody of Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, ‘Who’s Next?’ shows an image by Ethan Russell of a massive slab of concrete stuck in a slag heap at County Durham’s Easington Colliery. The Who’s Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon, and John Entwistle are leaving the menacing monolith after what appears to be a urinal incident.
9. David Bowie – ‘Aladdin Sane’ (1973)
The genuinely classic ‘Aladdin Sane’ sleeve, photographed by British photographer Brian Duffy in his north London studio, depicts a naked and alien-like Bowie with red hair and a red-and-blue lightning bolt across his face. A solitary teardrop cascades down his collarbone. One of the most iconic pictures of Bowie, the artwork–has been termed “the Mona Lisa of album covers” by reviewer Mick McCann.
10. AC/DC – ‘Back in Black’ (1980)
AC/DC’s first album after the loss of lead vocalist Bon Scott had a fittingly austere, dark, and forceful cover. It was a straightforward outline of the band’s recognizable emblem, with the title written in a basic font that matched the music’s simplicity, heaviness, straightforwardness, and ruthless effectiveness.
