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The coolest, best, greatest, most iconic, most famous album covers of best. It doesn't really matter what sort of adjective yous want to put information technology in front of the words "anthology embrace," because lists of this sort of are always incredibly subjective. What nosotros can say for sure, though, is that album covers are vitally of import to how a record is received by the public. (It'due south hard to imagine Sgt. Pepper'southward with the cover to the White Album and vice versa.) Even in today's digital age, a cool record cover can take a huge impact. (Artists every bit varied as Immature Thug and Glass Animals tin can attest to that.) Then, without further ado, here is our pick of only 100 of the greatest record covers of best.

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

Bandleader Cyril Hashemite kingdom of jordan's 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 there to remind y'all how much fun stone'n'roll was supposed to be.

99: The Bee Gees: Odessa

If The Beatles could do a double "White Album," the Bee Gees could do a fuzzy ruddy one. The crimson velvet cover, with golden embossed lettering, served find that Odessa was going to exist unique and beautiful, which it was.

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

Beggars Feast is a rare case where an album'southward two famous covers actually complement each other. Put the notorious bathroom cover together with the engraved invitation on the US replacement, and you've got the yin and the yang of The Rolling Stones at the fourth dimension.

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97: Ol' Dingy Bounder: Return to the 36 Chambers: The Muddied Version (design past Alli Truch, photo by Danny Clinch)

Whenever hip-hop started to take itself also seriously, ODB was there to disrupt, agitate, and give the centre finger to convention. Forgoing any blinged-out tropes, the quondam Wu-Tang member put a doctored version of his welfare ID carte du jour on the front cover of his solo debut, as both a reminder of where he came from and to destigmatize beingness on public assistance. As he rapped on Wu-Tang's "Domestic dog Sh_t,": "Got meals simply still grill that old expert welfare cheese."

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

On an album that made a mad nuance through the whole of pop history, Nick Lowe pictured himself in a bunch of dissimilar guises, from rockabilly hoodlum to sensitive balladeer (there were unlike pics on the US and UK versions), all with tongue firmly in cheek.

95: Jefferson Airplane: Long John Silverish (design by Pacific Centre & Ear)

Jefferson Airplane's Long John Silvery hails from the golden age of elaborate album covers. Since people were already using LPs to shop and make clean marijuana, the Airplane gave yous a cardboard box holder for it, along with the pot, or at to the lowest degree a realistic-looking photo.

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

Whatever creative person who dares to look this terrifying on the embrace of their first album deserves all the platinum success they go. Inspired by the album's themes of the subconscious, the dark sleeve of Billie Eilish'due south When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Become? served notice that Eilish was here to mess with your caput.

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93: Parliament: Mothership Connexion (photo by David Alexander, design by Gribbitth)

George Clinton'due south gonzoid accept on outer-infinite chance institute its perfect match in the effortlessly cool spaceship-party comprehend for Parliament'south Mothership Connection . The fact that it looked remarkably depression budget only made it funkier.

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

Walking a razor-sparse line between exploitation and cultural commentary was the Geto Boys' modus operandi, and nothing exemplified this dynamic more than their famous 1991 album embrace fine art. The graphic photo of Bushwick Bill at the hospital was every bit unflinching equally their music.

91: The Cars: Candy-O (design by Alberto Vargas)

Alberto Vargas was already the virtually famous pin-up artist before designing the famous cover for The Cars archetype 1979 album Candy-O, only this painting of a stylish redhead, on a car of course, became his most famous piece. Candy-O is i of the two best uses of pin-upward art on a rock record, along with…

90: Courtney Dearest: America'due south 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 pin-up creative person (known professionally every bit Olivia) to pigment her. Of course, it got an extra dimension past playing with Love'south ain paradigm at the fourth dimension.

89: The Rolling Stones: Their Satanic Majesties Request (design by Michael Cooper)

The Rolling Stones probably couldn't beat the Beatles for a psychedelic album in 1967, but they arguably had the cooler album cover, the first 3D sleeve in stone. Ten points if you can find where the Beatles are hiding in the 3D image on Their Satanic Majesties Asking.

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88: Public Paradigm Ltd: The Flowers of Romance

PiL's follow-upwardly to their famous Metal Box album cover was even cooler, showing non-performing bandmember Jeanette Lee with a rose in her teeth, a weapon in her hand, and a murderous wait in her eyes.

87: The Velvet Cloak-and-dagger: The Velvet Underground & Nico (design by Andy Warhol)

It was weird, it was witty, it was Warhol. The famous minimalism of The Velvet Hush-hush & Nico skin-away banana anthology cover became an influence on punk visual style many years later and remains 1 of the greatest album covers.

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86: The Miracles: How-do-you-do, We're The Miracles (design past Wakefield & Mitchell)

The cool album cover for The Miracles' 1961 debut encapsulates the onetime-schoolhouse showbiz that Motown would soon lead the world away from. But it'southward then cheerful that you lot still have to dear it.

85: The Get-Gos: Beauty & the Shell (blueprint by Ginger Canzoneri, Mike Doud, Mick Haggerty, Vartan)

The Go-Get's sense of playful subversion extended to their sendup of glamorous encompass photos on their hit debut, Beauty & The Crush . Information technology was their political party; you could bring together if they let you.

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

This famous album embrace did wonders with its uncomplicated strategy. On his Dr. Dre's solo debut The Chronic , the design causeless that Dre was already an icon and presented him accordingly.

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83: Quincy Jones: The Dude (pattern by Fanizani Akuda)

Jeff Bridges' got nada on the original "The Dude," the effortlessly absurd and quixotic album cover character that appears on Quincy Jones' genre-blending solo debut. Q e'er had an ear for talent – equally his cross-cultural LP proved – just he as well had an center for design. (He spotted the eponymous "Dude" statue at an art gallery and took it home for inspiration.)

82: Cocteau Twins: Heaven or Las Vegas (blueprint past Paul West)

The design-centric 4AD characterization did some of its finest work for the Cocteau Twins album covers. This shimmering image is undeniably beautiful, still yous never know merely what information technology means…just like their music.

81: James Dark-brown: Hell (blueprint past Joe Belt)

Arriving i twelvemonth subsequently his milestone anthology The Payback , Dark-brown delivered the double-album Hell, which chosen out societal ills both on record and on the elaborately illustrated comprehend. Designed by artist Joe Belt, who made his proper noun capturing the characters of the Wild West, Belt trained his aim on another dark chapter of American history, depicting fallen soldiers, addicts, and an imprisoned populace. One of the most famous funk anthology covers ever.

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

I of the greatest metal covers ever designed, designer Larry Carroll packed a thousand nightmares into this Bosch-like painting for Slayer's thrash masterpiece Reign in Blood , which influenced metallic imagery for decades to come.

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

Robert Fripp saw this dramatic painting after In the Court of the Reddish King was completed and knew it perfectly suited the music, with the crazed cover figure as the 21st century schizoid human. Sadly, the artist passed away merely months afterwards.

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

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

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

One of the well-nigh famous anthology covers of recent vintage. Kanye West brings the minimalist "White Album" concept to the CD era. You lot could also run into Yeezus as the last celebration of the physical CD before it disappeared.

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76: Elvis Presley: fifty,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong (design by Bob Jones)

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

75: Black Flag: My State of war (pattern past Raymond Pettibon)

Black Flag'south trailblazing punk-metal wouldn't have been the same without Pettibon's grisly comic images, though in this case, not quite every bit grisly as the album itself.

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

The abstraction of the Talking Heads' beautiful, moving-parts cover for their 1983 record Speaking in Tongues couldn't have better represented the music within. It would have been rated college if the matter wasn't so tough to store.

73: The Mothers of Invention: We're Just In It for the Money (pattern by Cal Schenkel)

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

72: The Pogues: Peace and Love (design by Simon Ryan)

1 of the greatest joke album covers, the boxer was already a perfect epitome for the Pogues, but don't miss the subtle bit of play here. (The discussion "peace" of course has five letters.)

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

Rush's greatest album covers expressed both their one thousand concepts and their cognitive sense of sense of humour. In this staged cover for Moving Pictures , which features many of the characters from the songs, we detect at least three different visual plays on the album's title.

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70: The Beatles: Abbey Road (design by John Kosh)

Every bit it turns out, The Beatles were just too lazy to go to Mt. Everest – yes, that was the original program – so they came up with something just every bit memorable past leaving the studio and crossing the street, resulting in the famous Abbey Road album comprehend. Information technology'south since gone done equally 1 of the greatest of all time.

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

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

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68: Joe Jackson: I'thousand the Homo (pattern past Michael Ross)

There's plenty of punk mental attitude on Joe Jackson'south album cover for I'm the Man, where he portrays the hero of the title song – a sleazy grapheme who'll sell you annihilation – as long as y'all don't really demand it.

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

Okay, then it was a piffling graphic and provocative, merely as the single well-nigh controversial thing The Beatles ever did (and the virtually expensive for an original), the embrace of Yesterday and Today surely earns a place on a list of the greatest album covers.

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

There were nearly every bit many copies of Alice Cooper's School's Out in 1970s loftier schools as there were bodily schoolhouse desks. Ten 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 here. As e'er, his daughter Nina's name was hidden a few times in this famous anthology cover.

64: Eric B. & Rakim: Paid in Total (design by Ron Contarsy)

Between the rappers' Gucci-style outfits and the piles of coin in the background, the cover for Eric B. and Rakim's sophomore anthology Paid in Total said it all near going bigtime in 1987 and is considered one of the greatest album covers in hip-hop.

63: Joy Sectionalisation: Unknown Pleasures (design by Peter Saville)

The cover of Joy Division'due south 1979 debut tape is an actual depiction of radio waves. This stark black-and-white comprehend became so iconic that it'southward at present worn proudly on T-shirts by teens who've never heard of the ring.

62: Funkadelic: Maggot Brain (photo by Joel Brodsky, blueprint by The Graffiteria/Paula Bisacca)

P-funk'southward 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 cover 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 carry out their wildest ideas. The encompass for the British prog-stone outfit Family's 1971 album is a multi-foldout caricature and features an early on computer graphic, adding the individual band photos to each other until they become the pretty mistiness at top right.

60: The Beatles: Meet the Beatles! (design by Robert Freeman)

The somber, shadowed photo featured on both the US and UK anthology version of See The Beatles! was just the opposite of the grinning picture show that everybody expected to meet, and the first of many conduct-overs from the Beatles' art-school days.

59: Pink Floyd: Ummagumma (design by Hipgnosis)

Most of Pink Floyd'due south covers would be in the running for a list of the greatest anthology covers, but nosotros 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 photo (except that the ring rotates one position in each), matching their sense of surrealism.

58: Metallica: …And Justice For All (pattern past Stephen Gorman)

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

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57: The Mamas & The Papas: If You lot Can Believe Your Optics and Ears (design by Guy Webster)

With all four bandmembers together in a bathtub, the cover said more than about The Mamas & The Papas than what was probably intended. The toilet on the original cover of If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears also proved to exist a no-no in 1966.

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56: Madonna: Madonna (pattern 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 can see everything that's going to happen to her in the next 40 years.

55: 10cc: X Out Of x (blueprint by Hipgnosis)

The embrace for Ten Out Of 10 remains one of Hipgnosis' fiendishly clever 10cc covers and one of their more overlooked albums. Hither they're on the 10th floor of a hotel standing at the precipice, and merely one of the guys seems concerned well-nigh it.

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

A nod to how Thelonious Monk must've felt as a pioneering jazz artist, Clandestine casts the pianist equally a French Resistance fighter in WWII. Columbia Records art manager John Berg was responsible for iconic covers like Bob Dylan'southward Greatest Hits and Bruce Springsteen's Built-in To Run, but this was probable 1 of his more expensive: They congenital an entire gear up, complete with costumed extras, to create Monk's absorbing album cover.

53: Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin Two (pattern by David Juniper)

It was an fine art-school friend of Jimmy Page's who created this mythic cover by superimposing the bandmembers over a famous shot of WWI German fighter pilot the "Red Businesswoman" and his crew. Many Americans wondered what Lucille Ball was doing there but information technology was actually French actress Delphine Seyrig.

52: The Modest Faces: Ogden's Nut Gone Bit (design past Nick Tweddell and Pete Brown)

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

51: Dave Mason: Alone Together (design by Barry Feinstein and Tom Wilkes)

This album encompass 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 image to the tiptop-hatted Dave Mason.

50: Elton John: Don't Shoot Me I'1000 Only the Piano Player (design past David Larkham and Michael Ross)

Some of Elton'due south greatest album covers were a bit splashy, others a piffling somber. The one for Don't Shoot Me I'g Only the Piano Player was simply right, drawing from his soon-to-be-legendary love of movies.

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49: Ian Dury: New Boots and Panties!! (design by Barney Bubbles)

One of many great Stiff Records album covers, this caught Ian Dury's personality and stood in stark contrast to the elaborate sleeves on the market at that time. Barney Bubbles also did the handwritten notes, oft mistaken for Dury'southward.

48: Dave Brubeck: Time Out (cover by Neil Fujita)

Dave Brubeck's 1959 album Time Out is likely the most famous use of pop art on a jazz cover. In this case, the interlocking geometric shapes are a visual respond to the album's innovative fourth dimension signatures.

47: Wendy Carlos: Switched-On Bach (design by Chika Azuma)

Sporting a photograph of JS Bach with a Moog synthesizer, Wendy Carlos' pioneering electronic album Switched-On Bach was different anything people had seen (or heard) before in 1968. As the start classical album to go platinum in America, Carlos helped to bring Bach… to the futurity. Raise your hand if yous also thought the true cat was a head of lettuce.

46: Pink Floyd: Animals (pattern by Hipgnosis)

Non every band would wing a pig over Battersea Ability Station, but few other bands would brand an anthology that absolutely called for information technology.

45: Hüsker Dü: Warehouse: Songs and Stories (design by Daniel Corrigan, Hüsker Dü)

The album encompass for Hüsker Dü's final studio album is one of those cases where a cover is exactly like the album: vivid, colorful and jarring in a welcoming fashion.

44: Chelsea Wolfe: Hiss Spun (design by John Crawford)

Like all goth-influenced artists, Chelsea Wolfe has a potent sense of the dramatic. The coiled-upwards body on the encompass of her 2017 album embodies all the personal changes the songs bargain with.

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

The great thing almost the famous Blondie Parallel Lines anthology cover isn't just the black-and-white limerick but the way Debbie Harry (the only one not smiling) exudes power, 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 album makes its visual point by using a photograph of Beatles records being burned that followed John Lennon'south "more popular than Jesus" remarks. But in this instance, the photo is a Mobius strip, and the album they're burning is the very one they're continuing in.

41: Taylor Swift: 1989 (design past Austin Unhurt and Amy Fucci)

On a throwback-themed anthology, Taylor Swift presents an one-time Polaroid of herself, just incomplete and out of focus. The mysterious image on 1989 's encompass was an easy one for her fans to copy, and they did.

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40: Humble Pie: Stone On (design past John Kelly)

Why in the world did Humble Pie go a bunch of policemen to course a human pyramid? Because they could, of course.

39: The Rascals: Once Upon a Dream (blueprint past Dino Danelli)

One of the many imaginative trips from the late 60s, this assemblage – by the band's drummer – represents various personal dreams of the ring members.

38: PJ Harvey: To Bring You My Honey (design by Valerie Phillips)

It may exist a more glamorous cover afterward her commencement 2, but this photo of PJ Harvey – in which she could easily be mistaken for Shakespeare'southward Ophelia – implied that a newer, softer image comes at a cost.

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37: Oasis: Definitely Maybe (pattern by Brian Cannon)

Their debut album pictured Oasis in the world'south coolest crash pad, showing every band of the era how it ought to exist living.

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

Graphic designer and art director Jean-Paul Goude met his match, and his muse, with Grace Jones. Goude'south visual re-imagining of the androgynous vocalist 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. "Information technology looked correct to me and how I felt," said Jones. "Athletic, artistic, and alien."

35: A Tribe Called Quest: Midnight Marauders (photograph by Terrence A Reese, pattern past Nick Gamma)

Like a proto XXL "Freshman Class", the three alternate covers of A Tribe Phone call Quest's archetype third album Midnight Marauders featured a collage of 71 hip-hop personalities from Afrika Bambaataa to the Beastie Boys, similar the Sgt Pepper of hip-hop. Concepted by Q-Tip, the Afrocentric cover came to fruition with the assist of Nick Gamma, the former art director at Jive Records.

34: Fleetwood Mac: Rumours (design by Desmond Strobel)

Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood looked impeccably stylish doing whatever it was they were doing on the famous Rumours album encompass. Information technology's off-white that the cover was a fiddling mysterious since the songs revealed everything else.

33: Steely Dan: Pretzel Logic (blueprint by Raeanne Rubenstein)

Though Steely Dan was long associated with Los Angeles, the cover for Pretzel Logic (really shot at Fifth Artery and 79th Street) looks, feels, and tastes like New York.

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

Neat Pumpkins' album covers were often softer and prettier than the music, but this cover (created by Billy Corgan's then-girlfriend) is the perfect translation of the obsessively romantic theme of Admire.

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

All the Ohio Players covers were legendary, and the early on Westbound ones were considerably more than daring than the striking-era ones for Mercury. As the band often claimed, fewer people would have bought the albums if they'd put themselves on the covers.

30: The Louvin Brothers: Satan is Existent (design by Ira Louvin)

Modern death metal bands got nothing on land 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 by Masayoshi Sukita)

David Bowie has at least five of the most iconic anthology covers of all fourth dimension. From the lightning commodities on Aladdin Sane to Ziggy Stardust, information technology'southward hard to choice. Just the sublime strangeness of this David Bowie photo tells y'all everything you need to know about the creative madness of his Berlin period. The embrace was memorably defaced past Bowie himself decades later on.

28: Kate Bush-league: The Kick Inside (design past Jay Myrdal)

The more than unremarkably known Usa cover is nice enough but makes it look similar a conventional vocaliser-songwriter album and Kate Bush is annihilation but. Nosotros're referring to the original UK "kite" cover 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 album, this captures Janelle Monáe'due south depth and mystery and is a beautiful piece of art in its own right.

26: Miles Davis: Bitches Brew (design by Mati Klarwein)

Since Miles Davis' Bitches Brew sounded like no other previous jazz albums, it couldn't look like ane either. It took a German language painter schooled in surrealism to create its mix of African folk fine art and psychedelia.

25: David Bowie: The Next Solar day (blueprint past Jonathan Barnbrook)

Every fan did an immediate double-take when they saw Bowie'due south human activity of self-demolition here. Past defacing the Heroes comprehend, Bowie found the well-nigh dramatic way of saying "that was then, this is now".

24: Jethro Tull: Thick as a Brick (design by Roy Eldridge)

Largely written past bandmembers Ian Anderson, John Evan, and Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond (with aid from Chrysalis staffer and former journalist Roy Eldridge), the famous newspaper cover of Thick equally a Brick is full of cross-references and cerebral wit – just like the music – and Anderson said it took merely as much work.

23: Nirvana: Nevermind (design by Robert Fisher)

The paradigm of a baby grasping at a dollar beak became one of grunge's coolest and most enduring symbols, an album cover that captured the attitude of Nevermind and the era. The babe in question, Spencer Elden, fifty-fifty recreated the photo 25 years later.

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22: The Who: Who's Adjacent (design past Ethan Russell)

The iconic cover for Who's Next worked on ii levels: starting time as a futuristic epitome 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'southward Birthday (design past Roger Dean)

This embrace is Roger Dean at his nigh bright. When you walked into a record store, you could come across this album clear across the room.

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

Psychedelic album covers were an art form in themselves, and the explosion of color (with the band looking suitably avuncular) fabricated Foam'due south Disraeli Gears one of the definitive ones. The designer also wrote ane of the anthology's most vivid lyrics on "Tales of Brave Ulysses."

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xix: Santana: Lotus (design past Tadanori Yokoo)

You don't necessarily get a thing of rare dazzler when y'all load a cover with every bit many fold-out panels and elaborate paintings as an 11-inch disc tin can hold, but Santana certainly did in this example, thanks to famed Japanese designer Tadanori Yokoo. Recorded live during Santana'southward performances in Osaka, Nihon, the full sleeve art is an amalgamation of Buddhist and Christian imagery, forth with Yokoo's signature pop art style.

18: 10cc: How Dare You lot! (pattern by Hipgnosis)

The ubiquitous Hipgnosis team outdid itself with this ultra-clever 10cc sleeve, which is not merely inspired by one of the songs (the phone sex-themed "Don't Hang Up") but is full of hidden gags, with the aforementioned people turning upwards in each of the four primary photos.

17: XTC: Go 2 (design by Hipgnosis)

Another Hipgnosis chore, the famous album cover for XTC'due south Go 2 boasts a dense block of typed copy that taunts and messes with the anthology buyer's head. No wonder the clever lads in XTC loved it.

16: Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run (pattern by Eric Meola)

It'south hard to pick one Bruce Springsteen cover, when so many have ascended to iconic status. It could accept just as easily been Born in the U.s.a., with its Annie Liebovitz photo and Bruce in a white t-shirt and blue jeans in front of an American flag. We decided to become instead with this kinetic photo that captured the camaraderie of the band and the sense of rock'n'roll mission. While the album fabricated an instant star out of Springsteen, the comprehend did the same for Due east Street Band's sax man Clarence Clemons.

15: Ramones: Ramones (design by Roberta Bayley)

The cover of The Ramone'southward 1976 cocky-titled debut is pure punk rock in all its black-and-white grittiness. A practiced cover became a smashing one the moment when a bored Johnny Ramone decided to give the lensman the finger.

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

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

13: Yeah: Relayer (design by Roger Dean)

Roger Dean's fantasy paintings became as much a part of prog-rock iconography equally the music. He fittingly put his coolest album embrace on Yep' about creative album, an icy winterscape that illuminates the album's war-and-peace theme.

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

Each ane of Sinatra'south Capitol-era album covers was cool and classic in its own fashion, from the lonely scenes on the ballad albums to the visual swagger on the swingers. The cover of Come Wing With Me defenseless both Sinatra'south natural charisma and the allure of the jet-set era.

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

If Horses wasn't enough 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.

x: Talking Heads: Little Creatures (blueprint by Howard Finster)

Howard Finster'south uniquely Southern folk art was a perfect match for Talking Heads' back-to-roots album (and for R.Eastward.Grand.'s Reckoning effectually the same fourth dimension). While some of Finster'south work had a darker streak, for this anthology he accordingly chose sunshine and wonderment.

ix: John Coltrane: Blue Train (design past Reid Miles, photo by  Francis Wolff)

Most of the classic Blue Note covers were total of bright graphics and exuberant photos (and lots of assertion marks!). Not so with John Coltrane's Bluish Train, whose absurd album cover photo and mood lighting marked it every bit a piece of work to take seriously.

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

This iconic anthology embrace said it all well-nigh coy mid-60s sexuality, bachelor-pad mode. Despite its daring appearance, if yous looked closely, the whipped-cream clad model was actually wearing a wedding dress.

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

Finding album art that captured the genre-pushing ambition of To Pimp A Butterfly was a tall order, but Kendrick Lamar and TDE were up to the task, equally 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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6: The Rolling Stones: Let It Bleed (design by Robert Brownjohn)

The Rolling Stones always had cool, attention-grabbing album covers. But while Mucilaginous Fingers has a nifty story, Allow Information technology Bleed was every bit unique and surreal. Taking its inspiration from the anthology's original title Automatic Changer, the front has the album on a turntable stacked with all sorts of other things. We assume the mess on the backside happened after someone pressed "start."

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5: Big Brother & the Belongings Company: Cheap Thrills (pattern by R. Crumb)

Arguably the coolest 60s album cover of all, the art for Big Blood brother & the Holding Company's sophomore record was as well most people'southward introduction to the style of underground comic fine art perfected by R. Crumb. This fashion of art would be associated with psychedelic music from hither on out, though Crumb was a bit anti-hippie himself.

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

Peter Blake's pop-art aggregation on Sgt. Pepper'southward famous anthology changed record covers forever, and kept many of us occupied for weeks trying to place everybody at the anniversary.

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

RCA wasted no time in cleaning up Elvis, who'd look completely respectable on all future albums. Meanwhile, his debut allowed him to look similar the crazed hillbilly anybody'due south parents feared he was, captured in mid-song at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in Tampa, Florida. Which of course leads us to…

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

A rare case where a parody (of the above Elvis cover) becomes a work of art in itself. The effortlessly cool album cover image of bassist Paul Simonon smashing his guitar practically screams stone'n'scroll, but like the music inside.

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

This beautiful, panoramic view of Ludlow Street in NYC on the album cover of Paul's Boutique did everything possible to put y'all right into the Beastie Boys' earth, making it look both funky and inviting. It also made it essential to own the original, fold-out vinyl.

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Looking for more? Discover the worst album covers of all time.

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

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