Who's the Girl on Dean Martin Pretty Baby Album Cover

We're usually all virtually celebrating the way records sound, here nosotros celebrate the mode they wait. This countdown of dandy album covers – some iconic, others disregarded – has it all: indelible images, perfect portraits, nightmares, and hallucinations. Along with plenty of sexual activity and provocation, since much of this listing of the greatest album covers revels in rock'northward'curlicue imagery.

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

Bandleader Cyril Jordan's terrific comic fine art has turned up on numerous The Flamin' Groovies covers and posters over the decades. On their 1969 debut, the cavorting characters were at that place to remind you how much fun rock'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 red 1. The reddish velvet comprehend, with gilt embossed lettering, served notice that Odessa was going to be unique and beautiful, which it was.

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

Beggars Banquet is a rare example where an album's two famous covers really complement each other. Put the notorious bath 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 time.

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97: Ol' Dirty Bounder: Return to the 36 Chambers: The Muddy Version (design by Alli Truch, photo by Danny Assure)

Whenever hip-hop started to take itself too seriously, ODB was in that location to disrupt, agitate, and give the middle finger to convention. Forgoing whatever blinged-out tropes, the former Wu-Tang member put a doctored version of his welfare ID bill of fare on the front comprehend of his solo debut, as both a reminder of where he came from and to destigmatize being on public assist. Every bit he rapped on Wu-Tang'southward "Domestic dog Sh_t,": "Got meals but nonetheless grill that one-time skillful welfare cheese."

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

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

95: Jefferson Airplane: Long John Silverish (pattern by Pacific Eye & Ear)

Jefferson Airplane's Long John Silver hails from the gilt age of elaborate album covers. Since people were already using LPs to store and clean marijuana, the Airplane gave you a cardboard box holder for it, along with the pot, or at least a realistic-looking photograph.

94: Billie Eilish: When Nosotros All Fall Asleep, Where Do Nosotros Become? (blueprint past Kenneth Cappello)

Any artist who dares to look this terrifying on the cover of their start album deserves all the platinum success they get. Inspired past the anthology's themes of the subconscious, the dark sleeve of Billie Eilish'southward When We All Autumn Asleep, Where Do We Go? served notice that Eilish was here to mess with your caput.

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93: Parliament: Mothership Connection (photograph by David Alexander, design by Gribbitth)

George Clinton's gonzoid take on outer-space adventure institute its perfect match in the spaceship-party comprehend for Parliament's Mothership Connectedness . The fact that it looked remarkably low budget just made it funkier.

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92: Geto Boys: We Can't Be Stopped (pattern past Cliff Blodget)

Walking a razor-thin line between exploitation and cultural commentary was the Geto Boys' modus operandi, and nothing exemplified this dynamic more their 1991 LP cover fine art. The graphic photo of Bushwick Bill at the hospital was as unflinching as their music.

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

Alberto Vargas was already the virtually famous pin-up artist earlier designing the embrace for The Cars classic 1979 anthology Processed-O, but this painting of a fashionable redhead, on a car of form, became his about famous piece. Processed-O is one of the two best uses of pin-upward fine art on a rock record, along with…

90: Courtney Love: America'due south Sweetheart (design past Olivia De Berardinis)

For her debut solo album, Courtney Love took the Cars' concept a footstep further by enlisting the younger, edgier pin-up artist (known professionally as Olivia) to paint her. Of course, it got an actress dimension by playing with Dear'south own image at the time.

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

The Rolling Stones probably couldn't beat out the Beatles for a psychedelic anthology in 1967, but they arguably had the better cover, the first 3D sleeve in rock. X points if you can discover where the Beatles are hiding in the 3D paradigm on Their Satanic Majesties Request.

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88: Public Image Ltd: The Flowers of Romance

PiL's follow-upwardly to their famous Metal Box cover was fifty-fifty more effective, showing non-performing bandmember Jeanette Lee with a rose in her teeth, a weapon in her paw, and a murderous look in her eyes.

87: The Velvet Hush-hush: The Velvet Underground & Nico (blueprint past Andy Warhol)

Information technology was weird, it was witty, it was Warhol. The minimalism of The Velvet Underground & Nico skin-away banana comprehend became an influence on punk visual style many years later and remains one of the greatest album covers.

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86: The Miracles: Hello, We're The Miracles (pattern by Wakefield & Mitchell)

The cover for The Miracles' 1961 debut encapsulates the onetime-schoolhouse showbiz that Motown would soon lead the world away from. But it's so cheerful that you withal have to love it.

85: The Go-Gos: Beauty & the Beat out (pattern by Ginger Canzoneri, Mike Doud, Mick Haggerty, Vartan)

The Go-Become's sense of playful subversion extended to their sendup of glamorous cover photos on their hitting debut, Dazzler & The Beat . It was their party; you could join if they allow yous.

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84: Dr. Dre: The Chronic (design by Michael Benabib)

This cover did wonders with its elementary 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 nil on the original "The Dude," the effortlessly cool and quixotic character that appears on Quincy Jones' genre-blending solo debut. Q always had an ear for talent – as his cross-cultural LP proved – merely he besides had an eye for design. (He spotted the eponymous "Dude" statue at an fine art gallery and took it home for inspiration.)

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

The design-centric 4AD label did some of its finest piece of work on for the Cocteau Twins. This shimmering epitome is undeniably beautiful, even so you never know just what it means…just like their music.

81: James Brown: Hell (design by Joe Belt)

Arriving ane year after his milestone anthology The Payback , Dark-brown delivered the double-anthology Hell, which called out societal ills both on record and on the elaborately illustrated cover. Designed by artist Joe Belt, who made his proper name capturing the characters of the Wild West, Belt trained his aim on some other night chapter of American history, depicting fallen soldiers, addicts, and an imprisoned populace. One of the greatest funk album covers ever.

80: Slayer: Reign in Claret (blueprint past Larry Carroll)

One of the greatest metal covers always designed, designer Larry Carroll packed a 1000 nightmares into this Bosch-like painting for Slayer's thrash masterpiece Reign in Claret , which influenced metal imagery for decades to come.

79: King Cherry-red: In the Courtroom of the Crimson King (design by Barry Godber)

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

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

One of the psych era's great hallucinations, the cover for Moby Grape'south 1968 double-anthology Wow showed an otherworldly landscape with the world's largest bunch of grapes. Wow indeed.

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

Kanye Westward brings the minimalist "White Anthology" concept to the CD era. You could also encounter Yeezus as the last celebration of the physical CD before it disappeared.

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76: Elvis Presley: 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Exist Wrong (design by Bob Jones)

Ultra-cool Elvis (in his shiny aureate Nudie suit) gets multiplied in one of the about enduring early 60s images and greatest album covers. If there are that many Elvis fans, we volition, of course, need 15 Elvises.

75: Black Flag: My War (design by Raymond Pettibon)

Black Flag'due south trailblazing punk-metal wouldn't accept been the aforementioned without Pettibon's grisly comic images, though in this case, not quite as grisly equally the album itself.

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

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

73: The Mothers of Invention: Nosotros're But In It for the Money (design by Cal Schenkel)

Frank Zappa wrapped his skewering of hippie culture We're Only In It for the Money in an equally vicious parody of the Sgt. Pepper sleeve to great success.

72: The Pogues: Peace and Honey (pattern by Simon Ryan)

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

71: Blitz: Moving Pictures (blueprint by Hugh Syme)

Blitz'south greatest anthology covers expressed both their grand concepts and their cerebral sense of humour. In this staged embrace for Moving Pictures , which features many of the characters from the songs, we detect at least three unlike visual plays on the album's championship.

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70: The Beatles: Abbey Route (design past John Kosh)

Equally it turns out, The Beatles were just as well lazy to go to Mt. Everest – yes, that was the original plan – and then they came up with something just as memorable by leaving the studio and crossing the street, resulting in the iconic Abbey Road comprehend. It'southward since gone done as one of the greatest album covers of all time.

69: Marvin Gaye: I Want Y'all (blueprint by Ernie Barnes)

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

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68: Joe Jackson: I'grand the Homo (design past Michael Ross)

In that location'south plenty of punk attitude on Joe Jackson's classic second album I'm the Human being, where he portrays the hero of the title song – a sleazy grapheme who'll sell you lot annihilation – equally long every bit yous don't really need information technology.

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

Okay, so it was a little graphic and provocative, but equally the single virtually controversial matter The Beatles ever did (and the most expensive for an original), the cover of Yesterday and Today surely earns a identify on a list of the greatest album covers.

66: Alice Cooper: Schoolhouse's Out (pattern past Craig Braun)

There were nearly equally many copies of Alice Cooper'due south School's Out in 1970s loftier schools as there were actual schoolhouse desks. X points if you got the original with the underwear inner sleeve.

65: Aerosmith: Draw the Line (blueprint by Al Hirshfeld)

Anyone who went to plays or read the New York Times in the 70s will recognize the work of the line-cartoon caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, who did his magic on Aerosmith's members here. As always, his daughter Nina'due south name was hidden a few times in this smashing album embrace.

64: Eric B. & Rakim: Paid in Full (pattern by Ron Contarsy)

Between the rappers' Gucci-style outfits and the piles of money in the groundwork, the cover for Eric B. and Rakim'south sophomore album Paid in Full said it all most going bigtime in 1987 and is considered i of the greatest anthology covers in hip-hop.

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

The embrace of Joy Division's 1979 debut tape is an actual depiction of radio waves. This stark blackness-and-white cover became then iconic that it's now worn proudly on T-shirts by teens who've never heard of the band.

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

P-funk's wild fusion of funk, surrealism, and popular art extended beyond music, resulting in some of the near provocative LP covers of the era. Model Barbara Cheeseborough's screaming visage on the comprehend captured the swirling anarchy of the 70s and searing funk-rock of Maggot Brain.

61: Family unit: Fearless

Ah, the days when bands had the money to carry out their wildest ideas. The cover for the British prog-rock outfit Family unit'southward 1971 album is a multi-foldout extravaganza and features an early computer graphic, adding the individual band photos to each other until they get the pretty blur at acme right.

threescore: The Beatles: Meet the Beatles! (blueprint by Robert Freeman)

The somber, shadowed photo featured on both the US and Britain album version of Run across The Beatles! was just the opposite of the smile film that everybody expected to encounter, and the starting time of many carry-overs from the Beatles' fine art-school days.

59: Pink Floyd: Ummagumma (design by Hipgnosis)

Most of Pink Floyd's covers would be in the running for a list of the greatest anthology covers, just we wanted to highlight something that wasn't Dark Side of the Moon. This burst of Storm Thorgerson / Hipgnosis imagination features four 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 by Stephen Gorman)

Metallica's trademark mix of stupor value and social commentary had few amend expressions than this image of a modern have on Lady Justice for their 1988 anthology …And Justice For All .

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57: The Mamas & The Papas: If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (blueprint by Guy Webster)

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

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56: Madonna: Madonna (blueprint by Carin Goldberg)

All of Madonna's album covers are striking in their own mode, but there's something special about her 1983 self-titled debut. She looks similar she can come across everything that's going to happen to her in the next twoscore years.

55: 10cc: Ten Out Of 10 (design past Hipgnosis)

The embrace for 10 Out Of 10 remains one of Hipgnosis' fiendishly clever 10cc covers and i of their more overlooked albums. Here they're on the 10th floor of a hotel standing at the precipice, and only ane of the guys seems concerned about information technology.

54: Thelonious Monk: Underground (photo by 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, Underground casts the pianist as a French Resistance fighter in WWII. Columbia Records art director John Berg was responsible for iconic covers like Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits and Bruce Springsteen'due south Built-in To Run, just this was probable one of his more expensive: They built an entire ready, consummate with costumed extras, to create Monk's arresting album cover.

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

It was an art-school friend of Jimmy Page'south who created this mythic cover by superimposing the bandmembers over a famous shot of WWI German fighter pilot the "Cherry-red Baron" and his crew. Many Americans wondered what Lucille Ball was doing there but information technology was really French extra Delphine Seyrig.

52: The Small Faces: Ogden'southward Nut Gone Scrap (design by Nick Tweddell and Pete Chocolate-brown)

One of the start round covers, the tobacco-can 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 Stonemason: Alone Together (blueprint by Barry Feinstein and Tom Wilkes)

This album cover was more of a multimedia assemblage, incorporating the dice-cut edges and the marble-swirled disc into the overall design and giving an instant visual prototype to the meridian-hatted Dave Mason.

50: Elton John: Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Pianoforte Thespian (design by 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'chiliad Only the Piano Role player was just correct, cartoon from his soon-to-be-legendary love of movies.

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

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

48: Dave Brubeck: Fourth dimension Out (cover by Neil Fujita)

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

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

Sporting a photo of JS Bach with a Moog synthesizer, Wendy Carlos' pioneering electronic anthology Switched-On Bach was unlike annihilation people had seen (or heard) before in 1968. As the get-go classical album to go platinum in America, Carlos helped to bring Bach… to the future. Raise your hand if y'all also thought the cat was a head of lettuce.

46: Pinkish Floyd: Animals (design by Hipgnosis)

Not every ring would fly a pig over Battersea Ability Station, only few other bands would make an album that admittedly called for it.

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

The anthology encompass for Hüsker Dü'south final studio anthology is ane of those cases where a cover is exactly similar the anthology: vivid, colorful and jarring in a welcoming mode.

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

Like all goth-influenced artists, Chelsea Wolfe has a strong sense of the dramatic. The coiled-up body on the cover of her 2017 anthology embodies all the personal changes the songs deal with.

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

The great matter about the Blondie Parallel Lines comprehend isn't simply the black-and-white limerick but the way Debbie Harry (the only ane not smiling) exudes power, while all the guys expect a bit goofy.

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42: Utopia: Swing to the Correct (pattern by John Wagman)

This Reagan-era concept album makes its visual point past using a photograph of Beatles records being burned that followed John Lennon'south "more popular than Jesus" remarks. But in this case, the photo is a Mobius strip, and the anthology they're burning is the very one they're continuing in.

41: Taylor Swift: 1989 (design by Austin Hale and Amy Fucci)

On a throwback-themed album, Taylor Swift presents an old Polaroid of herself, but incomplete and out of focus. The mysterious paradigm on 1989 's encompass was an easy 1 for her fans to re-create, and they did.

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forty: Humble Pie: Stone On (design by John Kelly)

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

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

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

38: PJ Harvey: To Bring You lot My Love (design past Valerie Phillips)

It may exist a more glamorous encompass afterwards her kickoff two, merely this photo of PJ Harvey – in which she could easily exist mistaken for Shakespeare's Ophelia – implied that a newer, softer image comes at a price.

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

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

36: Grace Jones: Island Life (blueprint past Jean-Paul Goude)

Graphic designer and art manager Jean-Paul Goude met his lucifer, and his muse, with Grace Jones. Goude's visual re-imagining of the androgynous singer led to some of the best album covers in music history, from Nightclubbing to Slave to the Rhythm and the arabesque grandeur of Isle Life. "Information technology looked right to me and how I felt," said Jones. "Athletic, artistic, and alien."

35: A Tribe Chosen Quest: Midnight Marauders (photo by Terrence A Reese, design by Nick Gamma)

Like a proto XXL "Freshman Class", the three alternate covers of A Tribe Call Quest'south classic tertiary album Midnight Marauders featured a collage of 71 hip-hop personalities from Afrika Bambaataa to the Beastie Boys, like the Sgt Pepper of hip-hop. Concepted by Q-Tip, the Afrocentric cover came to fruition with the assistance of Nick Gamma, the former fine art director at Jive Records.

34: Fleetwood Mac: Rumours (blueprint past Desmond Strobel)

Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood looked impeccably stylish doing whatever information technology was they were doing on the Rumours encompass. It's fair that the cover was a little mysterious since the songs revealed everything else.

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

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

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

Smashing Pumpkins' album covers were often softer and prettier than the music, just this comprehend (created past Baton Corgan's then-girlfriend) is the perfect translation of the obsessively romantic theme of Admire.

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

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

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

Modern decease metal bands got nothing on country duo The Louvin Brothers, who went to the inferno in 1959 and looked neat in white suits while doing it.

29: David Bowie: Heroes (design by Masayoshi Sukita)

David Bowie has at least five of the nigh iconic album covers of all time. From the lightning bolt on Aladdin Sane to Ziggy Stardust, it's hard to pick. Only the sublime strangeness of this David Bowie photograph tells yous everything you need to know about the creative madness of his Berlin period. The cover was memorably defaced by Bowie himself decades afterward.

28: Kate Bush: The Kick Inside (blueprint by Jay Myrdal)

The more commonly known U.s. cover is prissy enough but makes information technology look like a conventional vocaliser-songwriter album and Kate Bush is anything simply. We'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 by Joe Perez )

The perfect embrace for a sensual and futuristic concept anthology, this captures Janelle Monáe'southward depth and mystery and is a beautiful piece of art in its own right.

26: Miles Davis: Bitches Mash (blueprint 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 painter schooled in surrealism to create its mix of African folk fine art and psychedelia.

25: David Bowie: The Next Solar day (design by Jonathan Barnbrook)

Every fan did an immediate double-take when they saw Bowie's deed of self-demolition hither. Past defacing the Heroes cover, Bowie found the nearly dramatic way of saying "that was then, this is at present".

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

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

23: Nirvana: Nevermind (blueprint past Robert Fisher)

The paradigm of a infant grasping at a dollar nib became ane of grunge's most enduring symbols, capturing the attitude of Nevermind and the era. The baby in question, Spencer Elden, fifty-fifty recreated the photograph 25 years later.

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22: The Who: Who'south Next (blueprint by Ethan Russell)

The iconic cover for Who's Next worked on two levels: start as a futuristic image of The Who against a monolith; and second, when yous noticed their zippers and realized what the guys had been doing.

21: Uriah Heep: The Magician'southward Altogether (design by Roger Dean)

This embrace is Roger Dean at his most vivid. When you walked into a record shop, you could come across this anthology clear across the room.

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

Psychedelic album covers were an art form in themselves, and the explosion of color (with the ring looking suitably avuncular) made Foam'southward Disraeli Gears one of the definitive ones. The designer besides wrote one of the album'south most vivid lyrics on "Tales of Brave Ulysses."

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nineteen: Santana: Lotus (design by Tadanori Yokoo)

Y'all don't necessarily get a matter of rare beauty when you load a embrace with as many fold-out panels and elaborate paintings every bit an 11-inch disc can agree, but Santana certainly did in this example, thanks to famed Japanese designer Tadanori Yokoo. Recorded live during Santana's performances in Osaka, Japan, the total sleeve art is an affiliation of Buddhist and Christian imagery, along with Yokoo'southward signature pop art style.

eighteen: 10cc: How Cartel You! (design by Hipgnosis)

The ubiquitous Hipgnosis team outdid itself with this ultra-clever 10cc sleeve, which is non only inspired by i of the songs (the phone sex-themed "Don't Hang Up") merely is total of hidden gags, with the same people turning upwards in each of the iv chief photos.

17: XTC: Go 2 (design by Hipgnosis)

Some other Hipgnosis task, the cover for XTC's Become two boasts a dense cake of typed copy that taunts and messes with the album heir-apparent's caput. No wonder the clever lads in XTC loved it.

xvi: Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run (design past Eric Meola)

It's hard to pick one Bruce Springsteen cover, when then many have ascended to iconic status. It could take just as easily been Built-in in the USA, with its Annie Liebovitz photo and Bruce in a white t-shirt and blue jeans in front end of an American flag. We decided to go instead with this kinetic photograph that captured the esprit of the band and the sense of rock'due north'curlicue mission. While the album made an instant star out of Springsteen, the embrace did the same for E Street Band'due south sax man Clarence Clemons.

15: Ramones: Ramones (design by Roberta Bayley)

The cover of The Ramone'southward 1976 self-titled debut is pure punk stone in all its blackness-and-white grittiness. A good cover became a great one the moment when a bored Johnny Ramone decided to give the photographer the finger.

fourteen: Pixies: Surfer Rosa (design by Vaughan Oliver)

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

xiii: Yes: Relayer (pattern past Roger Dean)

Roger Dean's fantasy paintings became equally much a part of prog-rock iconography equally the music. He fittingly put his most beautiful cover on Aye' most artistic anthology, an icy winterscape that illuminates the album's war-and-peace theme.

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

Each one of Sinatra'southward Capitol-era covers was classic in its own mode, from the lonely scenes on the ballad albums to the visual swagger on the swingers. The cover of Come Fly With Me defenseless both Sinatra'south natural cool and the attraction of the jet-set up era.

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

If Horses wasn't enough to make Patti Smith an instant icon of bohemian cool, the Robert Mapplethorpe photo certainly was. Nobody ever slung a jacket over their shoulder that well.

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

Howard Finster's uniquely Southern folk art was a perfect lucifer for Talking Heads' back-to-roots anthology (and for R.Due east.1000.'s Reckoning around the same fourth dimension). While some of Finster's work had a darker streak, for this album he appropriately chose sunshine and wonderment.

9: John Coltrane: Blueish Train (blueprint past Reid Miles, photo by  Francis Wolff)

Nigh of the archetype Blue Note covers were full of bright graphics and exuberant photos (and lots of exclamation marks!). Not so with John Coltrane'due south Blue Train , whose somber photo and mood lighting marked information technology equally a work to take seriously.

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

This iconic album cover said it all near coy mid-60s sexuality, bachelor-pad style. Despite its daring appearance, if you looked closely, the whipped-foam clad model was really wearing a nuptials dress.

seven: Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp A Butterfly (photo past Denis Rouvre, pattern past Kendrick Lamar and Dave Gratis)

Finding anthology fine art that captured the genre-pushing ambition of To Pimp A Butterfly was a tall society, just Kendrick Lamar and TDE were upwards to the job, equally G dot assembled his hometown coiffure for a victorious party on the White House lawn, stomping on the symbol of a weaponized criminal justice arrangement.

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6: The Rolling Stones: Let Information technology Bleed (blueprint by Robert Brownjohn)

The Rolling Stones always had attending-grabbing covers. But while Pasty Fingers has a not bad story, Let It Bleed was equally unique and surreal. Taking its inspiration from the album's original title Automated Changer, the front has the album on a turntable stacked with all sorts of other things. We assume the mess on the backside happened afterward someone pressed "starting time."

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5: Large Brother & the Belongings Company: Cheap Thrills (design by R. Nibble)

Arguably the nearly iconic 60s cover of all, the cover for Big Blood brother & the Belongings Company'south sophomore record was also most people'due south introduction to the mode of underground comic art perfected by R. Crumb. This way of fine art would be associated with psychedelic music from here on out, though Nibble was a bit anti-hippie himself.

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

Peter Blake's pop-art assemblage on Sgt. Pepper's changed album covers forever, and kept many of united states occupied for weeks trying to place everybody at the anniversary.

Heed here:

3: Elvis Presley: Elvis Presley (blueprint past Robertson & Fresch)

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

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

A rare instance where a parody (of the above Elvis encompass) becomes a piece of work of art in itself. The cover prototype of bassist Paul Simonon cracking his guitar practically screams rock'n'roll, just like the music inside.

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

This cute, panoramic view of Ludlow Street in NYC on the cover of Paul's Boutique did everything possible to put yous right into the Beastie Boys' world, making it look both funky and inviting. It as well made it essential to own the original, fold-out vinyl.

Listen hither:

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

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

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