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The 18 Greatest Album Covers of All Time

By YPB Team

Pop-art collages, a working zip, a pulsar plot and a baby underwater. Some of these sleeves outlived the records inside them. Which will win?

  1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band — ranked #11
    Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
    Peter Blake's 1967 collage of 57 photographed faces around the Beatles in satin uniforms, and the most imitated sleeve ever made.
    1000pts
  2. The Dark Side of the Moon — ranked #22
    The Dark Side of the Moon
    Storm Thorgerson's prism refracting a white beam, with no band name and no title anywhere on the front.
    912pts
  3. London Calling — ranked #33
    London Calling
    Pennie Smith's blurred shot of Paul Simonon destroying his bass, in Elvis-pastiche pink and green lettering.
    699pts
  4. Unknown Pleasures — ranked #44
    Unknown Pleasures
    Peter Saville's white radio-pulse plot on black, with no text at all on either side of the sleeve.
    643pts
  5. Sticky Fingers — ranked #55
    Sticky Fingers
    Andy Warhol's 1971 Rolling Stones sleeve with a working zip, which scratched every copy stacked behind it.
    577pts
  6. The Velvet Underground & Nico — ranked #66
    The Velvet Underground & Nico
    Warhol's 1967 banana, originally a peel-off sticker with pink fruit underneath, rated the greatest sleeve of all time by Billboard.
    500pts
  7. Aladdin Sane — ranked #77
    Aladdin Sane
    Brian Duffy's 1973 portrait of Bowie with the red-and-blue lightning bolt across his face.
    500pts
  8. Wish You Were Here — ranked #88
    Wish You Were Here
    Two businessmen shaking hands while one of them burns, shot with a real stuntman on fire.
    500pts
  9. Bitches Brew — ranked #99
    Bitches Brew
    Mati Klarwein's 1970 double-portrait painting for Miles Davis, jazz's most striking sleeve.
    409pts
  10. Abbey Road — ranked #1010
    Abbey Road
    Six frames shot in ten minutes on a north London crossing that is now a listed tourist site.
    300pts
  11. Nevermind — ranked #1111
    Nevermind
    A four-month-old baby underwater chasing a dollar bill on a fish hook, 1991.
    300pts
  12. To Pimp a Butterfly — ranked #1212
    To Pimp a Butterfly
    Kendrick Lamar's 2015 black-and-white crowd shot on the White House lawn.
    300pts
  13. Led Zeppelin — ranked #1313
    Led Zeppelin
    The 1969 debut's black-and-white photograph of the Hindenburg burning, with the band name in thin type.
    300pts
  14. Parallel Lines — ranked #1414
    Parallel Lines
    Blondie in black and white stripes with Debbie Harry in white, 1978.
    300pts
  15. Rumours — ranked #1515
    Rumours
    Herbert Worthington's 1977 shot of Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood mid-pose, in full Fleetwood Mac costume.
    300pts
  16. Born to Run — ranked #1616
    Born to Run
    Eric Meola's 1975 shot of Springsteen leaning on Clarence Clemons, split across the gatefold.
    300pts
  17. Are You Experienced — ranked #1717
    Are You Experienced
    Karl Ferris's fisheye photograph of the Jimi Hendrix Experience in yellow and orange, 1967.
    0pts
  18. Never Mind the Bollocks — ranked #1818
    Never Mind the Bollocks
    Jamie Reid's ransom-note yellow and pink, designed to look like it was cut out of a newspaper.
    0pts

#music827#rock204#album covers1#design13

Comments

Andy Warhol's working zip scratched every copy stacked behind it, and Peter Blake's cut-out crowd won a Grammy, with no music involved: https://youpick.best/articles/beatles-vs-rolling-stones-ranked

YP
ypb-team·Aug 21·
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