Favorite Album Cover (picture or art on the cover)


As a follow up to my discussion about your favorite cover album since some posters asked or posted about the artwork or picture on the cover of the album.

Mine is the cover art on the Court of the Crimson King by King Crimson.  The stuff of nightmares.  

What is your favorite album cover?

bassbuyer

Dark Side of the Moon is timeless.

The Yardbirds feat. performances by J Beck, E Clapton, Jimmy Page

@bassbuyer 

Your favorite is "the stuff of nightmares"???

I don't have a favorite but have always liked the Blue Note label album covers featuring the photography and graphic designs of Reid Miles. 

A few others...

"American Beauty" 

"Are You Experienced?"

"Bitches Brew" 

"Indianola Mississippi Seeds"

"Stand Up" 

 

"Revolver" is hard to beat.

i was 14 years old and i was impressed when it came out. still am.

Brain Salad Surgery.  My wife bought me a new Bell dirt bike helmet and had it painted with the album artwork & words "Brain Salad Surgery" on the back.  It is soooo fitting for an off-roader. 

There are so many good ones. One thing we lost in going from Albums to CDs and then streaming was the artistic, interesting, and sometimes shocking cover art. It just doesn’t have the same impact for me on a CD disc. There are so many good ones and here are but a few that come to mind:

  • R Crumb for Big Brother and the Holding Company’s Cheap Thrills
  • Bob Dylan’s painting for The Band’s Music from Big Pink
  • Rick Griffin’s work for Grateful Dead
  • Roger Dean cover art for Yes
  • Jane’s Addiction, Nothing Shocking
  • Alberto Vargas’ cover for the Car’s Candy-O
  • Tadanori Yokoo’s art for Miles Davis’ Agharta
  • Pink Floyd’s prism

Many great ones mentioned!  I just bought an original Allman Brothers 'Eat a Peach', just for the artwork on my wall.  I'm sure everyone knows the front,,,but the back is way cool with a train carrying a watermelon, while the front is a truck with a peach. (Yes I am into trains!)  But the inside artwork is amazing.  I'm thinking of displaying the open inside on my wall now!

"Look Sharp!" Joe Jackson

"Blue" Joni Mitchell

"Nevermind" Nirvana

"Ziggy Stardust" David Bowie

"Who's Next" The Who

"Nightclubbing" Grace Jones

"Island Life" Grace Jones

"Sticky Fingers" The Rolling Stones

"Abbey Road" The Beatles

"Born to Run" Bruce Springsteen

"Prisoner in Disguise" Linda Ronstadt

"Anti" Rihanna

"Live at the Filmore East" Allman Brothers band

 

@tony1954 

You picked some very good ones, and I would also agree with the Vargas cover for Candy O.

Cream's Disraeli Gears and Wheels of Fire album covers are wonderful! So is Bitches Brew by Miles Davis!

This is up there with shocking covers. 1974. The EMI staff refused to print the original so it was censored.

Fleetwood Mac Rumours

Led Zeppelin  1

Iron  Butterfly   In-a-gadda- da- vida

Frank Sinatra    in the wee small hours

Steppenwolf     Live 

Willie Nelson    Last leaf on the tree,

That I own?

James Brown - Live at the Apollo Theater. 
the Black Keys - Delta Kream

Howlin’ Wolf - The London Sessions 

Joe Walsh - The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get

Big Brother and The Hold Company - Cheap Thrills

Savoy Brown - Street Corner Talking

Head East - Get Yourself Lit Up

Thanks for posting the pictures.  Great stuff.  How do you post pictures on this site?  I just see the option to include a URL code or link. 

Jimi Hendrix, Electric Ladyland - Original cover with topless ladies, I have the original, played once to record on R2R.

R Crumb's Cheap Thrills artwork for thise of a certain age who read his comics

U2- War

Ramones (debut album)

Elvis Costello (American cover of Armed Forces, but all the early ones)

The most unique album cover I’ve seen is the original Sticky Fingers with a real functioning zipper on the front. Andy Warhol (a friend of Jagger) took the cover photo.

Roger Dean’s artwork on Yes LPs was great, especially when accompanied with hallucinogens of the day while listening to the music.

For pure cheese, Raspberries released an LP with a "Scratch & Sniff" sticker that smelled like...wait for it.... Raspberries!

 

@bassbuyer - In my college dorm back in 1970, some art students painted the inside of the elevator doors so that when the doors closed, you got the entire cover of the first King Crimson album looking at you!! Especially fun for the psychedelicized students, of which there were many of us. It was still there when I left in 1973.... 

Jane’s Addiction Ritual De Lo Habitual


 

Al Stewart Year of the Cat


 

ELO Face The Music

The cover of Muddy Waters’ Fathers & Sons, with a Black Jehovah touching the finger of a white man wearing wraparound shades, parodying Michelangelo’s Sistine chapel ceiling.