While most people buy an album for the music, some are drawn in by an album’s cover, and there are certainly some covers that have stood out more than the rest.
Rolling Stone has decided it’s time to highlight those standouts with its list of the 100 best album covers of all time, with plenty of classics making the grade.
While Joy Division’s 1979 album, Unknown Pleasures, tops the list, The Beatles are just behind them at #2 with Abbey Road. The mag calls the cover “the ultimate Beatles portrait: a sunny day in London, a crosswalk, the world’s four most confident young men walking in line.”
Abbey Road is one of three Beatles covers to make the list, with Sgt. Peppers’ Lonely Hearts Club Band at #14 and The White Album at #23.
Other iconic covers making the top 10 include Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon at #4, Patti Smith’s Horses at #6, The Clash’s London Calling at #8, Cyndi Lauper’s She’s So Unusual at #9 and Nirvana’s Nevermind at #10.
Also on the list are The Velvet Underground & Nico, Carole King’s Tapestry, The Who’s Who’s Next, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers.
So, if these are some of the best, what are the worst? Rolling Stone has some opinions on that, too. Landing on top of the 50 Worst Album Covers of All Time list is Limp Bizkit’s Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water, with Roger Daltrey’s Ride a Rock Horse, with a picture of Daltrey as a centaur, in at #2.
Other bad covers include Crosby, Stills & Nash’s Live It Up, Three Dog Night’s Hard Labor, Van Halen’s Balance, Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet and Billy Joel’s River of Dreams, with The Beatles also recognized for Revolver at #37.
Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.