Our Favorite and Least Favorite Album Covers 

Kram needs to back on the show

Solid choices overall. I love a lot of Hipgnosis covers in general, they really were masters at iconic covers but one I have really loved lately (and for an album I have never actually heard) is Elegy by The Nice with the balloons in the desert. It just looks super cool and striking. A few others that I love that come immediately to mind are Zen Arcade (Husker Du), #1 Record (Big Star), Pink Moon/Bryter Layter (Nick Drake), Daisies of the Galaxy (Eels), White Light (Gene Clark), Entertainment (Gang of Four), Let It Be/Pleased to Meet Me (The Replacements) (I agree that Tim has a bizarre cover despite the fact that I love the album - it doesn't really make any sense). Lol I love that Three Dog Night cover because it's so weird. Enjoyed the descriptions of the worst covers, laughed quite a bit.

Not in any order: 1. Yes - Tales From Topographic Oceans (But anything by Roger Dean) 2. Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure 3. Parlaiment - Mothership Connection 4. Bob Dylan - New Morning 5. Beatles - Abbey Road 6. Rush - Fly By Night 7. The Who - Quadrophenia 8. Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath 9. Van Halen - 1984 10. Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising Bad Album Covers: 1. Anything by Dinosaur Jr. (at least it matches the bad music) 2. Anything by Primus (same thing) 3. Tyler the Creator - Cherry Bomb (Specially the one with the piss stain on the pants)

R.E.M. Murmur is very iconic for me. That kudzu field in black and white just signaled this was something different. Almost ground zero for college rock and early alternative music.

Here are some I like: Rolling Stones - December's Children Ween - Chocolate & Cheese Dead Kennedys - Frankenchrist Psychedelic Furs - Forever Now The Who - Who's Next Radiohead - Kid A Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump Marty Robbins - Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs

My Top 2 - Heaven Up Here - Echo & The Bunnymen & Entroducing by DJ Shadow. Bottom 2 My Beauty - Kevin Rowland & Love Beach - Emerson Lake & Palmer.

1 - Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here 2 - Beatles - Abbey Road 3 - Boston - Don't Look Back 4 - Stone Temple Pilots - Songs From the Vatican Gift Shop 5 - Rush - Moving Pictures 6 - Yes - Fragile 7 - Pearl Jam - Yield 8 - Metallica - St Anger 9 - Rolling Stones - Exiles on Main Street 10 - Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell

Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising Kate Bush - The Dreaming Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure Steely Dan - Aja Massive Attack - Mezzanine Bjork - Post Cocteau Twins - Heaven Or Las Vegas Chemical Brothers - Dig Own Your Hole Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

Are you guys considering to discuss the discographies of 10cc, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, the Guess Who or the Doobie Brothers? I would be very interested in those! ✌🏼

Best 01 Spirit Of Eden - Talk Talk 02 Smiley Smile - The Beach Boys 03 Neu! - Neu! 04 Destroyer - Kiss 05 Birthday - The Association 06 Plantasia - Mort Garson 07 Computer World - Kraftwerk 08 Johnny The Fox - Thin Lizzy 09 Raw Power - Iggy & The Stooges 10 Music From The Penguin Cafe - Penguin Cafe Orchestra Worst 01 Live It Up - Crosby, Stills & Nash 02 Hot In The Shade - Kiss 03 Black Flag - What The 04 Conversation Piece - Stevie Wonder 05 Love Beach - ELP 06 Thunder and Lightning- Thin Lizzy 07 Cut The Crap - The Clash 08 Queen - The Miracle 09 Mystery To Me - Fleetwood Mac 10 Never Let Me Down - David Bowie

Great show, guys. Some other pretty good covers: Clash - London Calling. Guitar slamming symbolizes the rage of this overrated band against the authority of their time. The Replacements: Let It Be. Roof Scene; captures the rage, rebellion, and alienation against the authority of their time. Great underrated band with a bad album cover for "Tim." Replacement fans have no trouble admitting that. Dylan, The Free Wheelin' Bob Dylan. Movement and change are inherent in the photos, symbolizing a changing society and capturing the rage, rebellion, and intimacy of a couple "of their time." Purple Rain, cover. Prince and the Revolution. Prince plays all instruments, so it's not his band "The Revolution" that he refers to; it must be a real revolution, capturing rage against authority (what else?) and hinting at sex and intimacy after Prince's motorcycle ride. Reminds me of another good cover, Bowie's Ziggy Stardust.

Jason, I love the color gradation on Grievous Angel .. it’s so pretty and timeless! I’m stunned you hate it. 💚🩵💙

Here are my twelve favorite examples (cited as much as possible in chronological order): --'Santana' (1969) by Santana (art by Lee Conklin) --'In the Court of the Crimson King' (1969) by King Crimson (art by Barry Godber) --untitled fourth album (1971) by Led Zeppelin (art and design by various contributors) --'Greetings from L.A.' (1972) by Tim Buckley (design by Cal Schenkel) --'Brain Salad Surgery' (1973) by Emerson, Lake & Palmer (art by H. R. Giger) --'Physical Graffiti' (1975) by Led Zeppelin (art by Peter Corriston) --'Wish You Were Here' (1975) by Pink Floyd (art by Hipgnosis) --'Presence' (1976) by Led Zeppelin (art by Hipgnosis) --'Boston' (1976) by Boston (design by Paula Scher) --'A Farewell to Kings' (1977) by Rush (art by Hugh Syme) --'Breakfast in America' (1979) by Supertramp (art and design by Mike Doud and Mick Haggerty) --'War' (1983) by U2 (design by Steve Averill) The worst album cover by a group/artist I love has got to be 'Heroes are Hard to Find' (1974) by Fleetwood Mac, with artwork by Herbie Worthington.

That King Crimson sleeve used to scare the shit out of me as a kid (the inner sleeve was even more terrifying!) My favourite album sleeve, possibly The Dreaming by Kate Bush or any of Roxy Music's.

Surprised you mentioned Fleetwood Mac twice and didn't even mention Tusk...Like it's just really bad with the dog and the shoe...Kids, Don't do cocaine!

The Court of the Crimson King cover looks like someone just gave him an unexpected reach around 😝😂

I really like all of the Little Feat covers done by Neon Park.

Elton John had consistently terrible album covers. 'Victim of Love' may be the worst.

Kansas has great album covers, especially the debut album, Song For America, Leftoverture, Point Of Know Return, Monolith, Audio-Visions, and the live album Two For The Show

Noooo, the tim cover is absolutely perfect.

surprised no one mentioned Country Life by Roxy Music. Iconic cover that just makes me want to listen to it when I see it.

Surprised no mention at all of Roger Dean or any of his fabulous album covers. Tales from topographic oceans, Fragile, Relayer, Drama, the Ladder, Asia, AWBH, Osibisa, Octopus, Demons & wizards, greenslade, and so many others.

Both of your selections are great. Put me down for London Calling by the Clash and Abbey Road. The guitar martyring London Calling cover so perfectly symbolizes punk, harkens back to the Who, and the Elvis Presley lettering is inspired. Of the half dozen or so Abbey Road pictures they took that day the one chosen was the clear stand out - they seem to be in such a synchronized lockstep but with everyone dressed so different it's such a stark contrast to the early days of the uniform stiff suits they wore - they had become their own individuals each walking towards their own separate future paths

My top ten faves in no particular order: Candy O - The Cars Drama - Yes The Beach Boys Love You De La Soul Is Dead There’s A Riot Goin’ On - Sly & The Family Stone Indiscreet - Sparks Ege Bamayasi - CAN A Wizard, A True Star - Todd Rundgren Weasels Ripped My Flesh - The Mothers Of Invention Agharta - Miles Davis Honorable mentions: Music Of My Mind - Stevie Wonder Sticky Fingers - The Rolling Stones Crash Landing - Jimi Hendrix Freedom Vs. Fate - R. Stevie Moore most Beatles albums Top ten least faves in no particular order: Ass - Badfinger The Next Day - David Bowie Free Hand - Gentle Giant DAMN. - Kendrick Lamar Mellow Waves - Cornelius brat - Charli XCX Breaking Hearts - Elton John Armed Forces - Elvis Costello & The Attractions In Rainbows - Radiohead A Bigger Bang - The Rolling Stones. With least faves there are WAY too many honorable mentions to list lol.

Brain Salad Surgery ftw. Honorable mention: Grobschnitt "Solar Music Live" for portraying as well as one picture can, that insane live spectacle of a show.

Interesting lists by Joe & Jason. I'm surprised Countdown To Ecstasy and The Bends covers got on the worst list. Here are my lists. Best list: 10 Raw Power-The Stooges 9 Enema Of The State-Blink 182 8 Frontiers-Journey 7 Hoobastank-The Reason 6 100th Window-Massive Attack 5 Avalon-Roxy Music 4 Electric Warrior-T Rex 3 New Day Rising-Husker Du 2 Breakfast In America-Supertramp 1 London Calling-The Clash Worst 10 Van Halen-1984 9 U2-Achtung Baby 8 David Bowie-Diamond Dogs 7 Black Sabbath-Black Sabbath 6 Blood Sweat & Tears-Mirror Image 5 Scorpions-Virgin Killer 4 Led Zeppelin-Houses Of The Holy 3 Blind Faith-Blind Faith 2 Rage Against The Machine-Rage Against The Machine 1 Born In The Usa-Bruce Springsteen

Really difficult to top Scorpions “Virgin Killer” for worst about cover.

Animals and Atom Heart Mother from PF are also amazing.

Best for me is XTC = Skylarking

That Aretha one is awful. An eyesore.

The least best thing about Steely Dan is their album covers. Best: 1) Rubber Soul - Beatles 2) Beatles For Sale - Beatles 3) Dark Side Of The Moon - Pink Floyd 4) Grace Under Pressure - Rush 5) Rock And Roll Over - KISS 6) Boston - Boston 7) This Year's Model - Elvis Costello (American version) Worst: 1) Daryl Hall & John Oates - Hall And Oates 2) Trout Mask Replica - Captain Beefheart 3) Heroes Are Hard To Find - Fleetwood Mac I'm sure there are many others, but these jump out at me

Also, how could I forget my favourite "so bad it's amazing" cover I Wanta Sing by George Jones!

One of my favorites is Emerson, Lake, and Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery.

Worst overall art direction for great artists? My top three would be the Kinks, Bruce Springsteen and Lou Reed. Springsteen has a few winners, The River I think is great, it almost looks like the credits for a TV show, The River starring Bruce Springsteen!, but overall they're pretty weak, especially the later ones. Schoolboys in Disgrace might be my least favorite album cover of all time, and Reed, aside from a few decent images, geez! Lulu of course, but also Ecstasy, which features the least ecstatic facial expression I've ever seen, and the supremely cheesy Sally Can't Dance.

Another detail that makes the cover of My Aim Is True great is the way "ELVIS IS KING" is spelled out over and over in the little checkerboard squares: outlandish and funny (and interestingly timed, considering that Elvis Presley died a month after the album's release).

39:51 In case you didn't know, the 'guy' on the cover of _The Bends_ is actually a CPR mannequin. The image itself is a photograph of footage of said mannequin playing on a television screen. According to artist Stanley Donwood (who has, by the way, been responsible for all of Radiohead's album covers since _The Bends_ ), the mannequin's facial expression is, in his eyes, 'like that of an android discovering for the first time the sensations of ecstasy and agony, simultaneously'.

Some faves of mine in no particular order Labi Siffre - Remember My Song Sparks - Kimono My House Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left Curtis Mayfield - Superfly Frank Zappa - One Size Fits All Bob Dylan - Desire Jeff Beck - Wired Lou Reed - Coney Island Baby Ye - Graduation Meat Puppets - Up on the Sun Michael Jackson - Thriller Todd Rundgren - A Wizard, A True Star Aphex Twin - I Care Because You Do Steely Dan - Can't Buy a Thrill

Countdown To Ecstasy not good cover. Tim by Replacements, very good point! That was the first lp I heard from them. First songs I heard were I'll Be You, I Will Dare, I Don't Know. Great band, dig all their stuff

That Dr. Dog cover is pretty terrible and I just heard the music which is just OK. Dark Side a boring and predictable choice.

In the '90s i had an In Utero poster on my wall. It still may be my favourite album cover.

I don't know what kind of input Stevie Wonder had in designing his album covers, but he must have chosen the right people. Think about it: he never saw his own album covers. He couldn't have said to the album art guy, "So I want to go with a yellow/orange/brown color palette," because what the hell were yellow, orange, and brown to him? But yes, they all have that "feel." Also, I've never seen that Aretha album cover before, and whoa nelly. It looks like someone nailed a small drawing of Aretha's face onto a larger drawing of her face, and the smaller drawing is just dangling back and forth from a piece of string. It's almost punk.

OK Computer's cover is so iconic. That freeway is the eastbound junction of I-84 (a.k.a. the Yankee Expressway) with I-91 in Hartford, Connecticut. If you Google "OK Computer Freeway" the top result is a Consequence of Sound article with a cool gif of the freeway overlaid with the album cover (really wish youtube would let us post links -_-)

I like spooky drawings like on You're Living All Over Me. Oh anime style definitely bugs me.

Huge DinoJr fan. I don't condone the Green Mind cover because cigs are harmful, but the album is excellent 💥🎸 J Mascis for president (you can write him in)

Worst - ELP Love Beach and Bjork - Utopia. Best - PIL Metal Box, They Might Be Giants - Flood, Any Roger Dean Yes album.

My faves in no order 1.) No Code - Pearl Jam Black Sabbath - Mob Rules Led Zeppelin - Led Zep 3 Alice In Chains - Self Titled Radiohead - Kid A David Bowie - Outside Fiona Apple - Idler Wheel Jim Croce - You don’t mess around with Jim Mad Season - Above Pearl Jam - Riot Act STP - Purple Dio - Strange Highways

42:38 - One of These Nights, Eagles' Greatest Hits & the CD slip cover/LP cover of Hell Freezes Over (with the little frigid red devil) are pretty cool, I think! Otherwise... yeah. Desperado's aight I guess. Willie Nelson's definitely got a checkered cover collection - but sometimes he hits it just right... For some reason, his early 2000's records (Milk Cow Blues, The Rainbow Connection, The Great Divide) do it for me. Those, and the random Willie Nelson / Merle Haggard Christmas comp, Pancho, Lefty & Rudolph - I can't really explain why! 😆 LOVE Mystery to Me! Has always creeped me out in a good way... unlike Heroes Are Hard to Find... 😬 And holy hell, that Aretha cover is a confusing monstrosity... SOLID pick with The Beach Boys' Surf's Up... I sought it out and had it on my wall before even hearing it (same with a couple Grace Jones albums!) Probably would make my list as well... Leo Sayer's got some goofy ones for sure (Endless Flight! 😂) - but I have to say, I don't mind Just a Boy! Looks like he was going for some Little Prince vibes... What's wrong with that Babys cover?? It's fairly typical for the time... not a bad cheesy time capsule I'd say! Shout out to Bruce Hornsby (solo) for a consistently interesting body of visual work! ✌

Top 5 favorite album covers: Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean Paul McCartney - McCartney Stone Temple Pilots - Purple Stone Temple Pilots - Tiny Music The Beatles - Sgt Pepper Agree 100% with Gram Parson's Grievous Angel. Awesome album, but what is going on with the album art? It's not so much that it's a poor design, it's just confusing. And the sub-par photo of Gram makes the album even less inviting. Huge disparity with how great the music is.

Ranking best and worst covers even more based on pure sentiment than ranking the music itself, but here goes my top 10 in no particular order: Jehovahkill - Julian Cope Giant Steps - The Boo Radleys Scraps at Midnight - Mark Lanegan Decks, EFX & 909 - Richie Hawtin Chrome - Catherine Wheel Flesh + Blood - Roxy Music Closer - Joy Division Boces - Mercury Rev Revenge of the Goldfish - Inspiral Carpets Wave - Antonio Carlos Jobim

2 legendary bands with consistently bad album covers are Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. DP has many covers of the band's disembodied heads (In Rock, Fireball, Burn, Taste the Band), and Black Sabbath covers look cheap and unintentionally hilarious (Paranoid, Master of Reality, Vol. 4, Sabotage, Born Again). Jason's pick for DP is bad, but more because it's boring and lazy.

Abbey Road is THE album cover of all time But I like album covers featuring a band photo. So Ac/Dc Highway To Hell and U2 The Joshua Tree also being all-time classics.

I think most Bruce Springsteen album covers are poor, uninspiring and boring. But you talked about jazz albums from the last half of the 50s until about 1964, where there really are many wonderful illustrations. One of my favorites is Time Out with the Dave Brubeck Quartet.

The Bends is a brilliant album cover. Among my all time favourites. As too is Pablo Honey. Superb. OKComputer is the all-time classic all round package - great album and great artwork - I dislike Hail to the Thief’s artwork. Puts me off the album so much - the album sucks too, so disjointed and disappointing - half the songs are typically amazing and half are awful But anyway, great video - enjoyed your comments once again 👍👍👏👏

Captain Fantastic and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road...

Never cared for Stones Sticky Fingers , as a guy do I really want to look at that , and that working Zipper , ughh .., another is The Who , Who's Next .., awesome albums but shit ideas for covers .

Album covers have always been the main reason for me to keep buying Vinyl when the CD era kicked off in the nineties. That and the experience of putting an album on the pick-up. (Not the sound - but that's a whole different debate). There are many memorable ones, so I'll list two that I haven't spotted yet in the comments Trout Mask Replica - unlike most Beefies, I'm not a big fan of this record musically but the cover is iconic The world won't listen - The Smiths' records all have that sepia atmosphere, but this one is a marvelous rendition of teenage hormones and insecurity

As much as I love Stevie's Innervisions cover, I prefer those strange abstract figures on the gatefold inside... I dont know what they're meant to represent exactly, my guess is they're the personified 'senses' that Innervisions engages you with... My personal favourite Stevie cover would have to be Fulfilingness First Finale, a grand tapestry of images.

10cc had a phenomenal track record of great album covers, with a little help from Hipnosis of course. I could stare at the cover art of 'How Dare You!' For ages. I still don't know exactly whats going on between all the characters featured and the telephone conversations between them all. The album itself is sadly meh.

One band that I love but has pretty bad album covers is Wilco. They seem to intentionally make their album covers boring and uninteresting.

Scary Monsters, “Heroes” and Aladdin Sane are spectacular. Reality and Toy were whoops

1990s good gals: Bjork - Debut PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love Tori Amos - Boys For Pele bad boys: Vanilla Ice - To The Extreme Aerosmith - Get A Grip Soundgarden - Superunknown

Anything by Grand Funk. They tried way too hard to be cool. The covers AND the music were horrible.

I feel like the Dr Dog cover is a cassette tape?? The top 2/3 at least. But it’s weird and too nondescript. Doesn’t fit their music even though this is a relatively mellow album.

Kinda sad Queen's 'The Miracle' didn't make the list 😂

One of my favorite covers comes from one of my favorite albums. Born and Raised by John Mayer. I just like the style of the artist who made it. It has a lot of intricate details and I think it fits well with the music. Which reminds me. Y'all should do a week going through John Mayer's oeuvre. It would make me very happy. And don't worry. I'll protect you from any members of a certain fan base that might attack when you something nice about him. 😄

My least favorite album cover, as far as I know, is from Trespass by Genesis

Joe nailed that Scott 3 description. I need a full classic album review someday.

Some of my favorites off the top of my head: Pink Floyd- Animals, Rush- A Farewell to Kings/Moving Pictures, Echo & the Bunneymen- Porcupine/Ocean Rain, Marvin Gaye- I Want You, Tears For Fears- The Seeds of Love, Faith No More- Angel Dust, Thrice- Vheissu, Joy Division- Closer, King Gizzard- Polygondwanaland, The Flaming Lips- The Soft Bulletin, Deftones- Saturday Night Wrist.

The Leo Sayer cover looks like its referencing The Little Prince.

More album artwork content please. Really enjoyed this video. thanks.

Guess it finally had to happen...Finally, collectively throwing away Sgt Pepper's......

Aladdin Sane

Little Feat have a pretty high batting average for album covers

Surfs Up is a great number 1 pick!

10 best: The Mars Volta - Frances The Mute Amaarae - Fountain Baby Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion The Blue Nile - Hats Jeff Rosenstock - Worry Kate Bush - The Dreaming Gustavo Cerati - Boconada Morrissey - You are the quarry Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want To Turn Into You The Jesus and Mary Chain - Darklands 10 worst (I like these albums): Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine Belle and Sebastian - Tigermilk The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium Adele - 25 Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head Roisin Murphy - Hit Parade Rilo Kiley - Take offs and landings Nick Drake - Pink Moon Dry Cleaning - Stumpwork The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America

Favourites that come to mind: Pink Floyd - Animals: Reminds me of home. I must of commuted past Battersea Power Station thousands of times in the past. The combination of the building, the pig and the ominous clouds in the background really give me a strange feeling of unease and tension, like something bad is just around the corner. Miles Davis - In A Silent Way: always loved his expression. What's he looking at?. Bob Dylan - Empire Burlesque: absolutely appalling, but it's so bad, it always makes me smile. I think the fact that Dylan made a lot decent albums after this really rams home the fact that he lost the plot during the mid 80s.

Great lists guys. A little correction. The smoking "girl" on the Dinosaur JR cover is infact a boy. It is an image from photographer (and lengendary skateboard pro) Ed Templeton. The photo is from his series Teenage smokers. Shot at Venice Beach California if i remember correctly.

Scott 3 is one of my favorite album covers…it’d also be in my top ten

Bold as Love - Hendrix

The greatest album cover of all time is an easy pick - 2 Virgins

The little prince? no?

Leo Sayer cover is a take on The Little Prince

No Zappa? So many great covers but Weasels Ripped My Flesh is a classic.

Wings at the speed of sound is pretty ugly

Notice the slight camel toe on the Candy-O cover as well. :D

I love Scott 3 and Ocean Rain

Will Prince be in July?

PLEASE invest in some decent mics.

'Moving Pictures' by Rush should be on the top 10 list

The Band ..... self titled brown album....the whole cover simply invites the question "Who the hell are these guys?"

Satan Is Real by Louvin Brothers or GTFO

Agreed on that Talking Heads album. Not an obvious pick, but I love it. And yes Joe.. Big Thief

Oh the humanities would've been a good title for Led Zep # 1.

On The Beach - Neil Young The Band - selftitled brown album Animals - Pink Floyd Abbey Rd or White Album - Beatles Freewheelin - Dylan Gunfighter Ballads - Marty Robbins Ziggy Stardust- Bowie London Calling - Clash Horses - Patti Smith Never Mind The Bollocks - Sex Pistols Unknown Pleasures - Joy Division Nevermind - Nirvana I'm Stranded - The Saints Let Love In - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds Sweetheart of The Rodeo - the Byrds Country Life - Roxy Music Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy - Brian Eno The Modern Lovers - self-titled by Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers Abraxis- Santana Most of Steve Earle's album covers Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone - Lucinda Williams American Recordings - Johnny Cash Blow By Blow - Jeff Beck Beggar's Banquet (toilet seat cover) - The Rolling Stones Velvet Underground (Banana cover)

hey fellas, SW, ZEP, RH- Impressionism, STONES, GRACEJ, but WHAT? exclude Bowie -Aladdin Sane, Lodger, Diamond Dogs with it’s half human half dog with genitals, banned in US, as a child needed therapy after I saw it, he was one of the few Pop Artists accepted by the Art World! an Impressionist painter, oh Captain Fantastic pretty great, encapsulated everything he is, would love reply Brotha Joe

Jason is spot-on to mention the Blue Note covers. In particular, I like Indestructible by Art Blakey, with its bold red and black dot matrix photo. I prefer the cover for Fulfillingness First Finale to Innervisions, with it's brown-orange and white colors. On the negative side, there is the cover for hair-metal band Firehouse (1991), which is so dumb it's hard to believe.

Great call on Dino Jr’s Green Mind!! Got a laugh out of the comments re: Teenage Fanclub’s Bandwagonesque. Somehow, Gene Simmons trademarked the logo of a moneybag with dollar symbol. He sent a cease and desist letter to Teenage Fanclub’s label who in turn settled and sent Simmons a cheque for $500. Thelonious Monk had some great album covers: Monk’s Music, Criss Cross and Live in Italy are all really cool!

Moving Pictures??

10 Great Albums with Questionable Covers 10 The Who Sell Out (the beans) 9 Rush- Hemispheres (the brains and the butt) 8 Houses of the Holy (the faceless naked children) 7 Pet Sounds (the dumb goat photo) 6 Born in the USA (the butt and the jeans and the flag and the title probably confused a lot of people into thinking this was flag waving music) 5 Paranoid (a nut with a white helmet in an orange blanket with a sword…is this metal?) 4 White Album (iconic and dumb at the same time) 3 London Calling (I know they were into The Who, but why would you smash a perfectly good Fender bass?) 2 The Doors (why is Jim so big?) 1 Blind Faith (self explanatory)

A very cool topic. I’ve been fascinated by album cover art ever since my graphic arts training at the old Art Institute of Pittsburgh, back in the early eighties. In those days and well before, there were so many great looking covers that were inspiring to me. But two of my favorite ever would have to be Jethro Tull’s Broadsword and the Beast and Weather Report’s Heavy Weather. The art is so elaborately illustrated and perfectly designed. And I totally agree with the Bends album cover. If I could, I’d love the opportunity to re-design that one 😆.