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Well there have been some really iconic albums down the years, sparking a certain something in people when they listen to the album. A music album can take you back to a different time in your life, that great summer, that first love, or it can be the icon of a generation. But aside from the music, albums can be made iconic or more iconic with the artwork that accompanies them on the front of their album sleeve. There have been some great album covers over the years and today I am going to take a look at some of the best. But first we have to find out what makes a great album cover?

An iconic album cover must:

• Be Memorable – a great album cover should be instantly recognisable. When someone recalls the music on the album they will automatically think of the cover aswell.
• Capture a Moment – Another trait of brilliant album art is the fact that it captures a moment of a generation i.e. Sgt Peppers or Nevermind
• Have great music – This is sort of tied with the above point. If the music and the cover are great then they will both capture the moment.
• Be Thought Provoking – many thought provoking album covers become iconic for the message they display.
• Have a Story Behind them – Album covers with stories behind them can also become very iconic.

So now we’ve found out what it takes to make a great album cover, let’s look at the most iconic album covers ever!

The Beatles

Once again The Beatles are going to appear in a top list with regards to music. But I really think that the music that inspired a generation went hand in hand with producing some really iconic album covers aswell. I have picked two album covers from the extensive Beatles collection, which are incidentally two of my favourite Beatles albums.

Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

First I want to bring tou your attention an album that need no introduction. An album that musically defined a generation and is still considered to be a masterpiece to this day. And the album cover is no different. It features the Beatles at the centre wearing military outfits in day-glo colours. Around the fab four are more than 70 famous peoples cutouts in rows of four. Some of these people include: Marlon Brando, Bob Dylan, James Dean, Karl Marx, Laurel and Hardy, Edgar Allan Poe and Shirley Temple. The album itself was critically and commerically successful with critics today still calling it not just an historic piece of music history, but an extremely important piece of 20th Century history. And maybe the cover shows thats what The beatles were going for, by including many important popular and historical figures on the album art. Nonetheless it encapsulates probably the greatest album of all time.

AbbeyRoad

The second Beatles instalment on the list is probably the most imitated picture in music history. Tourists visiting London often go to the crossing outside the legendary Abbey Road studio’s to take pictures of themselves walking across the famous road. The album was the last album the Beatles recorder but the second last they released (As Let It Be was recorder first but released after Abbey Road.) The album again, much like other Beatles albums was seen as a great success but the popularity of the front cover has become bigger than the music on the album. Many other bands have released albums where they are on the famous Zebra crossing. The album was origingally going to be called Everest after the brand of cigarettes the band smoked, but they decided to name it Abbey Road. This gave the photographer only ten minutes to get a perfect shot for the album cover, The Beatles congregated outside the studio and walked across the corssing, that’s why Paul isn’t wearing any shoes, as they had to do it quickly. Amazing how so little time was spent making this cover, but how much time has been spent looking at it. Quality!

Nirvana – Nevermind

Now to move away form the Beatles and onto an album cover closer to this generation, even if it was nealry 20 years ago. One of the most pivotal albums in the last 25 years, it foreseen a mainstream move towards alternative rock and to this date has sold more than 26 million copies worldwide (10 million in America.) The initial success of the album was widely down to the first single released, Smells Like Teen Spirit. The album was originally going to be called Sheep, a joke that Cobain made about the ‘new’ fans that would buy it, but instead Kurt decided to change the title to Nevermind, which reflected his views on life and was also grammatically incorrect. The iconic cover itself was conceived by Cobain when he watched a program about water births. He asked Geffens art director to get him som pictures on waterbirths but the stock photography company wanted $7,500 a year for its use. The art director, Fisher, took his camera to a local swimming pool for babies and managed to photograph a three-month-old baby called Spencer Elden. He settled for a $200 fee to give to the parents and the rest as they say is history. Cobain also protested that they keep the picture with the babies penis showing, he argued that the only way he would remove it on the cover is if he could put a sticker over it saying, “If you’re offended by this, you must be a closet pedophile.” Classic Cobain.

Pink Floyd – Dark Side Of The Moon

Now to one of the most successful albums ever made. Pink Floyds masterpiece, Dark Side Of The Moon is widely considered as one of the greatest rock albums of all time. It was their eighth studio album and released in 1973. It endured enormous American success topping the billboard 200 for one week, however its biggest success is how long it stayed in the charts. Gathering up a colossal 741 weeks in the charts which spanned from 1973 until 1988, this is has become the longest charting album in recording history and has also went on to sell 45 million copies worldwide, making it the third biggest selling album in the world behind AC/Dc’s Back In Black and Michael Jackson’s Thriller. The cover is quite simplistic but yet resonates Floyds use of light and colour in their live performances. The cover shows a prism refracting white light into a spectrum of colours. Now I’m not sure whether this would have become one of the most recognisable album covers without the huge success of the music on the album, yet you cannot take away the fact that it is an iconic album cover. Skipped the light Fandango!

The Clash – London Calling

One of my favourite bands again appearing in this list and a great album. It was the third studio album from the English punk band who formed in 1976. It is probably their most commercially and critically successful album going platinum in the United States alone. London Calling was released in 1979 and its first and only UK single from the album was the song of the same name. The album was placed at 8th in Rolling Stones list of the top 500 greatest albums in 2003. The cover has also became one of the best album covers of all time with the front photograph. The cover depicts bassist Paul Simonon smashing his Bass guitar on the floor of the Palladium in New York City. It also has green and pink lettering down the left side of the cover and on the bottom, which is famously copied from Elvis Presleys debut album. It was named as the 9th best album cover of all time in Q Magazine’s list in 2001 and the photograph of Simonon smashing his bass was also named the best Rock n Roll photograph of all time by Q, with the magazine stating that “it captures the ultimate Rock ‘n’ Roll moment – total loss of control.” I think that statement captures what the band were all about at the time and even more so what the whole Punk ere was about. So with that I leave you with my top five, I hope you have enjoyed it.

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