If an artist’s name brings images into your head when you hear it, odds are you’re remembering an iconic image of that artist. To prove this point, these album covers are, in my opinion, some of the most iconic covers in history.
Here are some of the most famous album covers of all time that you should check out. You’ve most likely seen most of these before. For each music style, even cross-genre audiences would be able to pick out the artist from each of these covers, even if they didn’t have the name or picture of the artist on the cover. Enjoy! ;)
AC/DC – Back In Black ↓
Bob Marley – Catch A Fire ↓
Korn – Follow The Leader ↓
Backstreet Boys – Millenium ↓
Dr. Dre – The Chronic ↓
Eminem – The Slim Shady ↓
Fall Out Boy – Infinity On High ↓
Guns ‘N’ Roses – Appetite For Destruction ↓
Green Day – American Idiot ↓
Mariah Carey – Rainbow ↓
Green Day – Dookie ↓
Metallica – Master Of Puppets ↓
Iron Maiden – Self-Titled ↓
The Beastie Boys – License To Ill ↓
The Beatles – Abbey Road ↓
Beck – The Information ↓
Blink 182 – Enema Of The State ↓
Jay-Z – Reasonable Doubt ↓
Jimi Hendrix Experience – BBC Sessions ↓
Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison ↓
Lauryn Hill – The Miseducation Of ↓
Lil Wayne – Tha Carter III ↓
Limp Bizkit – Significant Other ↓
Linkin Park – Minutes To Midnight ↓
2Pac – All Eyez On Me ↓
Lupe Fiasco – Food And Liquor ↓
Theory Of A Deadman – Self-Titled ↓
Marilyn Manson – Mechanical Animals ↓
The Beatles – St. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band ↓
Michael Jackson – Bad ↓
Weezer – Self-Titled ↓
Motley Crue – Girls Girls Girls ↓
Nas – Illmatic ↓
Michael Jackson – Got To Be There ↓
Notorious B.I.G. – Ready To Die ↓
Oasis – What’s The Story ↓
Michael Jackson – Thriller ↓
Nirvana – Nevermind ↓
Outkast – Stankonia ↓
Ozzy Osbourne – Bark At The Moon ↓
Paramore – Riot ↓
Pink Floyd – Dark Side Of The Moon ↓
Pink Floyd – The Wall ↓
Rage Against The Machine – Evil Empire ↓
Rolling Stones – Exile On Main St. ↓
Bob Marley – Legend ↓
Snoop Dogg – Doggystyle ↓
The Clash – London Calling ↓
Underoath – They’re Only Chasing Safety ↓
Tool – 10 000 Days ↓
David Bowie – Aladdin Sane ↓
Oasis – Definitely Maybe ↓
Bob Dylan – The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan ↓
Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin ↓
The Roots – Things Fall Apart ↓
Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here ↓
Fleetwood Mac – Rumours ↓
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz! ↓
Madonna – True Blue ↓
The Ramones – The Ramones ↓
What Album Covers Stand Out To You The Most? And Why?
Let us know in the comments which albums stick out when you look the list over. Don’t forget to tell us why. What did you like about the design?
I would also be very interested to see if anyone here has designed album covers before? Care to share? See you all in the comment section! ;)
Author: Mike Smith
Mike Smith writes a freelance blog on a regular basis and is also a blog designer at Guerrilla.
“If a artist’s name brings” should be “If an artist’s name brings.” Awesome article, can’t stand some of these musicians but overall a good compilation.
@Billy: Thanks for the heads up, it’s fixed :)
MJ has the best album covers i also like janet’s covers too. The beatles ones are instant classic and prince debut was cool too.
im partial to Appetite For Destruction. not only my favorite album from my favorite band, but the album cover, and title, fits with the music so perfectly. this was a plan B for the band that worked out great, the original cover was cool, but this is way more iconic
obviously designed by a tattoo artist, you can tell this band is rough around the edges. tattooed, lude, and rude. each of the guys had great personality and a unique look which allows the skull idea to work. you can instantly pick out which one is Axl, Slash, Duff, Izzy and Steven. refreshing, as most of the bands back then all looked the same. even though theres a cross, i dont think theres any significant religious undertones intended. i guess you could read into it that the band is crucified in some way. maybe so then, no one else wanted to be in a band with those guys. they were the right fit for each other.
also, ive never been albe to decide if Master of Puppets missed the mark or blended a couple of things perfectly. the song “master of puppets” deals with drug abuse and the song “disposable heroes” is about the mindless robotic nature of the military and its soldiers.
the image suggest, to me at least, these soldiers graves are long forgotten (note the tall unkempt grass) and they were driven there by their belief in God, the puppet master, through a holy war.
At least a third of these are awful (even putting aside my own personal music tastes) – Backstreet Boys? Mariah Carey?
When i first look an album cover or movie poster, i just check the fonts they used.:)
Anyway thanks for the collection Mike:)
Sorry I’m with Max on this one. An album cover is supposed to convey the theme/mood of the album. A stock photo of the artist just looking moody is not great design or shows any thought, it just looks like a wall calendar. the best example here is “London Calling” which captured the Zeitgeist and raw energy of the Clash exceptionally well
Follow the Leader from Korn is my favorite. It’s old but never lose his charm. But the other covers also very nice!
I think the AC/DC cover ist the one, pure and simple, just nothing you can omit, I still will remember that one in years, -thanks for the interesting post!
If you’re going to put up London Calling, you need to also put up the Elvis Presley cover they were honoring.
Two that I think need to be on here for sure:
“Chrome” by Catherine Wheel and “Ten” by Pearl Jam.
Other than that, it’s a good list! ;)
What about M. Whelan’s paintings that graced the covers of albums like Sepultura’s “Beneath the Remains”, “Arise” and “Chaos A.D.” He also made the artwork for Obituary’s “Cause of Death”.
Also how can you forget H.R. Giger’s work on Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s “ELP”.
Prodigy – Fat of the land has a nice cover as well
The Clash album cover is a copy of an old Elvis cover: http://www.amiright.com/album-covers/elvis-presley-parodies/
Interesting article. I think some of the Beatles album covers are the most well known out there.
I’ve written about the interesting stories behind some famous album covers in my blog post: http://www.alexandruvita.com/blog/2010/05/14/most-famous-album-covers-ever/
(also with some very funny and weird examples).