So many seminal records serve as the soundtrack to so many of our lives, and so many of their sleeves tell a story of their own. Verve takes a look at some legendary album artworks that are almost as famous as the songs inside.
Left: Nirvana’s album Nevermind
Above: Parellel Lines album on vinyl by Blondie
Nevermind, Nirvana
You probably don’t recognise the name ‘Spence Elden’, but you’ve likely seen him naked. Once perhaps the most famous four-month-old on the planet, he features on the cover of Nirvana’s mega-selling album Nevermind, suspended in a swimming pool, enthralled by a dollar bill. The now 30-year-old recently announced he was suing for sexual exploitation, arguably questionable considering he has recreated the shot for various Nevermind anniversaries. However, he has also previously expressed the difficulty in dealing with being “famous for nothing” and being at events where everybody “has probably seen my little baby penis”. In 2008, Elden’s father, Rick, told NPR that he had gladly accepted US$200 for what was a fun photoshoot by his friend and photographer Kirk Weddle. Now, the photographer admits to feeling conflicted about the project, pointing out that Spencer rightly feels that everyone except him profited and he probably “deserves something”.
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles
Without doubt the most iconic album cover ever, and one of the most famous images of all time, period. The Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band sleeve was the costliest ever made, and among the first to feature song lyrics (along with carboard cutouts) inside. The concept, courtesy of Paul McCartney and realised by pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth, sees a colourful congregation of famous faces such as Bob Dylan, Mae West and Karl Marx, chosen by the band and gathered behind them in a scene that critic Colin Fleming describes as “like a giant birthday party or an Irish wake”. Two figures that didn’t feature on the final picture were Hitler (for obvious reasons), and Gandhi because record label bosses were worried his inclusion would be considered sacrilegious. (The plain white cover of the band’s next album, titled The Beatles but commonly referred to as the White Album, served as a stark, deliberate riposte to the kaleidoscopic splash of its predecessor.)
Parallel Lines, Blondie
Rock artwork history would have worked out very differently if Debbie Harry had had her way, for the ‘Atomic’ blonde was not a fan of the cover photograph used for her band’s third studio album, Parallel Lines. Looking her usual achingly cool self, Harry stands fists on hips and draped in a slinky white dress as the rest of the band stand lined up in matching skinny black suits behind. The shot, taken by photographer Edo Bertoglio, was rejected by the group, but their decision was overridden by manager Peter Leeds, and the image – like several of the album’s songs – became a massive hit, hailed by music journalist Tim Peacock as “iconic, and instantly recognizable”. The multi-million selling album bulges with dancefloor-fillers like ‘Heart of Glass’ and ‘One Way of Another’.
Sticky Fingers, The Rolling Stones
There’s a decent argument for Sticky Fingers being The Rolling Stones’ finest hour – it’s certainly their most famous album cover. Created by none other than Andy Warhol, in collaboration with designer Craig Braun, the original sleeve, famed for its close-up capture of a denim-clad crotch, arrived with a working zipper that revealed another crotch, this time clad in white kecks, behind. Many wrongly assume it to be Mick Jagger’s groin, but several different models were used for the shoot, and Warhol never revealed which one made the final cover. The flip side of the sleeve – along with the interior and LP – also saw the band’s now-legendary bright red tongue and lip logo used for the first time.
Is This It, The Strokes
Is This It is the coolest rock ‘n’ roll debut of the 21st century (and some might say the greatest in modern rock), so it’s only fitting that it’s packaged in such a memorable sleeve. The eye-catching cover, which shows the side-on view of a black-gloved (unnamed) woman’s hand resting atop her naked bum, was a spontaneous shot taken by her then boyfriend, photographer Colin Lane, on a Polaroid camera in their New York apartment. Another stroke of luck occurred a few weeks later while Lane was photographing the band for a spread in The Face magazine when he overheard them in discussion with their art director about choosing a final image for their debut sleeve; so, he showed them his portfolio which included said shot. A less controversial, abstract image of colliding particles was used for the US market.
Island Life, Grace Jones
French photographer Jean-Paul Goude sure has an eye for shooting his subjects in headline-grabbing poses. The man responsible for the ‘break the internet’ Paper magazine cover exposing Kim Kardashian’s bare derriere (along with the alternative clothed shot of her balancing a champagne glass on her arse) was also responsible for the seemingly posture-defying pose of Grace Jones on the cover of her 1985 album, Island Life. Goude and Jones worked together on numerous occasions, and he once described his muse as being concurrently “beautiful and grotesque” – personified in this shot that sees the singer contort her spectacular, statuesque figure into an impossible pose. As it turns out, the pose really was impossible, with the cover image being a composite of a collection of shots from different angles. (Gaude has described himself as an “author of images”, and those Kardashian shots were photoshopped, too.)
At The Movies
A look at some of cinema’s most iconic artworks.
The Exorcist
History’s greatest horror movie has a powerful poster that drips with dread. The silhouette of a lone priest – the Exorcist – shrouded in fog is beckoned to a window behind which he must do battle with a demon; good versus evil further symbolised by the contrast of light and black. Bill Gold came up with the concept, the legendary designer who also created the artworks for Clockwork Orange, Casablanca, and Alien.
Vertigo
Saul Bass is a revered pioneer of graphic design, responsible for creating influential title sequences for the likes of Psycho, West Side Story, and Goodfellas, along with movie posters such as Anatomy of a Murder and The Shining. Perhaps his most lauded effort was the disorientated man of Vertigo which mirrors the dizzying effects of the film’s title sequence that Bass also designed.
Jaws
The iconic image used for the movie, Jaws (and the paperback version of the book upon which it was based) was done by artist Roger Kastel (also responsible for the almost-as-famous The Empire Strikes Back poster). An embellishment of the original hardback sleeve by illustrious illustrator Paul Bacon, the terrifying implication of the poster is that you never know what’s lurking beneath the surface, wonderfully setting the scene for the film credited as being the original summer blockbuster.
