Famous Album Covers

The album cover for The Velvet Underground & Nico is recognizable for featuring an Andy Warhol print of a banana on the cover. Early copies of the album invited the buyer to "peel slowly and see"; peeling back the banana skin revealed a flesh-coloured banana underneath. A special machine was needed to manufacture these covers, but record label MGM paid for the costs, figuring that any ties to Warhol would boost sales of the album. The reissued vinyl editions of the album don't feature the peel-off sticker and so the original copies of the album with the peel-sticker feature are extremely rare collector's items. It is also notable that the original release featured Warhol's signature.

Nirvana's Nevermind album cover shows a baby swimming towards a US dollar bill on a fish hook. According to lead singer Kurt Cobain, he conceived the idea while watching a programme on water births with drummer Dave Grohl. It was mentioned to art director Robert Fisher who found stock footage of underwater births, but were deemed too graphic for the record company. Also, the stock house that controlled the photo of a swimming baby wanted $7,500 a year for its use. Instead Fisher sent a photographer to a pool for babies to take pictures. Many shot's were taken and the band settled on the image of a three-month-old boy. The image is one of the most iconic in rock history and caused controversy where supermarkets refused to sell it. Cobain compromised by allowing a sticker to cover the baby's genitals.

The Grammy Award-winning album packaging for The Beatle's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band features a colourful collage of life-sized cardboard models of famous people on the front of the album cover. The Beatle's themselves, in the guise of the Sgt. Pepper band, are dressed in custom-made military style outfits. According to designer Peter Blake the original concept was to create a scene that showed the Sgt. Pepper band performing in a park, but gradually evolved into it's final form as shown. In keeping with the park concept, the foreground of the scene is of a floral display incorparating the word "Beatles" spelt out in flowers. There are also several affectations from the Beatles' homes such as small statues belonging to John Lennon. The collage itself depicted more than 70 famous people, including Edgar Allen Poe, Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe and Bob Dylan.