The Beatles, of course, had plenty of iconic album covers in their career, including Abbey Road and The White Album. The Beatles: Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) Two decades later, The Clash and photographer Pennie Smith felt there was still none more rock’n’roll, and nicked the idea for the epochal London Calling vinyl album cover. Caught playing the guitar and singing during a performance at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory, Tampa, Florida, on July 31, 1955, you can still feel the primal rock’n’roll energy from a young man ready to take over the world. Two simple words: “Elvis” and “Presley” (the latter barely hiding that controversial pelvis from view): that’s all it needed to say. While you’re reading, listen to our Greatest Album Covers playlist here. Our list of the 25 most iconic album covers of all time may not be exhaustive, but it certainly reveals why album covers deserve to be held in as high a regard as more traditional modes of artwork. While art might be a matter of taste, lasting legacy is something that’s more easily measured. The best album covers see these graphic designs bypass linear thinking and emerge with an image that is a bona fide work of art in its own right. Andy Warhol, meanwhile, dreamed up The Rolling Stones’ iconic blue jeans crotch and zipper on Sticky Fingers. Peter Saville made Factory Records a sensation with the radio waves of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures (and many more). The firm Hipgnosis defined the 70s with their many optical illusions. Other iconic album covers are envisioned by creative masterminds. Sometimes album covers are helped on their way to iconic status because of the musicians they feature: photogenic stars, such as Elvis Presley, David Bowie, or Prince, whose godlike images are burned into our retinas.

Sometimes they do all three: what is The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club album cover, if not the ultimate manifestation of 60s psychedelia for the “peace and love” crowd? Truly iconic album covers don’t just define an album, they define an era, a generation, and, in some cases, an entire musical genre.

Comin out hard album cover image