IMHO the best album cover of all time, without any doubt is:Up till then, there really was no such thing as cover art - covers just had some photo of the band/singer.It was revolutionary.What other band could afford not to have their own name on the cover?Who else would have the chutzpah to feature on their album cover the only group who could claim to rival them?Having their own "Fab Four" images - with which they became world famous - in B&W looking on also emphasises the quantum leap that this album made. Before the Beatles, popular music was indeed monochrome. They gave that generation and those to come the license to be inventive.Quite simply, if not for the Beatles, the modern world would not be as it is.
werent the old incarnation (alongside SPLHCB) at a funeral service to indicate the end of the poppy 60s beatles and the start of the tripped out indian citar loving era?
thats how ive always read it.
Whatever, that album marked a watershed in popular culture.
Whatever, that album marked a watershed in popular culture.
unless one directions on there somewhere.
is that one of them under the fern
I already liked this band, but if u didn’t this would’ve yelled ‘BUY ME’ 
DC represents
Whatever, that album marked a watershed in popular culture.
unless one directions on there somewhere.
is that one of them under the fern
It was the idea that people were gathered to hear the fictional band Sgt. Peppers. All the faces are significant popular figures the Beatles found influential or fascinating. Lennon wanted to put Hitler in there, but it was vetoed by EMI, for obvious reasons.
There was originally a figure beside Edgar Allan Poe at the back that was removed because they threaded to sue.
Also, well before the days of photoshop, etc. this whole scene was actually set up with life sized cut outs, the Beatles posed in front of it. Have a book with photos of the process.
Also no accident that after that revolutionary cover, the next one was this:
<a class="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TheBeatles68LP.jpg"><img height="220" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/20/TheBeatles68LP.jpg/220px-TheBeatles68LP.jpg" width="220" alt="220px-TheBeatles68LP.jpg"></a>
IMHO the best album cover of all time, without any doubt is:Up till then, there really was no such thing as cover art - covers just had some photo of the band/singer.It was revolutionary.What other band could afford not to have their own name on the cover?Who else would have the chutzpah to feature on their album cover the only group who could claim to rival them?Having their own "Fab Four" images - with which they became world famous - in B&W looking on also emphasises the quantum leap that this album made. Before the Beatles, popular music was indeed monochrome. They gave that generation and those to come the license to be inventive.Quite simply, if not for the Beatles, the modern world would not be as it is.
One other thing: it also wasn't true.
1965:
March 1967 (Sergeant Pepper's came out in June)
Deserves to be in in it's own right.
Unlike Sgt Pepper's it doesn't look like a dog's breakfast done by a hyperactive child.
13th floor elevators, 1966
No need to make **** up, they happily stand on their own 2 feet.
They certainly popularised that (■■■■■■!) psychedelic aesthetic, which went on to be used on Stones, The Who, Jeff Beck (I want to say the Kinks?) etc, and of course the whole basis of Hendrix' aesthetic, along with Zappa and others. They could of course have popularised just about anything they put on their covers, could've been a tattered plastic bag and that would've gone big.
But they did not invent images on covers, or colour images, or even psychedelic colour images. See above.
Few of my favourites (along with Nico, above)
(NB Yes, I know, just a straight rip of a Magritte painting. Still beautiful!)
<a class="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Helmet-Betty.jpg"><img height="220" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cf/Helmet-Betty.jpg/220px-Helmet-Betty.jpg" width="220" alt="220px-Helmet-Betty.jpg"></a>
Always interesting imagery, these are some of my all time favorites.(The Selfless image is a human nerve cell growing on a microchip.) I've left out Songs of Love and Hate on purpose, as its one of the few that seemed a bit cliched.