Album Cover Artwork and Designers

Rock Album Covers

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), Blake

Many albums simply use words and photographs of the musicians on their covers, such as the Beatles' Abby Road from 1969 (their eleventh album). In 2017, on our trip to the UK, we visited the Beatles museum in Liverpool, England. One wall was wallpapered with a life-sized copy of the iconic cover photo with the Fab Four strutting in the crosswalk. Even more iconic is the cover for 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Beatles' eighth studio album, designed by British Pop Artist Peter Blake (1932-).

This post will examine cover art from a dozen 20th-century designers.

Face Dances (1981), Blake et.al.

I also love Blake's 1981 design of the "Face Dances" cover of The Who members (by row) -- Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, and Kenney Jones -- whose portraits were painted by sixteen artists: Bill Jacklin, Tom Phillips, Colin Self, Richard Hamilton; Michael Andrews, Allen Jones, David Inshaw, David Hockney; Clive Barker, R. B. Kitaj, Howard Hodgkin, Patrick Caulfield; Peter Blake, Joe Tilson, Patrick Procktor and David Tindle. It was featured in my April 2020 post entitled, Op & Pop Artists - From Allegorical Renaissance to Modern Day Optical and Kinetic Art.

Grand Illusion (1977),
Mouse Miller

Blank Signature (1965),
Magritte

American artist Stanley "Mouse" Miller (1940-) is famous for his 1960s psychedelic rock album cover designs for the Grateful Dead, Journey, and Styx. His "Grand Illusion" Styx album is a pastiche (imitation) of Belgian Surrealist René Magritte's Blank Signature.

Felix-Wyeth

Get Happy!! (1980),
Barney Bubbles

English graphic artist Barney Bubbles (1942-1983) was born Colin Fulcher. He is called the 'founding father' of album covers. His Elvis Costello and the Attractions' "Get Happy!!" cover reminds me of the project my fifth graders did for my N.C. Wyeth movement lesson, using repetition of neon-colored shapes.

Swans Reflecting Elephants
(1937), Salvador Dali

Osibisa (1971), Roger Dean

English artist Roger Dean (1944-) designed the 1971 album for British afro rock band Osibisa. The elephant head butterflies remind me of Swans Reflecting Elephants (1937) by surrealist Dali (1904-89).

Playground Psychotics (1992), Schenkel

I like the color scheme of the Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention album, Playground Psychotics, which was released in 1992. Designed by Cal Schenkel (1947-), I appreciate his black-and-white drawings of band members and  Zentangle-like doodles (e.g., spirals). This is what I imagine an album cover would look like!

Powderfinger - Golden Rule (2009), Thorgerson

Storm Thorgerson (1944-2013) designed this simple cover for the seventh and final studio album, Golden Rule, by Australian rock band Powderfinger in 2009. Their 2010 album, Sail the Wildest Stretch, also sports a more vivid version of the bird on its cover. Journey also uses a bird symbol on their albums. I wonder if the Australian band chose its name after Neil Young's 1979 song, Powderfinger.

Jazz Album Covers

Tequilla Mockingbird (1979), Glaser

The 1979 Ramsey Lewis cover "Tequilla Mockingbird" was produced under the direction of Paula Scher and John Berg and illustrated by Milton Glaser (1929-2020). I like its simplicity and movement with its bright rainbow colors against a black background. The jagged lettering of the title deconstructs it into the familiar "To Kill a Mockingbird".

Basie and Williams (1956), Martin

Jazz album covers are typically very graphic and often in a red-black-and-white color scheme. The drawings were cartoon-like and usually included musical instruments. Here are covers by David Stone Martin (1913-1992) and Reid Miles (1927-1993). See the link for more of Martin's covers. I love the watercolor touches on this particular cover.

A Swingin' Affair (1963), Reid Miles

This cover for saxophonist Dexter Gordon was designed by Reid Miles. Although it has a photographic portrait of the musician, I love the composition of red against the black background. You can see more at The Album Cover Art at Blue Note Records.

Artsy Album Covers

New Order - Technique (1989), Saville

These last three covers are much more like paintings than album covers. For New Order's Technique album, Peter Saville (1955-) colorized a cherubic garden ornament complete with psychedelic colors. Apparently, it went well with the vibe of this electronic dance band's music. I imagine the cherub playing an invisible air guitar.

Atomic Playboys (1989), HR Giger

Surrealist artist HR Giger's (1940-2014) Atomic Playboys cover was created for guitarist Steve Stevens' (born Steven Bruce Schneider in 1959) first studio album. Its rather gothic design includes a guitar fret. He was Billy Idol's guitarist and songwriting collaborator, who also played for Michael Jackson, Ric Ocasek, Robert Palmer, and others.

The Bleeders (2008), Vaughan Oliver

British graphic designer Vaughan Oliver (1957-2019) produced this cover for the Bleeders in 2008. It reminds me of the works of abstract expressionists, which have been created by many of my favorite artists. It doesn't look like an album cover, but I really like its contrasting colors and white highlights!

I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I have researching it. Please visit the links, especially the other jazz covers. You may also wish to comment naming your favorite album cover!

MLK Jr -- Portrait of a Dreamer

MLK Jr. (2017), Glenridge

August of 2023 will mark the 60th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and Martin Luther King Jr's I Have a Dream speech. In February of 2017, a classroom of students from Glenridge Elementary School enlarged a photograph of MLK Jr. and posted it on a bulletin board in one of its hallways. It is a fun way to teach students about value range. My project used a black-and-white poster of Elvis Presley.

MLK Jr. (1962), Karsh

It turns out to be from the famous 1962 portrait by photographer Yousuf Karsh (1908–2002), on display at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, in Washinton D.C. There is an I Have a Dream (2012) children's book with illustrations by artist Kadir Nelson. My brother has a book by Nelson with paintings of the Negro Leagues, some of which we saw at the Baseball HOF in 2019.

My First Year of Blogging: Teaching Art, Travels, and Observations, from August 2020, also includes MLK. Elvis, JFK, and de Kooning.

JFK (1965), de Kooning

JFK (1960), Rockwell

That same year, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22nd in Dallas, Texas. I remember it because it was my parents' wedding anniversary and my first-grade teacher cried when the announcement came over the PA system. Five years later, on April 4th, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Norman Rockwell (1960) and Elaine de Kooning (1965) painted a series of portraits of the 35th President.

The Problem We All Live With (1964), Rockwell

In 1964, Norman Rockwell painted The Problem We All Live With, depicting six-year-old Ruby Bridges being escorted to an all-white elementary school during the New Orleans school desegregation crisis of 1960. Notice the racial slur and the tomato-stained wall.

Aesop's Fables (1970)

Dixie Café, (1948), Lawrence

The Smithsonian is a great place to view historical paintings. Here's one dealing with segregation by Jacob Lawrence. While I enjoy his colorful paintings, his compositional works in black-and-white are particularly striking. I gave a book (right) with such illustrations by Jacob Lawrence to my niece's 3rd-grade teacher.

Stone of Hope (2011), Lei Yixin

In August 2011, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial opened to the public in Washington D.C. Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin's inspiration came from a line from MLK's I have a Dream speech -- "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope."

RFK (1972), Leroy Neiman

A month before his death, President Kennedy gave his own version of the I have a Dream speech. It was meant to be a call to action reminiscent of his inaugural address where he said, "...ask what you can do for your country." His brother (and Senator) Robert asked us to "Dream Things That Never Were". RFK's social justice agenda specifically targeted the poor and disadvantaged, while JFK's speech was about his desire for peace in his country, and MLK's speech dreamt of personal freedoms and a world free of discrimination. It's unfortunate that these three dreamers were singled out by fame-seeking assassins.

Brains and Beauty (Einstein
and Monroe), Troy Gua

Thomas Alva Edison (1890),
Abraham Archibald Anderson

You don't have to be a religious leader (like MLK Jr.), a politician (like JFK or RFK), an artist (like Jacob or Leroy), a scientist or inventor (like Edison or Einstein), a novelist or songwriter to be a dreamer.

Often, dreams lead to discoveries, breakthroughs, and even Nobel Prize winning contributions to the world. They reflect our personal values, behavior and aspirations to do good in the world.

Pablo Picasso was quoted as saying, "Action is the foundational key to all success."

Vincent Van Gogh may have said, "I dream my painting, and then I paint my dream."

I don't know who said it, but I like this quote: "Every possibility begins with the courage to imagine."

"You see things and you say, 'Why?' but dream things that never were, and I say, 'Why not?'" by George Bernard Shaw.

"Art has the power to transform, to illuminate, to educate, inspire and motivate." So have the courage to dream and share your art with others. Edgar Degas said, "Art is not what you see, but what you make others see."