A Brief History of Album Covers

In this era of Vinyl revival, celebrate some of the greatest covers of the last 70 years, such as the Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band or Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, alongside entertaining and informative text. Featuring some of the most famous and controversial record sleeves of all time alongside a host of lesser-known, but equally important images, this updated edition of A Brief History of Album Covers celebrates the unique art form of the album cover, tracing its development since the birth of the LP right up to the present day. The Sex Pistols’ Never Mind The Bollocks... (1977) and Cyndi Lauper’s She’s So Unusual (1983) are just some of the covers that resonate with the times, fashions and places in which they were created. But even with the decline of vinyl and the explosion of digital media, musicians are still keen to use innovative artwork to represent their music. Nirvana’s Nevermind (1991), Arctic Monkey’s Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007) and Rihanna’s Anti (2016) are all great examples of how this exciting artistic medium has continued to evolve. Organized chronologically and fully illustrated, this superb reference book considers the context in which each cover was created, the relationship of the music and musician to the image, and of course the designs themselves.

Jason Draper is the Reviews Editor at Record Collector. Recent publications include The Rolling Stones Revealed and Classic Album Covers. He has contributed to The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock and has also written for Uncut, Metal Hammer, Sound Nation, Big Issue Cymru and Buzz.