Gallery: 20 All-Time Great iTunes Album Covers
2:59 pm, October 13th, 2009, Lonnie Lazar
Over 6 million songs in the iTunes Music Store. God knows how many albums that translates to, but we must be insane to try and pick 20 albums worth considering for their combination of music and artwork, right?
As long as we’ve got that straight on the front-end, then.
Herewith, a collection of 20 albums available on iTunes, loosely organized by release date (in reverse order) and presented with the thought they might make good additions to the much-ballyhooed iTunes LP upgrade hyped at Apple’s It’s Only Rock and Roll event in September.
No doubt readers may quibble with some (perhaps all!) of our selections; no doubt you’ll have suggestions of your own. Do let us know abut it in comments. All album links open in iTunes.
20. The Dave Brubeck Quartet – Time Out
In 1959 there was no combination that said “hip” like surrealist art and experimental jazz. The pairing of Joan Miró’s art and the music of pianist Dave Brubeck’s quartet made Time Out one of the “must have” records of the day.
19. Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass – Whipped Cream and Other Delights
In 1965, American popular culture was getting ready to embrace naked women — or at least the idea of naked women — on a public scale that could hardly have been imagined just a few years prior. The cover of Alpert’s seminal release went a long way toward breaking down that barrier and became one of the most popular album covers of the era.
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Favorites, Music, iTunes | Comment on this article
I don’t have a better answer, but I’m pretty uninspired by this lot. Need….more….time….!
Marky Mark, on October 13th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Horrible, horrible list. This has almost nothing to do with album “art”, it’s just a list of the author’s favourite albums, split across ten screens to garner as many advertising hits as possible for the site.
CoM has been going downhill, but this is just a ridiculous slap-together article designed to get eyeballs to pages.
icecastles, on October 13th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
So really, you could have just called this “20 Great ALBUM Covers” yeah? Apart from the fact that they happen to be on iTunes, I don’t think Apple (fabulous as they are) had anything to do with these covers.
Again, I love iTunes, but this seems like pandering and filler to me. Sorry.
Charles Martin, on October 13th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
PS. Putting just two covers per page with minimal writing is rather douchy. You can’t need the hits THAT badly, and I would not have thought you were quite so lazy either.
Charles Martin, on October 13th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
PPS. “London Calling” came out in 1979, not 1976. Nice research.
Charles Martin, on October 13th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
@Charles Martin: like Jimi said, “Now if uh, six uh, huh, turned out to be nine …”
Hope you have a better day tomorrow.
Lonnie Lazar, on October 13th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
These arn’t about art at all, they’re all quite old and apple would probably never do anything with these. Normally apple likes to use album covers with big bright colors or simple design that would highlight their design. If you havnt noticed, Apple used Datarock’ Datarock Datarock album art in the iPod touch, iPod nano, and iPod classic to showcase their coverflow feature. While these albums have some great music, it’s just not on par with apple’s design.
James, on October 13th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
You do realize that your #1 album art doesn’t appear on iTunes, right? Also, that the Sticky Fingers album cover is one of the best arguments against both CDs and digital downloads? Also, that Nickelback is a soul-crushingly terrible band? I have trouble believing you weren’t aware of at least two out of the three.
fool, on October 13th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
This list is completely bogus. Totally cheeseball.
FnD
Frank N' Dank, on October 13th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
@James: if you mean by “they’re all quite old” that half of them come from within the past 15 years and a third of them are less than five years old, then — guilty as charged. Also, if you’ve been paying attention, two of the feature albums Apple has promoted for the LP line are albums from the Grateful Dead (not by a longshot their most ‘colorful’) and The Doors, and that another featured album in the line is Peter Gabriel’s “So”, a nearly all black and white design — well, that kind of shoots your theory all to hell.
@fool: I’m pretty sure I mentioned that the sagarmatha cover i featured was not the one ‘approved’ for iTunes distribution.
Lonnie Lazar, on October 13th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
last time I got to anything over 10 pages
Bodesnki, on October 13th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
The first half was so much better than the second half – Clash, Who, Stevie Wonder, Rolling Stones: seminal albums and covers, then you lost the courage of convictions. Green Day over The Clash – wtf?
The greatest cover of all time (or close) is Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures, and certainly in this day and age to miss out (Peter Saville again) Power, Corruption, and Lies is a big oversight.
Gazzer, on October 14th, 2009 at 1:33 am
Looks like you got it half right. Everything up to Split Enz can be justified but after that . . . ? Some of the second half could be justified musically but as far as album art goes – not really that great. Something happened in that wasteland of the 80s (the CD?) and album just never recovered. I would like to nominate the Beastie Boys ‘Paul’s Boutique’ for that era. The music is great and the 390 degree fold out cover is phenomenal. In a way this is a cover that mirrored the feel and experience of the music contained on the disc.
altopod, on October 14th, 2009 at 2:30 am
no OK Computer……………no Pixies……not one Sphongle Album?…………..fail
Doug Aghassi, on October 14th, 2009 at 3:38 am
Any article that has the word “great” in the title and “Nickelback” in the body is an epic fail.
(By the way, the best Wilco cover by far is A Ghost is Born.)
Darcy McGee, on October 14th, 2009 at 8:02 am
You’ve got some tough critics. In my view, this was really fun to read and to look at. Nice going.
Andy L, on October 14th, 2009 at 10:23 am
If you’re talking strictly about the artwork, no Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band? Tales of Topographic Oceans?
Dean, on October 14th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
No David Bowie? No Sparks? C’mon…
barbarella, on October 15th, 2009 at 2:34 am
enjoyed the read thank you. i would also recommend
gorillaz – demon days
prodigy – jilted generation
mars volta – octahedron
nightmares on wax – smokers delight
public enemy – muse sick-n-hour mess age
Dean: no beatles because they are not on itunes mate
saman Jebeli-Javan, on October 16th, 2009 at 7:05 am