Fully intact copies of the VUвЂ™s debut album are now hugely collectible rarities. ItвЂ™s вЂњPeel Slowly And SeeвЂќ banana peel was actually a sticker that revealed the phallic fruit beneath вЂ“ a typically wry move from Warhol, though the joke was on anyone who removed the sticker. If Peter BlakeвЂ™s Sgt Pepper album cover is the most famous example of British pop art, then Andy WarholвЂ™s design for The Velvet UndergroundвЂ™s debut, released that same year, remains one of the most famous from the US. The Velvet Underground & Nico: The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) Staged by British artist Peter Blake and his then-wife, Jann Haworth, the Sgt Pepper album cover depicted 58 different people, chosen by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Peter Blake, Jann Haworth and London art dealer Robert Fraser, presenting a fascinating cross-section of cultures, importance, and each BeatleвЂ™s individual interests like Marlon Brando, Karl Marx, and Marilyn Monroe.Д¬lick here for an interactive Sgt Pepper cover to discover whoвЂ™s who on one of the most important album covers of all time. Pepper album cover remains a pop art masterpiece that has influenced everyone from Frank Zappa ( WeвЂ™re Only In It For The Money) to The Simpsons ( The Yellow Album). But the most important and, at the time the most expensive album cover ever made, the Sgt. The Beatles, of course, had plenty of iconic album covers in their career, including Abbey Road and The White Album. The Beatles: Sgt PepperвЂ™s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) Two decades later, The Clash and photographer Pennie Smith felt there was still none more rockвЂ™nвЂ™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 rockвЂ™nвЂ™roll energy from a young man ready to take over the world. Two simple words: вЂњElvisвЂќ and вЂњPresleyвЂќ (the latter barely hiding that controversial pelvis from view): thatвЂ™s all it needed to say. While youвЂ™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 thatвЂ™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 StonesвЂ™ iconic blue jeans crotch and zipper on Sticky Fingers. Peter Saville made Factory Records a sensation with the radio waves of Joy DivisionвЂ™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 BeatlesвЂ™ Sgt PepperвЂ™s Lonely Hearts Club album cover, if not the ultimate manifestation of 60s psychedelia for the вЂњpeace and loveвЂќ crowd? Truly iconic album covers donвЂ™t just define an album, they define an era, a generation, and, in some cases, an entire musical genre.

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