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Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti
(Album ©1975, Swan Song Records) My second-favorite Zeppelin record, this cover is a favorite as well. The cover image is a retouched photograph of two tenement buildings on St. Mark’s Place (E. 8th St.) in NYC, and the 2-disc LP was intricately designed. The windows were die-cut and the inner record sleeves were printed with various images…
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Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run
(Album ©1975, Columbia Records) This is my list so it should come as no surprise that I’m including my favorite album of all time. This record was a phenomenon when it was released in 1975, because an artist who few people knew about, who was about to be dropped by his label, turned in an all-time great…
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Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon
©1973, Capitol Records After showing a bunch of photo-based covers, here is one of the most recognizable graphic covers of all time. Floyd’s eighth album was a true game-changer. It is one of the 3 or 4 best-selling albums of all time, selling more than 44 million copies since it’s release, and was on the Billboard Album chart for…
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The Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers
(Album ©1971, Rolling Stones Records) This was the Stones’ first album of the 70’s, their first on their own label, and was the third in what has to be considered one of if not THE most impressive four-album run of any band in rock history, from ’68’s Beggar’s Banquet through ’69’s Let It Bleed, this one, and…
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The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Axis: Bold As Love
(Album ©1967, Reprise Records) Jimi’s second album was also the second one he recorded in 1967 alone! While it is the most abstract of his three albums with the Experience, it is one of the coolest album covers of all time. It’s so of the time – so stereotypically ’60’s. Unfortunately, it had nothing to do with…
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The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
(Album ©1967, EMI/Capitol Records) Here is the other most important album in rock-n-roll, in my opinion. The Beatles had heard Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited and The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds (which itself had been heavily influenced by The Beatles’ Rubber Soul), and responded with perhaps the most ambitious album to date. Paul McCartney had an idea…
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Meet The Beatles! – The Beatles
(Album ©1964, EMI / Capitol Records) This record was the first “official” LP released by the band in the US, and the photo on the cover is truly iconic, having also been the image used on the UK LP With The Beatles, released a few months earlier. The photo was taken by Robert Freeman, and a…
