Would Sgt. Pepper's be exactly the same without Peter Blake's cover ? At a time when full-length records do not mean much any longer and album covers even less, I found interesting to make a website on sleeve design. Long before videos, record covers were the visual embodiment of music, a way to put images on sound. I remember having spent hours as a teenager detailing the cover of records while listening to them. Later on, I realised that some of them had things in common in their design, revealing either a mere sign of the times or a more deliberate connection. Some records even obviously copied famous sleeves, as a tribute or as a mockery. Here is a collection of record covers I came across, which share some common visual features.

EMI at Manchester square























The Beatles

Please Please Me (1963)

The Beatles

1962-1966 (Red Album) (1973)

The Beatles

1967-1970 (Blue Album) (1973)

The Beats

Please Please Me (1999)

Blur

Secret Gig 95 and Lots More (Bootleg) (1995)

The Sex Pistols

1976-1977 (Bootleg) (2001)


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