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.

Fish eye













The Byrds

Mr. Tambourine Man (1965)

The Rolling Stones

Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass) (1966)

(Screaming) Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends

Hands of Jack the Ripper (1972)















Ray Manzarek

The Whole Thing Started with Rock & Roll

Now It's Out of Control (1975)

Neil Young + Crazy Horse

Ragged Glory (1990)


Seen from behind












Jimmy Reed

Rockin' with Reed (1959)

Jack Johnson

On and On (2003)


Couch













The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground (1969)

The Cranberries

Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Don't We ? (1993)

The Drums

Encyclopedia (2014)













Crosby, Stills & Nash

Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969)

The Go-Betweens

Liberty Bell and the Black Diamond Express (1986)

Carte de Séjour

(1986)










The Cranberries

No Need to Argue (1994)

The Cranberries

Something Else (2017)


Hair












PJ Harvey

Rid of Me (1993)

Ellen Alien

Thrills (2005)


Blue background












The Feelies

Crazy Rhythms (1980)

Weezer

Weezer (Blue Album) (1994)