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.

Dark side

Rudolf Serkin, Bruno Walter, New York Philarmonic Orchestra

Beethoven Piano Concerto No5 In E-Flat, "Emperor" (1941)

(5 × Shellac, 12", 78 RPM)

Pink Floyd

Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

The Niwitz

Dark Side of the Spoon (1999)

Richard Cheese

The Sunny Side of the Moon - The Best of (2006)

Philip Glass

The Essential (2008)

Scissor Sisters

K-Mart Disco (2010)

Pink Floyd

Dark Side of the Moon - Immersion Boxset (2011)

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