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.

Dressed up as Santa Claus










Bing Crosby

White Christmas (2012)

El Vez

Sno-Way José (2012)

John Legend

A Legendary Christmas (2018)








Louis Armstrong & Friends

What a Wonderful Christmas (1997)

The Supremes

The Best of the Supremes: The Christmas Collection (2005)

Etta James

12 Songs of Christmas (2005)








James Brown

Funky Christmas (1995)

The Ramsey Lewis Trio

More Sounds of Christmas (1964)

James Brown

The Best of James Brown: The Christmas Collection (2003)








Jackie Gleason

All I Want for Christmas (1969)

Charo

(Mamacita) ¿Dónde Está Santa Claus? EP (1978)

Kylie Minogue

Kylie Christmas (2015)






Mariah Carey

Merry Christmas (2000)

Mariah Carey

Merry Christmas 2 You (2010)

Girl in jeans








Madonna

Like a Prayer (1989)

Tove Lo

Lady Wood (2016)

Puff of smoke








Tricky

Mixed Race (2010)

Wiz Khalifa

Blacc Hollywood (2014)

In the basement








Thelonious Monk

Underground (1968)

Bob Dylan and The Band

The Basement Tapes (1975)

Ammonite








The Sundays

Reading, Writing and Arithmetic (1990)

XTC

Fossil Fuel - The XTC Singles 1977-1992 (1996)