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.
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The Rolling Stones Get Stoned 30 Greatest Hits-30 Original Tracks (1977) |
The Rolling Stones Sucking the Seventies (1981) |
The Rolling Stones Collection 1971-1989 (1990) |
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The Rolling Stones Collectors' Edition (1990) |
The Rolling Stones Coca-Cola Presenta - Volumen 1 (1995) |
The Rolling Stones Coca-Cola Presenta - Volumen 2 (1995) |
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The Rolling Stones Forty Licks (2002) |
The Rolling Stones Ten Licks from Forty Licks (2002) |
The Rolling Stones Live Licks (2004) |
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The Rolling Stones A Bigger Bang World Tour 2005-2006 Special Edition (2005) |
The Rolling Stones In Store Sampler (2005) |
The Rolling Stones 2009 Remasters (2009) |
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The Rolling Stones 1964-1969 (2010) |
The Rolling Stones 1971-2005 (2010) |
The Rolling Stones Complete Singles (2011) |
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The Rolling Stones No Spare Parts (2011) |
The Rolling Stones Grrr (2011) |
The Rolling Stones Blue and Lonesome (2016) |
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Autograph That's the Stuff (1985) |
Aerosmith Just Push Play (2001) |
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The Stooges The Stooges (1968) |
Mew And the Glass Handed Kites (2005) |
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Masters of Deceit Hensley's Electric Jazz Band & Synthetic Symphonette (2000) |
Revolver Music for a While (2009) |
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Sinead O'Connor The Lion and the Cobra (1990) |
Ani DiFranco Ani DiFranco (1994) |
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Rudolf Serkin, Bruno Walter, New York Philarmonic Orchestra Beethoven Piano Concerto No5 In E-Flat, "Emperor" (1941)
(5 × Shellac, 12", 78 RPM) |
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| 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) |
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| 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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Supergrass Life on other Planets (2002) |
Infadels Universe in Reverse (2008) |
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The Housemartins London 0 Hull 4 (1986) |
Belle and Sebastian The Boy with the Arab Strap (1998) |
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The Beatles The Beatles (White Album) (1968) |
The Dandy Warhols Dandys Rule OK (1995) |
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Lewis Black White Album (2000) |
Various The Blues White Album (2002) |
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Slint Spiderland (1991) |
Washed Out Life of Leisure (2010) |
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The Byrds Byrdmaniax (1971) |
The Soundtrack of our Lives Behind the Music (2001) |
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Maxïmo Park A Certain Trigger (2005) |
Bryan Adams Anthology (2007) |
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Bruce Springsteen Nebraska (1982) |
The Kinks Live - The Road (1988) |
The Jesus & Mary Chain Stoned & Dethroned (1994) |
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Acetone I Guess I Would (1995) |
Hothouse Flowers The Best of (2000) |
Vincent Gallo When (2001) |
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Monster Movie Last Night Something Happened (2002) |
Weekend Players Pursuit of Happiness (2003) |
Bon Jovi Lost Highway (2007) |
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Ray Manzarek/Roy Rogers Translucent Blues (2011) |
Mark Knopfler Down the Road Wherever (2018) |
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Sandie Shaw Me (1965) |
Nico The Marble Index (1969) |
Diane Birch Bible Belt (2009) |
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Alain Bashung Master Serie Vol.1 (1998) |
Serge Lama Feuille à Feuille (2001) |