Selections follow from three Long Play listing sites: Huff Post – Udiscovermusic – & Boredpanda

I picked these LP covers out just because they either caught my attention or just because…..

HuffPost:

“Thinking back to some of the most mesmerizing album covers of the 1970’s, it’s hard to pick an elite list of art, and artists, that held our gaze the longest. But, let’s try anyway. For the sake of this list, let’s stick to original artist’s paintings:

Meat Loaf – “Bat Out of Hell” – 1977

“A guy that looks like Tarzan bursts out of Hell on a motorcycle, shooting out of the earth with explosive force in the middle of a graveyard…well, yes please.”

Elton John – “Captain Fantastic & the Brown Dirt Cowboy” – 1975

“As for the album cover itself, it’s got a lot going on. There is a menagerie of fantastic looking creatures surrounding a tuxedo-wearing Elton atop a piano appearing to take flight. If you smoked a bowl and stared at the cover art, you could fill your afternoon schedule.”

Funkadelic – “One Nation Under a Groove” – 1978

(Artist Pedro) “Bell features black superheroes planting a R & B flag Iwo Jima style and another telling us we should be “…gettin’ down for the funk of it!” His artwork connected and gave a voice to the African-American culture of the 1970’s. “

Devo – “Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!” – 1978

“The cover art was illustrated by Joe Heiner and was based on a picture of professional golfer Chi-Chi Rodriguez. By the time the band got permission to use his image on the album, the record company’s art department had already redesigned the picture so that it morphed the faces presidents of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, AND the original Chi-Chi image.”

Boston – “Boston” – 1976

“

Teenagers all over America would gaze at this square foot of fantasy and imagine an entire cityscape scooped up off the face of the planet to be saved from impending doom just in time. If you could frame every Boston issue to hang in your music room, you’d be winning at cool.”

Kansas – “Point of Know Return” – 1977

“The ancient sailing ship, with its bow bent towards impending doom, reminds us how nice it is to be on solid ground. Add the dragon image around the edges of the album and you have one of the best images in rock history.”

Yes – “Yessongs” – 1973

“In 2013, Dean sued filmmaker James Cameron for using his images as inspiration for Pandora in the movie, Avatar. The suit was dismissed, but you can judge for yourself.”

Thin Lizzy – “Jailbreak” – 1976

“The cover’s image of a television monitor showing the members of the band running loose is actually a die-cut hole that reveals part of the gatefold’s inner scene. Open the album and you get to see Phil Lynott and company fleeing from a War of the Worlds-like alien attack.” (Back cover image is the UK issue)

Kiss – “Love Gun” – 1977

“And those women are quite shapely. And those women all have their faces painted like the band. And they all sit adoringly at the band’s feet. What teenage boy in the 70’s didn’t look at this album cover and wish they were in KISS? “

10cc – “Deceptive Bends” – 1977

“Two of the band’s three top 40 singles came from this record. But enough of all that…look at that album cover! The deep-sea diver carrying the shapely woman gives the album’s title a double entendre image.”

Udiscovermusic:

start with boogie woogie meade lux

The 100 Greatest Jazz Album Covers

“Into the modern era and the glory days may have passed but there are still some classics as you will see from, our 100 Greatest Jazz album Covers. We’d love to hear from you, as to what are your most loved album covers within the jazz genre.”

Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie – “Bird and Diz Volume 2” – 1952

Bill Evans & Jim Hall – “Undercurrent” – 1962

The Modern Jazz Quartet – “Third Stream Music” – 1960

Charles Mingus – “The Clown” – 1957

Slim Gailliard – “Laughing in Rhythm: The Best of the Verve Years” – 1994

Shelly Manne – “2-3-4-” – 1962

Roy Eldridge & Dizzy Gillespie – “Roy and Diz” – 1954

Miles Davis Quintet – “Relaxin’ with The Miles Davis Quintet” – 1958

Oscar Peterson – “Plays Porgy & Bess” – 1958

Ornette Coleman – “Ornette!” – 1959

Oliver Nelson – “The Blues and the Abstract Truth” – 1961

Moondog – “Moondog” – 1969

Boredpanda:

9 Of The Greatest Album Covers Ever | Bored Panda start with Gorillaz

“Some of the album covers were, in fact, happy accidents, while others caused serious accidents being made (we’re talking about you, Pink Floyd). So all you have to do now is scroll down below, check out the greatest album covers of all time, and vote for the ones you fancied the most. Just play fair and don’t base your votes on your music preference this time, but rather the artwork! Also, don’t forget to share this list of iconic album covers with your friends, as they too might like to learn the stories behind them.”

(Boredpanda’s selections are ranked 1 through whatever – I have chosen inclusions here as strikes my fancy!)

#2 – Queen – “Queen II” – 1974

“It’s fun to know that this iconic photo was inspired by a similar one of Marlene Dietrich, taken in 1932.”

#7 – Pink Floyd – “Animals” – 1977

“The shooting of the picture has quite a funny story to it – on the second day of the shooting, the helium-filled pig balloon broke free of its moorings (there was no marksman to shoot it down on that day) and disappeared out of view. The wind carried away this pig to the area of Heathrow airport, causing panic and delayed flights. After a while, the helium pig landed in Kent and was recovered by a farmer, who was furious about the massive swine scaring his cows.”

#8 – Fleetwood Mac – “Rumours” (1977)

Many listers are drawn to this one due to Mick Fleetwood’s dangling wooden balls – sigh….

#14 – Cream – “Disraeli Gears” – 1967

“Besides trying to capture the essence of Cream’s sound, the artwork was also inspired by Cambodian statues of deities, with ancient trees growing right on them. The association shows like this – band members’ faces with the music swirling right from their heads.”

#17 – King Crimson – “In the Court of the Crimson King” – 1969

“The painting used as this album’s cover was done by a computer programmer Barry Godber, and it is Barry’s own face. Sadly, Godber died shortly after the release of In The Court Of The Crimson King, making it his only album cover design.”

#20 – Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass – “Whipped Cream & Other Delights” – 1965

This is model Dolores Erickson

#22 – The Rolling Stones – “Let it Bleed” – 1969

“The picture that you see on the cover isn’t a collage or a superimposed image, but rather a surreal sculpture designed by Robert Brownjohn. Although Mick Jagger initially asked M. C. Escher to design the cover (who politely declined).”

#23 – Supertramp – “Breakfast in America” – 1979

“The center figure in the image is Kate Murtagh, an American actress and singer-comedian, dressed as a waitress mimicking the pose of Lady Liberty.”

#24 – Alice Cooper – “School’s Out” – 1972

“The vinyl inside was wrapped in a pair of panties, though it was later discontinued upon discovering that the paper garment was highly flammable.”

#28 – Dio – “Holy Diver” – 1983

“The cover artwork was painted by Randy Berrett and featured the band’s mascot, Murray, spinning heavy chains above waves where a priest or a minister is chained and floating.”