10 Fascinating True Stories Behind Iconic Music Album Covers
The true story behind some of the wildest album covers.
We've all seen these iconic album covers hundreds of times. Whether it's on t-shirts, posters, CDs, LPs, or even on streaming platforms, an album cover has the power to take on a life of its own and become even more iconic than the music it was created to be packaged with.
Behind the photographs adorning your favourite record sleeves also lies a fascinating story about how that t-shirt or poster on your mate's wall came to be. These stories also include the great lengths - especially in the pre-digital Photoshop age - that graphic designers, photographers, models, and artists went to in order to share their artistic vision with the world, with a host of bizarre items, including Rolls Royces and baked beans, helping these to become some of the most famous album covers of all time.
Whether they were released on LP, cassette, CD, or even in the streaming age, these covers prove that a picture is indeed worth a thousand words, and in many cases the story behind their creation is almost as fascinating as the covers themselves.
10. Dookie - Green Day (1994)
The cover and indeed title of Green Day's major label debut, 1994's Dookie, was inspired by something just a little bit gross. Whilst on tour before the album's release, the band were suffering from, shall we say, stomach and bowel issues from the result of eating so much processed and spoiled food.
As a result, the title and artwork created by artist Richie Bucher features a massive pile of, well, dookie, behind the albums title. Also on the cover are several monkeys and dogs flinging lots of this dookie at each other. Originally to be titled Liquid Dookie, that was deemed too gross by the band's record label so was toned down to just Dookie.
Aside from the slightly disgusting title and element of the artwork, the cover does contain slightly more wholesome elements. The rest of the sleeve is a tribute to the East Bay area in San Francisco, California, where the band grew up, being gloriously blown to pieces by a dog in a fighter jet. Also among the guest list on the cover are whole host of crazy characters including cavemen and a rather large Elvis Presley.