10 Fascinating True Stories Behind Iconic Music Album Covers

6. Is This It - The Strokes (2001)

Oasis 4
RCA/Rough Trade

Adorning the front cover of The Stroke's 2001 debut Is This It is an image which, similar to the N.W.A, cover, was an entirely spontaneous accident. The cover also features an interesting grammatical error which was done deliberately because, well, it just didn't look quite right.

The provocative photograph was taken by Colin Lane, with no real aim other than to take a sexy picture. It just so happened that a stylist left a leather glove in Colin's apartment, and one day when his girlfriend at the time got out of the shower, Colin gave her the glove and asked her to pose for a few photos. In the end he took roughly ten shots, one of which being the cover we know and love today.

Upon showing the band some of his portfolio over a year later, they fell in love with the picture and asked to use it as their album cover. The resulting eye-catching photograph wasn't too popular with retailers but helped the album sell over one million copies worldwide.

The Strokes also deliberately chose to to leave out a question mark at the end of the title, feeling that the cover looked much better without it.

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Hey everyone, my name is Ruby, a geeky as anything trans girl passionate about music, film and science fiction.