The 30 greatest album covers of all time

18 March 2025, 12:25

Back in the day, an album cover was a piece of art in its own right.

Before streaming shrunk down album covers to a few pixels, and before even we suffered the cramped designs on CDs and (ugh) cassettes, music fans had the beauty of the LP record sleeve - 12" of pure artistic pleasure.

So the 1950s to 1980s really was the golden age of album artwork, and that's the era we've focus on in this round-up of the greatest LP sleeves of all time.

• All of Pink Floyd's albums, ranked from worst to best
• The Beatles' best albums, ranked
• Listen to the Gold Radio Greats Live Playlist on Global Player, the official Gold app

Choosing just 30 from across those years was no easy task.

To help, we've restricted ourselves to a maximum of TWO record covers per artist. We didn't want the whole thing to just be taken up by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Pink Floyd, after all.

And given just how different all these album sleeves are, we've decided not to rank them but instead list them in chronological order.

1. Elvis Presley - Elvis Presley (March 23, 1956)

   

2. Eartha Kitt - That Bad Eartha (1956)

   

3. Little Richard - The Fabulous Little Richard (1958)

   

4. Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (May 27, 1963)

   

5. The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico (March 1967)

   

6. The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (May 26, 1967)

   

7. Small Faces - Ogden's Nut Gone Flake (May 24, 1968)

   

8. Big Brother and the Holding Company - Cheap Thrills (August 12, 1968)

   

9. The Beatles - Abbey Road (September 26, 1969)

   

10. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King (October 10, 1969)

    

11. The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers (April 23, 1971)

    

12. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On (May 21, 1971)

    

13. The Who - Who's Next (August 2, 1971)

    

14. T. Rex - Electric Warrior (September 24, 1971)

    

15. Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon (March 1, 1973)

    

16. David Bowie - Aladdin Sane (April 19, 1973)

    

17. Patti Smith - Horses (November 10, 1975)

    

18. David Bowie - Low (January 14, 1977)

    

19. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours (February 4, 1977)

    

20. Kraftwerk - The Man Machine (April 28, 1978)

    

21. Blondie - Parallel Lines (September 8, 1978)

    

22. Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures (June 15, 1979)

    

23. Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle (September 7, 1979)

    

24. Pink Floyd - The Wall (November 30, 1979)

    

25. The Clash - London Calling (December 14, 1979)

    

26. Talking Heads - Remain in Light (October 8, 1980)

    

27. Queen - Hot Space (May 4, 1982)

    

28. Duran Duran - Rio (May 10, 1982)

    

29. Michael Jackson - Thriller (November 29, 1982)

    

30. Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA (June 4, 1984)