LP Era

1955-1969. The vinyl 12" LP is invented; the cover becomes a design surface. Reid Miles at Blue Note, Alex Steinweiss at Columbia, Andy Warhol's banana. The Beatles and Sgt. Pepper redefine what a cover can do.

Part of Album Cover

33 moments in this segment.

1. 1955-04-25 - Frank Sinatra - In the Wee Small Hours. 1955 · Designer: Capitol Photo Studio The first concept album. Sinatra in fedora and overcoat on a deserted blue-toned city street; the painting establishes mood as a design discipline.
2. 1955-04-25 - In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning (Remastered 1998). ) · 00:03:01
3. 1956-03-23 - Elvis Presley - Elvis Presley. 1956 · Designer: William V. "Red" Robertson The pink-and-green typography photograph that the Clash would replicate verbatim 23 years later on London Calling.
4. 1956 - Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus. 1956 · Designer: Tom Hannan Saxophone in negative space on a yellow field, Prestige Records aesthetic at its most pure.
5. 1956-12-01 - Sonny Rollins - St. Thomas (Official Audio) from Saxophone Colossus. 00:06:48
6. 1959-08-17 - Miles Davis - Kind of Blue. 1959 · Designer: Neil Fujita · photo by Jay Maisel Studio-shot Miles in side-light blue. The best-selling jazz album of all time; the photograph is now in MoMA.
7. 1959-10 - Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come. 1959 · Designer: Atlantic Records Free-jazz manifesto cover with a faded photo of Coleman holding his plastic alto.
8. 1959-10-15 - Ornette Coleman / The Shape of Jazz to Come. 00:38:14
9. 1959-12-14 - Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out. 1959 · Designer: S. Neil Fujita Abstract geometric painting, the first jazz LP to use modernist art as cover instead of a band photograph.
10. 1959-12-14 - The Dave Brubeck Quartet (Time Out ) 1959. 00:38:46
11. 1963 - Anna (Go To Him) (Remastered 2009). ) · 00:02:57
12. 1964-01-20 - The Beatles - Meet the Beatles!. ! · Year: 1964 · Designer: Robert Freeman Half-shadowed black-and-white portrait that defined the band's American breakthrough, and a generation of high-contrast portraiture.
13. 1965-08-30 - Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited. 1965 · Designer: Daniel Kramer Dylan in striped shirt and tinted glasses, friend Bob Neuwirth behind him with a camera. The cover that made the Triumph T-shirt and aviators a cultural cocktail.
14. 1965-08-30 - Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (Official Audio). ) · 00:03:27
15. 1966-05-16 - The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds. 1966 · Designer: Capitol Records The band feeding actual goats at the San Diego Zoo, a cover whose blandness disguises one of the most influential albums in pop history.
16. 1966-05-16 - Pet Sounds. 00:02:38
17. 1966-08-05 - The Beatles - Revolver. 1966 · Designer: Klaus Voormann Pen-and-ink line drawing by Hamburg friend Klaus Voormann, collaged photographs woven into the linework. Won a Grammy for Best Album Cover.
18. 1966-08-05 - Tomorrow Never Knows (2022 Mix). ) · 00:02:58
19. 1967-03-12 - The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground & Nico. 1967 · Designer: Andy Warhol The banana cover. Original peelable yellow sticker over a pink underlayer, Warhol's only cover for the band whose career he funded.
20. 1967-03-12 - The Velvet Underground & Nico "I'll Be Your Mirror" (Warhol film footage). ) · 00:02:23
21. 1967-05-12 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced. 1967 · Designer: Karl Ferris Fisheye-lens portrait of the band in psychedelic yellow-and-purple. Karl Ferris's "psychedelic photograph", a technique he invented for this sleeve.
22. 1967-05-12 - Are You Experienced?. 00:04:16
23. 1967-05-26 - The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. 1967 · Designer: Peter Blake · Jann Haworth The most-imitated cover in pop history. Life-size cardboard cutouts of cultural figures assembled in Michael Cooper's studio over three weeks. The Beatles' label's legal team had to clear every figure.
24. 1967-05-26 - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Remastered 2009). ) · 00:02:03
25. 1968-08 - Jeff Beck Group - Truth. 1968 · Designer: EMI Beck and band in monochrome psychedelic blur, the cover prototype for hard-rock photo treatments through the 1970s.
26. 1968-08-15 - Jeff Beck - Truth(1968) - 08 Beck's Bolero. 00:02:55
27. 1968-11-22 - The Beatles - The Beatles (White Album). ) · Year: 1968 · Designer: Richard Hamilton A pure-white square embossed with a serial number. Hamilton's anti-cover, the maximal opposite of Sgt. Pepper one year earlier.
28. 1968-11-22 - THE BEATLES - White Album (Full Album-side1). ) · 00:23:53
29. 1969-09-26 - The Beatles - Abbey Road. 1969 · Designer: Iain Macmillan Six photographs taken in ten minutes on a Friday morning. Lennon insisted everyone walk a particular way; McCartney is barefoot. The cover and the zebra crossing are both now Grade II listed.
30. 1969-09-26 - The Long One (Comprising of ‘You Never Give Me Your Money’, ’Sun King’/’Mean Mr.... 00:16:10
31. 1969-10-10 - King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King. 1969 · Designer: Barry Godber The screaming-face painting Godber made after one acid trip. He died of a heart attack at 24 the following year; this was his only album cover.
32. 1969-10-10 - King Crimson - The Court Of The Crimson King. 00:10:03
33. 2002 - Elvis Presley, JXL - A Little Less Conversation (JXL12" Extended Remix - Official Audio). ) · 00:06:12