One marketing strategy with musicians to sell their albums aside from their music is the art on their album covers. And all throughout the history of the music industry, album covers have been a focus of controversy from the public.
That being said below is a list of some controversial album covers in music.
The Beatles "Yesterday and Today" – also known as “The Butcher cover”. This 1966 album cover had the Beatles pose wearing butcher smocks, covered with severed baby doll parts and pieces of meat. It was initially not meant as a cover but the Band pushed strongly for it to be included, describing it as their “comment on the Vietnam War”. The band’s record company received horrified responses from dealers; hence, copies were recalled and shipped back to the record label. Some of the original covers remains and are worth thousands for collectors.
The Rolling Stones “Sticky Fingers” – this 1971 album cover of the Rolling Stones showed a close-up working zipper of a jeans with a visible male crotch outline, made by legendary photographer Andy Warhol. Fans assumed that it was an image of the band’s lead vocalist Mick Jagger but Warhol claimed he photographed several men for it, Jagger not included. Some family-oriented records store refused to stock them.
Jimi Hendrix "Electric Ladyland" – Hendrix originally described what he wanted for this 1968 album, he specifically asked for children sitting on a sculpture in Central Park, but it was ignored. Instead, the record company produced a cover image shot by David Montgomery which had a group of naked women sitting in front of a dark background. Jimi expressed his dislike and embarrassment about the cover and found it disrespectful towards women.
Prince “Lovesexy” – explanations are quite unnecessary for this 1988 album cover, as it depicts a totally naked Prince. Records shops wrapped the album in black or even refused to stock it.
Black Sabbath "Born Again" – this 1983 album cover depicts a red devil-baby on a purple background which was produced by Steve Joule. It was considered the worst album cover and ranked number two on the list of "10 Worst Album Sleeves in Metal/Hard Rock" by the British magazine Kerrang!
This list does not even cover half of all the controversial music album covers of all time. Do you have your own list as well?