I know that there must be examples, but I can’t think of any rock/pop album that fits the following qualities:
released with same track list and same title, but with different covers in the U.S. and the UK (resp. Europe/rest of the world).
Does anybody know of such an album?
Although not exactly the same thing you’re looking for, many of the Beatles’s early American albums famously differered from the original British releases. For example, the first American Beatles album, Introducing the Beatles, is practically the same as their first British album, Please Please Me, with the exception that two songs are missing. (The two missing songs would eventually end up replacing two songs that had to be removed from the album due to a legal skirmish with Capitol Records). For that matter, the complete Please Please Me was released in Canada with a new title and cover, Beatlemania with the Beatles.
One famous example of an album that kept the same track listing and cover but gained a new title from the UK to the US is ELO’s self-titled debut album. A representative of the American record company called to see what the title of the album was and wrote down that there was “No answer,” which someone else mistakenly thought was the title rather than a statement.
No, sorry, that’s not what I’m looking for. There are hundreds of examples for that.
I knew that story too, but again, I’m not looking for albums with different titles, but with different covers.
The Strokes album Is This It had two different covers (it also had a variation of track listing, with NY City Cops being removed from the US version after 9/11).
The first versions of the famous ‘Banana’ album by The Velvet Underground that came out in the UK and Canada, funnily enough, didn’t have a banana on it at all - they had the back cover photo on the front, and liner notes (taken from the US gatefold) on the back. After these early versions, it went back to a yellow banana (usually printed, rather than peeling). See here and here for more details than you could ever need. For some reason also, various UK versions of their second record White Light White Heat came with a completely different cover (see the second link).
I like the European version (which I proudly own) better.
A couple off the top of my head:
Yes - Time And A Word
Fish - Internal Exile
I think U2’s first lp, Boy, kept the same track listing (and I know it kept the same title), but the original Irish cover art of a little boy posing with his arms above his head was viewed as too provocative for the US market, even though one would have to be rather perverted to actually find it thus.
Elton John’s Empty Sky. This page shows the UK and US covers side-by-side.
Blind Faith. While the “nude girl with airplane” cover was available in the US by special order, the US version generally available in stores had a photo of the band.
Traffic’s Mr. Fantasy. British version. American version. This was necessitated by the fact that Dave Mason left the group after the British release; several of his songs were left off the US version.
South’s From Here On In had a rather nondescript cover for the US release-a blurry image of what I assumed was the band.
Much later I noticed that the UK version had these very weird and unnerving puppets instead. Amazing how some bands put almost no thought into the covers of their albums.
King Crimson: Islands. The American cover used the art that appeared on the inner sleeve of the British edition.
The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp. The very rare American cover and the familiar British one look equally wacky.
Procol Harum: Shine On Brightly. While the American and British covers were completely different, both boasted surrealistic images of a piano.
Rare Bird’s self-titled debut. The American version featured a beautiful painting by Robert Lo Grippo; the British original, by comparison, looked like a cheesy black light poster.
I found two different American covers and two different British covers of Sixpence None the Richer’s self-titled album.
Blind Faith. You’ll need to Google the British version yourself.
Okay, to be honest it was first released in the US with THAT cover, and I own it, but it was quickly replaced by something you could find at Sears without whispering to the cashier.
Kate Bush’s first album The Kick Inside was a big one for that, because it had different covers in practically every country it was released in. All the covers are wonderful except for the American one, which seemed like the record company was trying to appeal to very mainstream tastes.
Canada (my favorite)
Both Electric Light Orchestra’s second and third albums had different covers in the UK and the US, though the content was the same in both countries.
ELO 2 (known as ELO II in the US)
UK Cover: File:ELO 2 UK album cover.jpg - Wikipedia
US Cover: File:ELO ELO2 album cover.jpg - Wikipedia
On the Third Day
UK Cover: File:On the third day uk cover.jpg - Wikipedia
US Cover: File:On The Third Day US cover.jpg - Wikipedia
Roxy Music, “Country Life”. This is the NSFW cover released in most countries, while this is the original American cover.
I mentioned it, but the A cover was never in general release in the US (it could be special ordered by the record store). I was working in a record store when the album was released and we only got the B cover (photo of the band). There was no indication that there was another, though it was mentioned in the music press. I special ordered the A cover just to see what it was like.
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