# Worst album cover by "big name" artists **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 23, 2011, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-cover-by-big-name-artists/603847 "2011-11-23T04:37:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-cover-by-big-name-artists/603847/41 "2011-12-01T01:18:15Z")
I’ve never particularly liked [this](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q7YIMLnQxPw/TfmRCf1dEFI/AAAAAAAAAHs/CIzoWkYxAcE/s1600/bridge-over-troubled-water.jpg)one. Art looks scary, and it just looks like someone took a bad picture of them, blew it up too big and slapped it on an album cover. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-cover-by-big-name-artists/603847/42 "2011-12-01T04:37:44Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > I’ve never particularly liked [this](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q7YIMLnQxPw/TfmRCf1dEFI/AAAAAAAAAHs/CIzoWkYxAcE/s1600/bridge-over-troubled-water.jpg)one. Art looks scary, and it just looks like someone took a bad picture of them, blew it up too big and slapped it on an album cover. Maybe it was a bad Kodachrome? ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-cover-by-big-name-artists/603847/43 "2011-12-01T04:54:31Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Maybe it was a bad Kodachrome? But could poor quality Kodachrome really account for a total absence of nice bright colors and greens of summers? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-cover-by-big-name-artists/603847/44 "2011-12-01T04:56:19Z")
Pixies front man Frank Black put [this](http://www.frankblack.net/songs/images/albums/cor-ar.jpg) on the cover of one of his solo albums. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-cover-by-big-name-artists/603847/45 "2011-12-01T07:58:49Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Do you like the [original art work](http://cdn.umg3.net/rollingstones/files/imagecache/album_cover/albums/goat_head_soup_alt.jpg) better? That was on the back! ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-cover-by-big-name-artists/603847/46 "2011-12-01T08:01:28Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > But could poor quality Kodachrome really account for a total absence of nice bright colors and greens of summers? I think they were going for a hazy shade of winter there. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-cover-by-big-name-artists/603847/47 "2011-12-01T09:12:01Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Do you like the [original art work](http://cdn.umg3.net/rollingstones/files/imagecache/album_cover/albums/goat_head_soup_alt.jpg) better? > [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > That was on the back! I didn’t know that, I only have the CD, which has that picture inside of the booklet. But I’m rather sure that I read somewhere that it was supposed to be the front cover, but the record company turned it down. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-cover-by-big-name-artists/603847/48 "2011-12-01T12:09:32Z")
Black Sabbath [Born Again](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3402/3412674622_9b11a481c6.jpg). I read years later that the designer was offered a better paying job, so he came up with that in one night hoping it would get rejected, and to his horror (and ours) Tony Iommi liked it. I hate the cover of the American version of AC/DC’s [Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap](http://ak.buy.com/PI/0/500/60590746.jpg). Wish they’d have used the [Australian](http://www.411mania.com/siteimages/dirtydeeds_47223.jpg) one. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-cover-by-big-name-artists/603847/49 "2011-12-01T12:36:30Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > I’ve never particularly liked [this](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q7YIMLnQxPw/TfmRCf1dEFI/AAAAAAAAAHs/CIzoWkYxAcE/s1600/bridge-over-troubled-water.jpg)one. Art looks scary, and it just looks like someone took a bad picture of them, blew it up too big and slapped it on an album cover. Something I just noticed for the first time: check out the gigantic handlebar mustache on Art. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-cover-by-big-name-artists/603847/50 "2011-12-01T13:37:56Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > That was on the back! No, the back cover of _Goats Head Soup_ was a picture of [Keef](http://eil.com/Gallery/467839b.jpg). The soup picture was included inside the LP as an insert. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-cover-by-big-name-artists/603847/51 "2011-12-01T13:41:50Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > This does not really meet the criteria for this thread but I must share this collection of Swedish _[dansband](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dansband)_ [publicity photos and covers.](http://images.google.com/search?q=dansband&tbm=isch&hl=en&imgsz=&imgar=&imgtype=&imgsrc=&imgc=&imgcc=&cr=&safe=images&biw=1024&bih=619&sei=BhXNTu_-NvDN4QShq-BP) Genius post. Love the slow reveal. And the pictures are dreadful. I laughed. If ever I holiday in Sweden I know what I’ll be looking for - a dansband gig. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-cover-by-big-name-artists/603847/52 "2011-12-01T13:42:00Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Do you like the [original art work](http://cdn.umg3.net/rollingstones/files/imagecache/album_cover/albums/goat_head_soup_alt.jpg) better? Even more horrifying, though it’s not an album cover, was seeing an episode of Ricky Gervais’ **Idiot Abroad** which showed that _goat’s head soup_ is a fucking real thing! I literally almost puked watching that! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-cover-by-big-name-artists/603847/53 "2011-12-01T14:56:21Z")
The US cover for [Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Premiere Collection Encore](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_29/190-9341878-8233369?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=andrew+lloyd+webber+premiere+collection+encore&sprefix=Andrew+lloyd+Webber+premiere+) has to be the worst ever done, particularly compared with the original European one. Doesn’t take a train engineer to figure out which is which. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-cover-by-big-name-artists/603847/54 "2011-12-01T16:30:20Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > There ain’t no kid who can draw like that. The drawing is _weird_, yes, but technically proficient. I think it’s true for certain values of “kid”… I was doing doodles like that in high school. But I see your general point. What I meant was that, at first sight, it gives the impression of kid’s art… but then so does a lot of well-respected art (Fauvists, Miro, etc.) ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-cover-by-big-name-artists/603847/55 "2011-12-01T16:37:17Z")
Not a big fan of the artwork for Rihanna’s new CD, _[Talk That Talk](http://hiphop-n-more.com/2011/11/rihanna-talk-that-talk-album-cover/)_… mainly it’s the black bags under the eyes. She looks like a zombie nursing a hangover. (One reviewer also said that she looks like she’s trying to cover a cold sore with her tongue.) ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2011, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-cover-by-big-name-artists/603847/56 "2011-12-01T18:22:06Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > No, the back cover of _Goats Head Soup_ was a picture of [Keef](http://eil.com/Gallery/467839b.jpg). The soup picture was included inside the LP as an insert. Not on any of ours (somehow, my husband and I ended up with 3 copies of this one). Not that we would have done otherwise, but we were really careful to make sure the cover faced front in our record-holding milk crate, and if I could have got rid of that picture forever, I would have, which I could’ve if it had been an insert. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-cover-by-big-name-artists/603847.md?page=2)