# Worst Album Covers- Now ranked! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 5, 2009, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-covers-now-ranked/484545 "2009-02-05T08:01:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-covers-now-ranked/484545/1 "2009-02-05T08:01:43Z")
… or are they just rank? [For your viewing pleasure…](http://redeye.chicagotribune.com/red-worstalbumcovers-pg,0,1348740.photogallery?index=1)in the Punjab! ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-covers-now-ranked/484545/2 "2009-02-05T08:18:38Z")
I call fake on “Can I Borrow a Feelin’?”. The art looks more like something somebody slapped together in Photoshop than a scanned album cover, and the title is almost identical to a Simpsons gag. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-covers-now-ranked/484545/3 "2009-02-05T08:56:22Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > I call fake on “Can I Borrow a Feelin’?”. The art looks more like something somebody slapped together in Photoshop than a scanned album cover, and the title is almost identical to a Simpsons gag. [Stranger than fiction](http://mashtheory.blogspot.com/2006/06/exclusive-can-i-borrow-feeling.html) ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-covers-now-ranked/484545/4 "2009-02-05T13:08:00Z")
What the hell is the point of a ventriloquist putting out a record album? ---
**Author:** ![DemonSpawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@DemonSpawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonSpawn)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-covers-now-ranked/484545/5 "2009-02-05T13:41:32Z")
A group of blind singers called “The Braillettes” gives new meaning to the words “politically incorrect”. One of the ladies on the cover of Number 27 looks like German chancellor Angela Merkel. Apparently she was young and needed the money. I am so glad that Ken (No 40) appears only by request. What a relief! ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-covers-now-ranked/484545/6 "2009-02-05T14:29:13Z")
#42 is…creepy. Not as creepy as #1, but “All my friends are dead”? Who thought that would be a good album title? ---
**Author:** ![cordylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@cordylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cordylus)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-covers-now-ranked/484545/7 "2009-02-05T15:20:21Z")
The Les Baxter cover has no business being in there. I love it. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-covers-now-ranked/484545/8 "2009-02-05T15:25:01Z")
> [@Hal\_Briston](#): > > What the hell is the point of a ventriloquist putting out a record album? Yeah, that would be like Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy having a [radio show](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Bergen#Radio). ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-covers-now-ranked/484545/9 "2009-02-05T15:39:47Z")
It’s nothing but cheap shots, consisting of two classes: 1. Self-published albums. Right. Of course they’re bad; the performer was not a graphic artist. Snarking about them is like snarking about a child’s third-grade pictures. 2. Pro albums whose style does not match our 2009 conception of what is good. In twenty years, people will be laughing at what we think is cool today. And there is a sophomoric disdain for anyone who doesn’t look like a Hollywood star (on the part of people who, of course, do not look like Hollywood stars – glass houses). There are certainly bad album covers, but these are just cheap shots. ---
**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:** [February 5, 2009, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-covers-now-ranked/484545/10 "2009-02-05T15:58:08Z")
> [@cordylus](#): > > The Les Baxter cover has no business being in there. I love it. Agreed. _I Dig Chicks_ and _Have Harp, Can’t Travel_, both clearly the work of a professional art department with an actual _idea_, don’t really belong, either. Nor do parody covers, like the Frivolous Five and the Electric Amish. And whatever you think of the cover, that Terry Riley album is an awesome and historically important piece of music, and doesn’t deserve to get lumped in with all those amateur vanity albums and cheesy exploitation releases. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-covers-now-ranked/484545/11 "2009-02-05T16:42:32Z")
Slim Goodbody doesn’t belong. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-covers-now-ranked/484545/12 "2009-02-05T16:49:22Z")
> [@astro](#): > > [Stranger than fiction](http://mashtheory.blogspot.com/2006/06/exclusive-can-i-borrow-feeling.html) What about that blog convinces you it’s a real album? ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-covers-now-ranked/484545/13 "2009-02-05T16:50:22Z")
Meh. Every month we get one of these lists, and this one’s weaker than most. Besides, it left out a few essentials: [Orleans “Waking and Dreaming”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waking_and_Dreaming) [Ministers Quartet “Let Me Touch Him”](http://www.regrettablemusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/ministers-quartet-let-me-touch-him.jpg) [Scorpions “Virgin Killer”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_killer) [NSFW] ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-covers-now-ranked/484545/14 "2009-02-05T17:01:07Z")
[The Electric Amish’s _A Hard Day’s Work_](http://redeye.chicagotribune.com/red-worstalbumcovers-pg,0,1348740.photogallery?index=43) doesn’t belong. That’s one of the best album covers of all time. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-covers-now-ranked/484545/15 "2009-02-05T17:55:31Z")
> [@KGS](#): > > Meh. Every month we get one of these lists, and this one’s weaker than most. Besides, it left out a few essentials: > > [Orleans “Waking and Dreaming”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waking_and_Dreaming) > [Ministers Quartet “Let Me Touch Him”](http://www.regrettablemusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/ministers-quartet-let-me-touch-him.jpg) > [Scorpions “Virgin Killer”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_killer) [NSFW] Scary thought: the guitarist from that Orleans album cover is now a Congressman. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-covers-now-ranked/484545/16 "2009-02-05T17:57:24Z")
But I have to agree with Chuck- why pick on unknown albums by unknown acts? Why not ridicule Prince’s idiotic “Lovesexy” cover, which is at least as hilarious as any of those in the OP! ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Alan\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Bird)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-covers-now-ranked/484545/17 "2009-02-05T18:04:09Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > It’s nothing but cheap shots, consisting of two classes: > > 1. Self-published albums. Right. Of course they’re bad; the performer was not a graphic artist. Snarking about them is like snarking about a child’s third-grade pictures. > > 2. Pro albums whose style does not match our 2009 conception of what is good. In twenty years, people will be laughing at what we think is cool today. And there is a sophomoric disdain for anyone who doesn’t look like a Hollywood star (on the part of people who, of course, do not look like Hollywood stars – glass houses). > > There are certainly bad album covers, but these are just cheap shots. This. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-covers-now-ranked/484545/18 "2009-02-05T18:11:37Z")
Aw, uncork your poopers. There’s a lot of perfectly good, yet inexpensive shots in the world to be enjoyed. Next you’ll be telling me fart jokes aren’t funny. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-covers-now-ranked/484545/19 "2009-02-05T19:00:52Z")
Skid Row Joe … _and his orchestra!_ ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2009, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-album-covers-now-ranked/484545/20 "2009-02-05T19:24:02Z")
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