# Your favorite group and favorite/least favorite album cover **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 16, 2005, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-group-and-favorite-least-favorite-album-cover/322047 "2005-09-16T22:26:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ms\_Macphisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@Ms\_Macphisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Macphisto)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2005, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-group-and-favorite-least-favorite-album-cover/322047/21 "2005-09-18T05:50:50Z")
**U2** Best: Gotta go with [The Joshua Tree](http://www.u2wanderer.org/disco/alb006.html), but [Achtung Baby](http://www.u2wanderer.org/disco/alb008.html) is close behind Worst: The North American cover for [Boy](http://www.u2wanderer.org/disco/alb001.html) (the one with the stretched faces) is just plain ugly. ---
**Author:** ![Innuendo\_Hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Innuendo\_Hunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Innuendo_Hunter)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-group-and-favorite-least-favorite-album-cover/322047/22 "2005-09-19T14:01:27Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > I entered this thread specifically to enter this worst–agree totally (I probably agree with your best, though I can’t forget Sgt. Pepper, obvious choice though it may be). > > In fact, as a side comment, I would wager that this album is unsurpassed in the differential between how good the music is (pop masterpiece) and how bad the cover is (garish doesn’t begin to describe it). Go on, I defy you. Find a bigger differential. Here are the songs just to remind you: > > 1. Magical Mystery Tour > 2. The Fool On The Hill > 3. Flying > 4. Blue Jay Way > 5. Your Mother Should Know > 6. I Am The Walrus > 7. Hello Goodbye > 8. Strawberry Fields Forever > 9. Penny Lane > 10. Baby You’re A Rich Man > 11. All You Need Is Love > > **Pet Sounds** is close. The most prominent cover feature is a herd animal’s ass. The album cover looks like my dad posed them and shot the photo. What an, um, _unspecial_ album cover for such a musical treasure. > > Anyway, carry on. Absolutely **Stratocaster**. The differential is immense! The album cover mirrors the movie - A bomb. The music, the soundtrack, however, is an undisputed masterpiece! ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-group-and-favorite-least-favorite-album-cover/322047/23 "2005-09-19T14:17:22Z")
**The Soft Boys** All their record covers are [crap](http://www.thesoftboys.com/discography.html) I suppose the least bad is the single _Only the Stones Remain_ (it’s the silhouette of Stonehenge). Another great band with consistently awful covers was **Doll by Doll** but I’ll bet no-one else has even heard of them 🙂 ---
**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:** [September 19, 2005, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-group-and-favorite-least-favorite-album-cover/322047/24 "2005-09-19T15:13:15Z")
**ABBA** Best: [Super Trooper](http://www.abbasite.com/music/album.php?id=24) Worst: [The Singles](http://www.abbasite.com/music/album.php?id=192) ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-group-and-favorite-least-favorite-album-cover/322047/25 "2005-09-19T15:45:04Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck…Best: The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys Worst: The British version of “Mr. Fantasy.” The US version is OK, but the Brit is just an ugly red color.[/QUOTE] I always liked the 3D geometric pattern of LSoHHB. (IINM, like Mr Blue Sky’s; Out of the Blue) the US album cover Mr Fantasy can only appreciated on vinyl - with the jacket open and the full panoramic cover shown. Black Sabbath (Original lineup) Best: Sabbath Bloddy Sabbath Worst: Sabotage. (Drummer) Bill Ward in a leotard. Need I say more? Another Blue Öyster Cult Best: Secret Treaties or Worst: Heaven Forbid (Appropriate description of the cover & the contents) Zappa Best - We’re Only In It For The Money (The Sgt. Pepper’s spoof on the jacket side more than the Mothers in drag on the outside cover) Worst - Waka/Jawaka ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-group-and-favorite-least-favorite-album-cover/322047/26 "2005-09-19T15:53:25Z")
**Steely Dan** Worst: _Countdown to Ecstasy_ (what the heck is that?) Best: None leaps out, _Aja_ maybe. ---
**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-group-and-favorite-least-favorite-album-cover/322047/27 "2005-09-19T16:46:21Z")
The albums of **They Might Be Giants** each have a personality of their own, and the artwork often reflects that, more or less. They’re all interesting in their own way, but I personally like the artwork on [The Spine](http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drg300/g397/g39735svten.jpg) the best, especially since it isn’t exactly what comes to mind when you think of that as an album title. The worst ones are probably the two childrens records, in particular [Here Come the ABC’s](http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drg600/g656/g65671o1vke.jpg) since it’s hard to read all the jumbled text as a 25 year old, so I don’t think a kid would do too well with it. ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-group-and-favorite-least-favorite-album-cover/322047/28 "2005-09-19T18:47:33Z")
My pals The Gourds from Austin TX: Best: Stadium Blitzer Woist: Blood of the Ram (boy howdy, that’s ugly) Please buy their CDs, though. Rolling Stones: Best: _Sticky Fingers, Some Girls_ Woist: too many to name. _Goat’s Head Soup, Dirty Work, Their Satanic Majesties, Tattoo You, Emotional Rescue_, the last five or six I guess… Tom Waits: Best: _Frank’s Wild Years_ and _The Mule Variations_ Woist: I love Tom Waits, but the covers to all his 70s albums are pretty embarrassing. I’ll go for _Small Change_, him looking all 50s-vintage boho in the stripper’s dressing room. That’s just trying too hard. Prince Best: _Sign O’ the Times_ Woist: of many bad ones, I pick his first, _Prince_ – like Truman Capote noted, he looks a dwarf dipped in a vat of pubic hair. ---
**Author:** ![Innuendo\_Hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Innuendo\_Hunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Innuendo_Hunter)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-group-and-favorite-least-favorite-album-cover/322047/29 "2005-09-19T19:14:26Z")
> [@Ichbin Dubist](#): > > Prince > Best: _Sign O’ the Times_ > Woist: of many bad ones, I pick his first, _Prince_ – like Truman Capote noted, he looks a dwarf dipped in a vat of pubic hair. [nitpick] His first was actually [For You](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_You_%28Prince%29) (1978) [/nitpick] Looking at [Prince](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_%28album%29) (1979), I fail to see the “dwarf dipped in a vat of pubic hair”. Hell, you only see the guy from chest up. Granted, he’s short, but you can’t tell it from that pic. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-group-and-favorite-least-favorite-album-cover/322047.md?page=1)