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Controversial Album Covers
Original Artwork Alternative Cover Artist
The Beatles"Yesterday"...and Today[butchercover] (1966)
After a public outcry over the "butcher" cover, the record company recalled copies. Today an unpeeled butchercover will fetch big bucks on the collector’s market.http://www.beatles.com
 
John Lennon &Yoko OnoUnfinishedMusic No.1:Two Virgins(1968)
Lennon answered to theexpected criticism with thesewords:“The main hangup in theworld today is hypocrisy andinsecurity. If people can’t faceup to the fact of other peoplebeing naked or smoking pot,or whatever they want to do,then we’re never going to getanywhere. People have got tobecome aware that it’s noneof their business and thatbeing nude is not obscene.Being ourselves is what’simportant. If everyonepracticed being themselvesinstead of pretending to bewhat they aren’t, there wouldbe peace.”
The front cover displayed Lennon and Ono frontally nude, while the rear cover featured them from behind.Distributors were prompted to sell the album in a plain brown wrapper, and copies of the album were impounded asobscenity in several jurisdictions.“Two Virgins” was released in November 1968 and was the first collaborative work from Lennon and Ono. Thealbum was a wonderful collection of electronic and elctro-acoustic avant-garde pieces that shown the mostexperimental side of Lennon ever.http://www.johnlennon.com/html/news.aspx
 
 
Controversial Album Covers
Original Artwork Alternative Cover Artist
US artworkUK artwork
Jimi HendrixElectric Ladyland(1968)
The intended artwork for the UK version of the album did not arrive in time to press the album. Track Records hadtheir own art department and produced a cover of naked women lounging in front of a black background that wasissued in its place.Hendrix's letter to Reprise describing exactly what he wanted for the cover, was mostly ignored. He expressly askedfor a colour photo by Linda Eastman of the group sitting with children on a sculpture from Alice In Wonderland inCentral Park NY, even drawing a picture of it for them, instead receiving a blurred red & yellow photo of his head byKarl Ferris. The US cover by Karl Ferris, has since become the official cover of
Electric Ladyland
internationally.A similar event nearly happened with the album's title. In the final stages of the album's production, a studiotechnician renamed the album
"Electric Landlady"
. The album was almost released under this title until Hendrixnoticed it, which upset him considerably.http://www.jimihendrix.com
 
 
Controversial Album Covers
Original Artwork Alternative Cover Artist
The RollingStonesBeggarsBanquet(1968)
For
Beggars Banquet
both Decca Records in England and London Records rejected the planned cover design -a graffiti-covered lavatory, and the band held back the album. The Rolling Stones gave in, allowing the album tobe released with a simple imitation invitation card cover. In 1984, the original cover art was released with the initialCD remastering of Beggars Banquet.The abbreviation in the album's cover,
 
R.S.V.P.
, is a French phrase, "répondez, s'il vous plaît", which means"please reply".
Cover art for Spain Edition
 
The RollingStonesSticky Finger(1971)
The artwork for
Sticky Fingers 
- including a working zipper that opened to reveal a man in cotton briefs (rubberstamped "THIS PHOTOGRAPH MAY NOT BE-ETC.") - was conceived by Andy Warhol, photographed by BillyName, designed by Craig Braun and featured the lower torso of either Warhol assistant Jed Johnson or JoeDallesandro (not Mick Jagger as a number of fans at the time speculated) in a pair of tight jeans. After retailerscomplained that the zipper was causing damage to the vinyl (from stacked shipments of the record), the zipperwas "unzipped" slightly to the middle of the record, where damage would be minimized. In Spain, General Francoproved his rock and roll credentials by substituting the original cover and "Sister Morphine" with a "Can of fingers"cover and the Chuck Berry composition "Let it Rock", recorded March 13th, 1971 at the University of Leeds. Thealbum features the first usage of the "
Tongue and Lip Design 
" designed by John Pasche.In 1994,
Sticky Fingers 
was remastered and reissued by Virgin Records. In 2003 the TV network VH1 named
Sticky Fingers 
the "No.1 Greatest Album Cover" of all time. (Be that as it may, the zipper was prone to cause damage toany album cover stacked next to it.)http://www.rollingstones.com
 
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aesopallen

Silly Scorpions and their Controversial album covers

reply07 / 17 / 2009
democlavien

nice job. butchered at birth by cannibal corpse would have also fit into this list as well.

reply05 / 11 / 2009
manishamusic

Thanks for pulling together these images and sharing them. Many of them I have never seen before and I didn't know about the stories behind them either, such as about the "BOY" U2 album cover. -M

reply07 / 10 / 2008
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