The Best Album Covers of All Time ,Top 5 - By Readers of Rolling stones

Continuing with the Top album covers series,here is the Top Five of Best Album Covers -as chosen by the readers of Rolling stone magazine.

5. The Clash, 'London Calling'
Pennie Smith was snapping photos of the Clash at New York's Palladium in September of 1979 when she captured one of the most iconic images in rock history. Paul Simonon was annoyed by the relatively quiet audience, so he began smashing his bass against the floor.

4. The Beatles, 'Abbey Road'
They shot the cover on August 8th, 1969 outside of Abbey Road studios. Tourists flock to the spot in droves, and it's been parodied countless times – sometimes by members of the Beatles themselves, as Paul did on the cover of his 1993 LP Paul Is Live.

3. Nirvana, 'Nevermind'
Spencer Elden's (the naked baby) parents were paid just $200 for the session, but Elden has been paid more than that a handful of times to recreate the famous photo. He wears a bathing suit for those, though.

2. Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
The initial inspiration for the designers was a photo of a prism on top of some sheet music. It was black and white, but a color beam was going through it. Using that as a jumping off point, the team at Hipgnosis created the iconic cover for Dark Side Of The Moon in the year 1973.

1. The Beatles, 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'
The cover of the Beatles' 1967 LP Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is, without a doubt, one of the most iconic images in the history of rock & roll. The photo was originally going to show the Beatles (in their Sgt. Pepper's outfits) playing in a park. That slowly evolved into the final concept, where they stand amidst cardboard cutouts of their heroes.

While the music industry tries to keep up with technological and cultural shifts, the role of album cover which has transformed packaging into an art form is certainly to change, and digital forms of packaging will continue to surface, which, to some degree take the place of physical packaging. Both the consolation if i may put it that way is that MP3 and WMA music files are able to contain embedded digital album artworks in jpeg format.The close-up of Lady Gaga’s face for Born This Way, and the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s fly on a pill for I’m With You are examples of this.

source:rollingstone