Controversial
14. Mortad Hell: ‘There’s A Satanic Butcher In Every One Of Us’ Who, what? Well this cover certainly would explain the music, death metal. And who doesn't love blood and a butcher on any album cover?
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Weirdest
14. Kjell Kraghe: 'Vind I Seglen' Again, the staff has pulled out some obscure artwork from some obscure artist. Wouldn't make my list, but they seem pretty smitten with it.
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Worst
14. ManOwar – ‘Anthology’: Anthology is the second "best of" album by the heavy metal band Manowar.
This 1997 compilation album of ManOwar’s greatest hits perhaps belonged to the Eighties for it’s pure cheesiness value. The boys must clearly have worked out to get that authentic Conan the Barbarian look. After doing some research about the band, all I could find was this cover making list of the 'worst' album covers of all time on a variety of web sites. We get the picture, I don't think that their music mattered.
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Best
14. The Beatles: ‘Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band’ Not in the top five? A real slip up for Gigwise, this cover is iconic.
The Grammy Award-winning album packaging was created by art director Robert Fraser, mostly in collaboration with McCartney, designed by Peter Blake, his wife Jann Haworth, and photographed by Michael Cooper. It featured a colourful collage of life-sized cardboard models of famous people on the front of the album cover and lyrics printed on the back cover, the first time this had been done on an English pop LP. The Beatles themselves, in the guise of the Sgt. Pepper band, were dressed in custom-made military-style outfits made of satin dyed in day-glo colours. The suits were designed by Manuel Cuevas.
According to Blake, the original concept was to create a scene that showed the Sgt. Pepper band performing in a park; this gradually evolved into its final form, which shows the Beatles, as the Sgt. Pepper band, surrounded by a large group of their heroes, rendered as lifesized cut-out figures. Also included were wax-work figures of the Beatles as they appeared in the early '60s, borrowed from Madame Tussauds. The wax figures appear to be looking down on the word "Beatles" spelled out in flowers as if it were a grave, and it has been speculated that this symbolises that the innocent mop-tops of yesteryear were now dead and gone. At their feet were several affectations from the Beatles' homes including small statues belonging to Lennon and Harrison, a small portable TV set and a trophy. A young delivery boy who provided the flowers for the photo session was allowed to contribute a guitar made of yellow hyacinths. Although it has long been rumoured that some of the plants in the arrangement were cannabis plants, this is untrue. Also included is a Shirley Temple doll wearing a sweater in homage to the Rolling Stones (who would return the tribute by having the Beatles hidden in the cover of their own Their Satanic Majesties Request LP later that year).
The collage depicted more than 70 famous people, including writers, musicians, film stars and (at Harrison's request) a number of Indian gurus. Starr reportedly made no contribution to the design. The final grouping included Marlene Dietrich, Carl Gustav Jung, W.C. Fields, Diana Dors, Bob Dylan, Marilyn Monroe, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Sigmund Freud, Aleister Crowley, Edgar Allan Poe, Karl Marx, Oscar Wilde, William S. Burroughs, Marlon Brando, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, and controversial comedian Lenny Bruce. Also included was the image of the original Beatles bass player, the late Stuart Sutcliffe. Pete Best said in a later NPR interview that Lennon borrowed family medals from his mother Mona for the shoot, on condition he not lose them. Adolf Hitler was requested by Lennon, but ultimately he was left out.
This cover belongs in any top ten list, why it ranks so low with Gigwise is anyone's guess.
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