Beatle Album Covers: My Favorites

The Beatles were the most innovative band in rock history, and it wasn’t limited to the music. Their dress, their hairstyles their album covers and more all influenced the world. Below you’ll find, in no particular order, my favorite Beatle album covers, with a little commentary and factoids thrown in for good measure. Enjoy, my Beatlemaniac friends.

[click on the cover to read the caption]

The lads spent a tremendous amount of cash on this one, gaining permission from over 70 celebritito use their image. Classic cover, and books have been written about the secret clues on both this and Abbey Road.

Ah, the infamous “Butcher” cover that was eventually retracted and redone, and the originals are worth a mint today. Taken by photographer Robert Whitaker, and said to be the Beatles’ statement against the Vietnam War, this image showed the band dressed in white smocks and covered with decapitated baby dolls and pieces of raw meat. The title is a play on the song “Yesterday” the feature track on the album.

On Beatles for sale the boys used Freeman again, and I always thought th photo reflected the weariness that Beatlemania was inflicting on the lads. John, in particular, looks tired.

Ah, a classic. Rubber Soul. The title was a play on words. Rubber Sole, get it? It was the band’s first album to not have their name on the cover, unheard of in 1965. Trippy vibe, man.

Yellow Submarine featured an illustration of the band by Heinz Edelman in the style of the film, which also doubled as the film’s poster. The film and its sleeve were the peak of the Beatles’ psychedelic period. This also led to the memorable Beatles cartoon!

As legend has it, this album was set to be called Everest and the boys were scheduled to pose at the base of Mt. Everest. However, John and Paul said to hell with that and decided to walk outside the studio and take a picture of them walking across a street, then name the album after whatetever street they chose. Abbey Road was born.

For their last recorded album, in which the band had broken up before it was even released. So damn sad.

The Beatles used Freeman again for another classic on A Hard Day’s Night. The iconic head shots were his attempt to mimic the motion of a movie camera.

On With the Beatles, photographer Robert Freeman snapped the iconic photo in stark black and white. Just perfect. “Rather than have them all in a line, I put Ringo in the bottom right corner, since he was the last to join. He was also the shortest.” Poor Ringo, man.

Revolver featured a cover illustration by German musician and artist Klaus Voormann, who they met in amphetamine-munching spell spent in Hamburg in the early 1960s. If you look closely, Voormann’s own photograph as well as his name is worked into Harrison’s hair on the right-hand side of the cover. His design ended up winning a Grammy for Best Album Cover.

The White Album cover was a total U-turn after the beast that was Sgt. Pepper, with its minimalist, plain white design. Included was a tiny serial number in the bottom left corner. Richard Hamilton, who created the cover, claimed the number was intended “to create the ironic situation of a numbered edition of something like five million copies.”

Bonus covers! I like these because The Beatles recreated an early 60s cover with a new photo of the band in 1969. Cool look.

1962-1966

1967-1970