The Rolling Stones Some Girls (1978)

The album cover for Some Girls was designed by Peter Corriston. An elaborate die-cut design, with colors varying on different sleeves, it featured The Rolling Stones and select female celebrities in garish drag, as well as a bunch of lingerie ads. The cover immediately ran into trouble when Lucille Ball, Farrah Fawcett, Raquel Welch and the estates of Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe threatened legal action. It was withdrawn and the offending pictures removed.

(33 votes, average: 3.55 out of 5)

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Little Willie John FEVER on King Records.

(21 votes, average: 4.24 out of 5)

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Above is The Beatles “butcher cover” perhaps the most famous, strangest, rarest and most controversial album cover ever released (if only briefly) and from the world’s biggest band. Below is the 1966 recall letter from the publicity dept. at Capitol.

(37 votes, average: 4.19 out of 5)

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Iconic rock album cover.

(73 votes, average: 3.86 out of 5)

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This is one of my rarest and most valuable records. It is an alternate cover that was recalled by conservative Dot records owner Randy Wood when he realized who Jack Kerouac was and felt that the beat poet’s counter-cultural subject material was too offensive for his Pat Boone and Shirley Jones-loving consumers. (About 100 copies got out to radio stations before the recall.) The record was cut in a single session and a single take for each piece which certainly supported Jack’s first draft is best draft philosophy of writing.

This is the first of Kerouac’s three records and is the result of a performance at the Village Vanguard with Steve Allen accompanying him on piano. The album was produced by Bob Thiele who then left the company over the dispute, took the master tape and formed Hanover Records with Steve Allen. Hanover then released the record in 1959.

(31 votes, average: 4.29 out of 5)

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Al Green(e) and the Soul Mates. (1968) This is Reverend Al’s first LP and his first hit song – “Back Up Train”. This is the rare first cover that was re-released in 1972 with a low budget alternate cover.

Al Green would be on my desert island list for sure. Anytime, anywhere I hear an Al Green song, and no matter how often I’ve heard it, I feel at home.

(15 votes, average: 3.87 out of 5)

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This is on the rare Combo Records label. The instrumental “Pachucko Hop” was a hit for Chuck Higgens. The cover design and photography are by Frank Donovan. This was a controversial cover that showed more skin than was allowed in the late fifties. Good thing he had a neck tie in the studio at least. This record in good shape goes for a few hundred dollars.

(29 votes, average: 4.10 out of 5)

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This is here because I like Laura Nyro and it’s a very rare alternate cover to her album New York Tenderberry from 1968. I’m not clear on the genesis of the cover that got released to the public, but this photo is on the inside of that gatefold version. Apparently some copies were distributed with this cover slick before Columbia caught the mistake. There are many rare, alternate, pasted over or withdrawn album covers (sometimes due to error, sometimes due to censorship) throughout the fifty year history of the lp. Think Beatles butcher cover. I’ll be posting others.

(30 votes, average: 4.23 out of 5)

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