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Raise your hand if you know the first album to sell a million CDs and outsell its vinyl twin. Okay, hands down—it was Brothers in Arms. But the cover? That dreamy blue sky with a floating steel guitar wasn’t planned at all. A jazz photographer snapped it on a whim while waiting for Mark Knopfler and a German painter obsessed with shiny objects slipped his own guitar fantasy onto the back cover, he’s still waiting on his £1 payment for the work, by the way. One guitar, two artists, and one of the biggest albums of the ’80s. Grab a copy and listen along with us. Questions, comments, recommendations? We’d love to hear from you at Albumartthecoverstories@gmail.com or check our Spotify Song List with a song from each album we’ve covered:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2NrDU39yE9CJcHU6YJT8jj?si=Y1JAE4LWTDmKEDE9QGlB2A&pi=ly2xwE-ERRu-2

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Who could be offended by a bunch of old white guys driving miniature cars in a 4th of July parade on an album cover? Nobody, right? So, how did this album end up with criminal charges for its art and a $45 million lawsuit by some of the guys on the cover? Well, there was a poster inside that album . It was a landscape and it started a cultural fistfight over art, censorship, and who gets to decide what’s “too far.” Grab a copy and listen along with us. Questions, comments, recommendations? We’d love to hear from you at Albumartthecoverstories@gmail.com or check our Spotify Song List with a song from each album we’ve covered:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2NrDU39yE9CJcHU6YJT8jj?si=Y1JAE4LWTDmKEDE9QGlB2A&pi=ly2xwE-ERRu-2

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Two kids in love, freezing their butts off in Greenwich Village, accidentally make one of the most famous album covers of all time. Bob’s grinning, Suze is clinging, and Columbia Records is loving every snow-slushed step of it. One roll of color film, zero Photoshop, no plan and a side order of romance that didn’t last as long as the legend. We’ve got the backstory on the walk. Grab a copy and listen along with us. Questions, comments, recommendations? We'd love to hear from you at Albumartthecoverstories@gmail.com or check our Spotify Song List with a song from each album we’ve covered:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2NrDU39yE9CJcHU6YJT8jj?si=Y1JAE4LWTDmKEDE9QGlB2A&pi=ly2xwE-ERRu-2

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What do you get when two Rolling Stones compilation albums go head-to-head—both released within days of each other, both claiming the band’s legacy, and neither fully endorsed by the band itself? Metamorphosis may be the weirdest Rolling Stones album ever released. It wasn’t their idea. It wasn’t their design. And it wasn’t their payday. It was, essentially, Allen Klein’s revenge—a stitched-together patchwork of demos, castoffs, and curiosities, released without the band's blessing but with Kafka’s curse baked into its title and album art. Think insects in suits and Brian Jones sharing an album cover with Mick Taylor—once and only once. Meanwhile, the Stones counterpunched with Made in the Shade, a sun-blasted hits album with a mysteriously airbrushed blonde on the cover and not a lick of actual shade in sight. Grab a copy and listen along with us. Questions, comments, recommendations? We'd love to hear from you at Albumartthecoverstories@gmail.com or check our Spotify Song List with a song from each album we’ve covered:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2NrDU39yE9CJcHU6YJT8jj?si=Y1JAE4LWTDmKEDE9QGlB2A&pi=ly2xwE-ERRu-2

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A busted alley. A borrowed gun. A camera pointed skyward at six young men who were about to scare the hell out of America. No budget, no entourage, no Hipgnosis, no Photoshop—just a raw shoot that captured the exact moment gangsta rap was born. Straight Outta Compton isthe debut album that rewrote the rules of hip hop and delivered a cover photo that dared you not to look away. It turned a forgotten L.A. suburb into a brand, a battleground, and a badge of honor. Grab a copy and listen along with us. Questions, comments, recommendations? We’d love to hear from you at Albumartthecoverstories@gmail.com.

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Three rock stars walk into a Baltimore pharmacy looking for a soda fountain goddess. No, it's not a setup for a joke—it’s how The Best of the Lovin’ Spoonful got burned into my teenage brain. The cover’s all charm, the band’s all hits, and the illustrator? She drew a coloring book for The Association. Seriously. Grab a copy and listen along with us. Questions, comments, recommendations? We'd love to hear from you at Albumartthecoverstories@gmail.com or check our Spotify Song List with a song from each album we’ve covered:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2NrDU39yE9CJcHU6YJT8jj?si=Y1JAE4LWTDmKEDE9QGlB2A&pi=ly2xwE-ERRu-2

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Meet Eddie: punk-born, axe-wielding, and metal to the bone. On Iron Maiden’s Killers, the band’s infamous mascot came into his own—bloody, maniacal, and unforgettable. But Eddie didn’t start on a cover—he started as a joke… and a mask… and maybe propaganda? From papier-mâché pub gigs to pesticide-soaked North London flats, the birth of Eddie is as outrageous as the art itself. This week, we dig into the mayhem, the making, and the metaphors behind Killers—the album where Eddie got his groove (and his weapon). Grab a copy and listen along with us. Questions, comments, recommendations? We’d love to hear from you at Albumartthecoverstories@gmail.com Check our Spotify Song List with a track from each album we’ve covered:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2NrDU39yE9CJcHU6YJT8jj?si=Y1JAE4LWTDmKEDE9QGlB2A&pi=ly2xwE-ERRu-2

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A poster too psychedelic for Hawaii, a cover that might say "We Ate the Acid," and a bunny with a secret. Aoxomoxoa is the Grateful Dead at their weirdest—and possibly their most biologically symbolic. Rick Griffin’s trippy vision gave us palindromes, scarabs, uterine landscapes, and a back cover that might include Courtney Love—or maybe just a dog no one can identify. Grab a copy and listen along with us. Questions, comments, recommendations? We'd love to hear from you at Albumartthecoverstories@gmail.com or check our Spotify Song List with a song from each album we have covered: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2NrDU39yE9CJcHU6YJT8jj?si=Y1JAE4LWTDmKEDE9QGlB2A&pi=ly2xwE-ERRu-2