3 Rock Album Covers That Are Just as Iconic as the Music Within

These rock album covers are as familiar as the bands who delivered them, if not more. There are legions of people out there who know these covers like the back of their hand, but couldn’t tell you any songs within their tracklist. These visuals make a case for creating a cover so iconic it transcends the music it was made for.

[RELATED: 3 Iconic Locations Made Famous Thanks To Legendary Album Covers]

‘Abbey Road’ — The Beatles

There are plenty of people out there who know The Beatles walked a crosswalk at one point in their career without the broader context of Abbey Road’s music. You certainly don’t need to be a Beatles superfan to know this iconic rock album cover.

The visual of the foursome walking the “zebra crossing” in London has made visitors flock to the area for decades now. Millions of visitors to England’s capital will put this on their bucket list whether they know a lot about The Beatles or not. This album cover proved to be one of the most iconic things this band ever did in their career, without even mentioning the stunning tracklist beneath it.

‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ — Pink Floyd

Given the sheer number of references to this rock album cover in pop culture, archeologists would likely assume it was a religious symbol. From t-shirts to posters to parodies, The Dark Side Of The Moon cover is even more ubiquitous than the music within it.

It’s a simple cover, but it packs a punch. A triangle with rainbow beams coming out as light fragments. You don’t even need to know who Pink Floyd is to know this image. Many in the younger generation would probably be able to recognize this cover, even if they didn’t know the band who produced it.

‘The Velvet Underground & Nico’ — The Velvet Underground

Lastly and perhaps most obviously, we have The Velvet Underground’s iconic banana cover. This Andy Warhol-designed visual has made its way into every corner of pop culture. Much like Pink Floyd’s cover, this image has become a graphic used in almost every context. It doesn’t need an understanding of the band to prop it up; it carries its own iconography.

The familiarity of this cover speaks to the notion that simple is better. This cover is one of the simplest in rock history, but it worked wonders, lodging itself in the public’s brain.

(Photo by Mark Hayward Archive/Redferns)