The Stories Behind 10 Classic Album Covers: Santana, Taylor Swift, Eminem

Plus: Nirvana, Green Day, CSN, Joy Division and more

Back in the day—before YouTube, Spotify and rampant social media—album covers provided the primary introduction to artists that caught our ears and eyes. They served as portals of discovery, suggesting the depth and breadth of the music within. Here, we look at 10 iconic sleeves and the stories behind their creation.

Crosby, Stills & Nash
Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969)

Graham Nash was driving around Hollywood with designer Gary Burden when he spotted an abandoned house with a battered sofa on the porch. Both men thought it would be a perfect fit for the band’s image. Henry Diltz took the photo. By the time the pictures were ready, the band had finally decided on their name: Crosby, Stills & Nash. The only problem? The order on the couch was Nash, Stills and Crosby. They planned to reshoot. But by the time they returned, the house had been torn down. The mistake became permanent, the image iconic. Leading David Crosby to go to his eternal reward as “Mr. Nash” to some of his fans.

Joy Division
Unknown Pleasures (1979)

No band name. No album title. Just an enigmatic image. The cover of Unknown Pleasures originated from an astrophysics discovery on November 28, 1967 by Jocelyn Bell Burnell. She detected radio signals from space, caused by a pulsar. The signal pattern was first diagrammed by astronomy student Harold D. Craft Jr., appearing in Scientific American in 1971. Years later, Joy Division guitarist Bernard Sumner stumbled upon the image at the Manchester Central Library. Designer Peter Saville adapted it into its stark black-and-white form. Alas, Craft never received any royalties.

Big Brother & The Holding Company
Cheap Thrills (1968)

The band wanted to call the album Sex, Dope and Cheap Thrills. The record company nixed the first two words, and the group fought hard for R. Crumb to illustrate the cover. The design features vignettes about the songs, packed with Crumb’s signature underground aesthetic. The cover was completed overnight, fueled by a mix of inspiration and paranoia. Years later, Crumb said the project got him more attention than anything else in his career.

Santana
Abraxas (1970)

Carlos Santana found the cover image in an art magazine. The painting, “Annunciation” by Abdul Mati Klarwein, was originally part of a massive installation called Aleph Sanctuary, a cubic temple showcasing 68 paintings exploring world religions. The surreal, sensual imagery mesmerized Carlos, fitting perfectly with the mystical, Latin-infused sound of Abraxas. The cover’s vibrant iconography—featuring a celestial nude plus a figure reminiscent of the Virgin Mary—echoed Santana’s spiritual and musical explorations.

King Crimson
In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)

King Crimson’s debut required an image as bold as its sound. Lyricist Peter Sinfield turned to his friend Barry Godber, a computer operator with artistic talent. Godber painted a vivid self-portrait while looking into a mirror, capturing raw, exaggerated fear. When the band first saw it laid out on the studio floor, they knew it had to be the cover. Godber died of a heart attack at 24, shortly after the album’s release. His only professional artwork remains one of the most recognizable covers in rock history.

Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine (1992)

Thích Quảng Đức, a monk, self-immolated in 1963 to protest the persecution of Buddhists under South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem. The AP’s Malcolm Browne captured the moment, creating a shot that shook the world. The band chose the photo for their debut album—an image of ultimate protest for artists who sought to ignite revolution through music.

Taylor Swift
1989 (2014)

Taylor envisioned 1989 as her full embrace of pop. The Polaroid-style cover, featuring a cropped shot of Swift’s face, was a happy accident. Photographers Sarah Barlow and Stephen Schofield captured hundreds of images. A slightly blurred photo with just her lips and upper torso stood out. The pic, with its handwritten scrawl, evokes nostalgia, as if plucked from a shoebox of memories. The cover perfectly complements the album’s themes—reinvention, personal growth and the bittersweet nature of mulling the past.

Nirvana
Nevermind (1991)

Originally, Nirvana considered using stock photography of a water birth, but the licensing costs were too high. Instead, Kirk Weddle shot several infants underwater, with Spencer Elden ultimately chosen for the cover. Elden’s father, a prop artist, was paid $250. The dollar bill on a fishhook was added later, reinforcing the album’s themes of capitalism and lost innocence. Elden has had a complicated relationship with his fame, even suing Nirvana over the image. Yet, the cover remains one of rock’s most powerful visual statements.

Green Day
Dookie (1994)

Green Day’s major-label debut needed a cover as irreverent and anarchic as their music. The band turned to Richie Bucher, a musician and underground comic artist. The result was a chaotic, cartoonish explosion—literally—with Green Day’s on dizzying display. The cover is packed with inside jokes, cultural references and nods to Berkeley’s punk scene. Dookie brought punk to the mainstream, and its cover perfectly captured the the group’s DIY ethos as they surged into superstardom.

Eminem
The Death Of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) (2024)

Eminem has spent his career crafting alter egos. But The Death of Slim Shady marks the end of his most infamous persona. The vibrant, almost childlike font contrasts with the album’s darker themes. The rollout included fake news reports and obituaries, adding layers to the spectacle. Designed by Mike Saputo, the body-bag cover offers a visual eulogy for Slim, who, like Eminem himself, refuses to go quietly.