18 Of The Riskiest Album Covers That Ever Existed

Puritans were some of the earliest European settlers in North America, and despite the sexual revolution and half a century of rock & roll, the U.S.A. still has a strong tradition of bluenose moralizing. Many musicians have tried to push the limits of society in their album packaging — only to find out that sometimes society pushes back. Here are 20 of the most notable censored album covers: The reasons for their bowdlerization include squeamishness about toilets, nudity, and general freakiness. 1. The Mamas and the Papas, 'If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears' (1966) The original cover for the Mamas and the Papas' debut album: all four band members crammed into a bathtub (with Michelle Phillips stretched out over the other three). But because it was taken in an actual bathroom, the photo also included a toilet, which was taboo. The toilet was first obscured with a text box, and later cropped out entirely. 2. The Beatles, 'Yesterday and Today' (1966) Times have changed: this image of the Beatles in white smocks, posing with slabs of meat and decapitated baby dolls now seems like the mildest form of provocation. (The Fab Four may have been protesting the Vietnam War, may have been complaining about how their American record company shuffled and repackaged their albums for the USA market, or may have been indulging in some dark humor.) But in the States, the backlash against the cover was so strong, Capitol had to recall 750,000 copies and replace the image with an anodyne photo of the band around a steamer trunk. What famous Rolling Stones album is next on our list? Click "Next" to see! 3. Rolling Stones, 'Beggars Banquet' (1968) Toilets were still taboo in 1968 — enough so that the Stones' record company rejected the cover photo of a bathroom wall full of graffiti (at a Porsche dealership in Los Angeles), ultimately replacing it with a plain white cover with italic black print in the mode of a formal invitation. The album was delayed for months as a result, and the original art didn't surface until the Eighties. 4. Blind Faith, 'Blind Faith' (1969) The Eric Clapton-Steve Winwood supergroup had no name until they saw the cover art for their album, which photographer Bob Seidemann called "Blind Faith": an 11-year-old girl with her shirt off, her innocence in counterpoint to the technological toy in her hands. (Model Mariora Goschen says that she was promised a horse for posing for the cover, and had to settle for 40 pounds sterling.) In the United States, the image of a topless tween provoked outrage (although not as much as it probably would today), so the record company also offered a version with a picture of the band. What horror show of a rock and roll artist in next on our list? Click "Next" to find out. 5. Alice Cooper, 'Love It to Death' (1971) Alice Cooper (the band and the singer) broke through with their third album, featuring "I'm Eighteen." But they got flak for a juvenile stunt in the album photo: Cooper wrapped his cape around him and poked his right thumb out, making it look to a casual viewer like his schlong was hanging out. For his trouble, he had his entire right arm airbrushed out. 6. David Bowie, 'Diamond Dogs' (1974) On the front cover, Bowie just looked freaky — it turned out to be half of a gatefold image by Belgian painter Guy Peellaert, and the back cover revealed that Bowie had the body of a dog, complete with a prominent penis. Those hindquarters were quickly gelded, with some airbrushing rendering Bowie's canine groin smooth and blank. What down and dirty southern rock group is next on our list? Click "Next" to find out. 7. Lynyrd Skynyrd, 'Street Survivors' (1977) Lynyrd Skynyrd's fifth studio album was released on October 17th, 1977; three days later, the band's airplane crashed in Mississippi, killing three members, including leader Ronnie Van Zant. That made the cover photo, of the band standing in front of a backdrop of flames, seem in exceptionally poor taste. The band didn't change the Street Survivors title (which was problematic itself), but they did substitute a different photo of the band with a plain black background. 8. Funkadelic, 'The Electric Spanking of War Babies' (1981) Warner Bros. didn't want to release this Funkadelic record as a double album, so George Clinton whittled it down to a single disc. It also wouldn't approve the Pedro Bell cover art of a naked woman inside a phallic spaceship: Bell covered most of it up with a big splash of green and the message "OH LOOK! The cover that "THEY" were TOO SCARED to print!" What hilarious British rock and roll band is next on the list? Click "Next" to see. 9. Spinal Tap, 'Smell the Glove' (1982) Fictional but classic: in the movie This Is Spinal Tap, one of England's loudest bands has its album cover rejected by the record company and replaced with a plain black cover. The original vision? "A greased, naked woman on all four with a dog collar around her neck, and a leash and a man's arm extended out up to here holding onto the leash and pushing a black glove in her face to sniff it." 10. Roger Waters, 'The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking' (1984) Old-school censorship for the first solo album by the former Pink Floydster: If people are offended by the rear view of a blonde hitching a ride, naked except for red shoes and a red backpack, then just slap a black box over her butt. Guns and Roses sang about 'Paradise City', although this next album cover wasn't seen as quite that... 11. Guns N' Roses, 'Appetite for Destruction' (1987) The album got its title from the Robert Williams painting that originally served as its cover: a robotic rapist about to get its comeuppance from a much larger robot predator. After complaints, the band replaced it with an image of its five members rendered as skull heads. The controversy could have been worse: Axl Rose originally wanted the cover to be a photo of the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. 12. Poison, 'Open Up and Say...Ahh!' (1988) The original cover to Poison's second album: a red-skinned female demon with big hair and an even bigger tongue. It was more odd than sexual or Satanic, but under pressure, the band changed it, covering up most of the image so you couldn't see much more than the eyes. What 1990 grunge album got banned as soon as the record cover was revealed? Click "Next" to find out. 13. Jane's Addiction, 'Ritual de lo Habitual' (1990) The iconic Ritual cover is a photograph of a diorama made by lead singer Perry Farrell, depicting him in the three-way affair he sings about in "Three Days." But the nudity, both male and female, made some retailers squeamish, so the band also provided a plain white cover adorned with the text of the First Amendment. 14. Roxy Music, 'Country Life' (1974) The Quiet Us The fourth and perhaps most accomplished album of Roxy Music's career features two seductive and slippery semi-naked models on the cover. Brian Ferry is said to have met the girls in Portugal and persuaded them to pose for the shot. Later copies of the album showed only the leafy background. What singing group's album cover was questioned because of a "phallic finger"? Click "Next" to find out. 15. The Five Keys', 'On Stage' (1957) Guardian An unintentional photography slip resulted in a bit of a scandal when fans mistook Rudy West's hand for a penis on the cover of this 1957 album. The phallic finger was subsequently airbrushed out for later editions. 16. Nirvana, 'Nevermind' (1991) Rolling Stone The release of Nirvana’s mega-selling ‘Nevermind’ album went over better than anticipated. The label was afraid the nude baby on the cover would be met with outrage due to the infant’s privates being visible while floating in the water chasing a dollar bill on a fish hook. Kurt Cobain insisted if any censorship be made, it would require a sticker over the genitalia that said “If you’re offended by this, you must be a closet pedophile.” That probably would have seen more controversy than the album art! This next band was definitely 'livin' on a prayer' when they found out their album cover was banned! 17. Bon Jovi, 'Slippery When Wet' (1986) Amazon In the ‘80s, glam bands were all about sexual innuendo and Bon Jovi’s 1986 effort, ‘Slippery When Wet,’ was no exception to the rule. The iconic album features a lackluster album cover that was swapped for the original artwork at the last minute for two reasons. The label believed featuring a busty woman’s cleavage in a soaking wet tanktop would lead to retailers refusing to stock the record and that main man Jon Bon Jovi would find the pink border around the image disagreeable. Instead, we got a wet garbage bag with the title spelled out in water. 18. Metallica, 'Metal Up Your Ass' (1982) Discogs Before Metallica’s debut album ‘Kill ‘Em All’ hit shelves, fans could have been looking at a completely different album cover and name. The thrash outfit originally planned on releasing the disc as ‘Metal Up Your Ass’ with a literal visual interpretation to accompany it. A hand extending out of a toilet is seen holding a sharp dagger, but the record company dismissed the artwork much to the chagrin of the band. It seems it all worked out in the end though, huh? Source: (Rolling Stone, Gigwise, Loudwire)

18 Of The Riskiest Album Covers That Ever Existed

by Brad Rosenberg
Published July 28, 2017

5. Alice Cooper, ‘Love It to Death’ (1971)

6. David Bowie, ‘Diamond Dogs’ (1974)

5. Alice Cooper, ‘Love It to Death’ (1971)

6. David Bowie, ‘Diamond Dogs’ (1974)

Related: