Our Countdown Of The Coolest Album Covers Ever

10. Parallel Lines by Blondie

Designer: Ramey Communications/Edo Bertoglio/Peter Leeds

Take the coolest frontwoman of all time, stick the rest of the band in cool suits, and go monochrome, with the title in lipstick-red, and you have one very cool, and thoroughly iconic album cover. The band weren’t so keen however: unimpressed that it gave the impression that Blondie was effectively Debbie Harry with a backing band, they ended up parting company with their manager Peter Leeds, who had suggested it.

9. Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd

Designer: Storm Thorgerson

How do you follow Dark Side of the Moon‘s iconic artwork? Set a man on fire, that’s how. For the overall concept, Thorgerson had centred on the idea of absence, with the album shrink-wrapped in a dark colour to hide the artwork – a somewhat peverse idea when that artwork was so cool – with the gesture of a handshake between the two men being inspired by Welcome to the Machine and Have a Cigar and by the idea that people hide their true feelings (the shrinkwrap) for fear of ‘getting burned’ (the cover) underneath. EMI were initially unhappy with the ‘non-cover’ but, says Storm, “after we stuck a cow on the front of Atom Heart Mother [an earlier album] they knew that anything to do with Pink Floyd was difficult.”

What jazz saxaphone prodigy is next on our countdown? Click “Next” to find out.