The best cover art is and will always be: Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass/ Whipped cream and other Delights. Any questions?

Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass album "Whipped Cream and Other Delights". I wold look at it at length, hoping the intensity of my 11 year old gaze might melt just a little bit of the whipped cream, as I listened to the music. I took up playing the trumpet because of that album.
https://store.acousticsounds.com/images/large/AHRB_20099__110081__09302015094927-2891.jpg

Lots of excellent examples above, but I didn’t see any P-Funk covers. Several are great. Here’s my fave.

https://www.discogs.com/master/16158-Funkadelic-Maggot-Brain/image/SW1hZ2U6Mjk2MzIzMQ==?srsltid=AfmBOorp1IORDbalHdiSuBsFf06Ic-qsA5mDjzo9Ax8PEHma24hgfckV

Montrose "Jump On It"

The Black Crows "Amorica"

I see a theme developing. Especially with Mom's Apple Pie mentioned recently.

The inner sleeve in "Goats Head Soup"

Blue Cheer Inside Outside

Steely Dan Countdown to Ecstasy

Tom Waits Heart of Saturday Night

The Waybacks Burger After Church

Many great posts so far. Here’s just a few off the top of my head;

Zappa/Mothers: Burnt Weeny Sandwich

Miles Davis: Miles In The Sky

Various Artist: Music To Read James Bond By

Patti Smith: Horses

Sun Ra: Futuristic Sounds Of Sun Ra

Funkadelic: Maggot Brain

Billie Holiday: With The Ray Ellis Orchestra

Lester Young: Pres in DC 1956 Vol. 1

Augustus Pablo: Original Rockers

The Who By the Numbers.  Pretty cool when a band member draws up the crew.

How about Isaac Hayes "Black Moses"? Folds out five times to look like this:

Another example: 

A lot of the A&M and CTI covers Pete Turner took the photos for. There is a good book on his album cover photography:

No love for The White Album? Or am I just being contrarian?

@kingpin5 

I have the Analog Productions pressing. Need to re-listen.

@gemoody This is the album cover of the 1956 record, Ella & Louis, (Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong). It is perhaps one the finest records ever made, (IMHO). Ella and Louis are backed by Oscar Peterson and his trio: Herb Ellis guitar, Ray Brown bass, Buddy Rich drums. They cover standards and by this time in life, we all know the words or some of the melodies.

There is not a note wrong, a space wasted, a breath too breathy, this record is practically perfect. Now, I’m a jazzer and have been for a looooong time. But even so, this is a record that should be in every record collector’s collection.

Just my opinion.

Larry Coryell “Fairyland”

Frank Zappa:

Apostrophe/Overnight sensation.

@kingpin5  can you say more about the “verve” record you posted.  Curious.

King Crimson- in the Court of the crimson King. 
 

early Ten Years After

agree with Sticky Fingers. 

Holy cow, are we that old? How about Pearl Jam’s 2024 release "Dark Matter" as an example of beautiful cover art that is less than a half-century old?

https://townsquare.media/site/295/files/2024/02/attachment-PJDarkMatter.jpg

I wanted to add a photo of Roxy Music's Country Life cover, but this country is so uptight about the human body that you can't find an unabridged copy om google images. That's ridiculous. There is no full-frontal nudity in the picture.

I have that Electric Ladyland cover too.  Jimi didn’t like it so it was replaced.  Linda McCarthy took a picture of him with a bunch of kids in a fountain in Central Park that he wanted them to use.  It was the cover for a later reissue long after he was gone.  RIP. 

This cover while not risqué or daring, is one of my favorites because of the caliber of the talent.

Fleetwood Mac Mystery to Me

Then Play On by Fleetwood Mac

Dazzle Ships by OMD (cut out version)

Long Player by The Faces (British Cover)

and of course a popular favorite

Dark Side of the Moon.

Probably any Venus label album. 

Queen - a Night At The Opera. Designed by Freddie Mercury himself.

Disraeli Gears, Abraxas, anything from Little Feat, and of course the one right above.

You guys are slippin’. There can only be one.

Though I’ve never heard it from beginning to end I’ve always loved the cover of the first Black Sabbath LP - I’ve been on the lookout for a cheap copy but seems like Black Sabbath fans rarely give them up!

For anyone interested in cover art, I can highly recommend Aubrey Powell of Hipgnosis's compendium of their work - fabulous artwork and a great read as well.

@rayd and @slaw: That original Mom's Apple Pie cover was a result of no one at the record company noticing the female genitalia hidden inside the pie. No pun intended. 

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - The Best Of"

Pink Floyd - "Ummagumma"

10CC - The Original Soundtrack

I have Mom's Apple Pie ..it was a different world at that time.

As mentioned, anything by Roger Dean, especially "Fragile" and "Close To the Edge" by Yes.

Hipgnosis created a very cool cover for "Elegy" by The Nice and for those of you who are old enough, please look at the cover of "Mom's Apple Pie" (same group),  I can't believe this was ever printed! 

No Stone Unturned....The Rolling Stones

Little Feat!

@johnnybwood - That's Blodwyn Pig's "A Head Rings Out".... Great album!

Some old albums I have hanging in my garage as picture art..

Slaughter - Stick It To Ya 

Ratt - Out of the Cellar (Twany Kitaen on the cover) 

Reo SpeedWagon - Hi Infidelity

Honeymoon Suite - debut album 

My favorite of the 1960's "Cheesecake" covers...

Sue Raney-All By Myself.

https://forum.audiogon.com/posts/2766198
 

Larsman yes I tried posting pictures of both but I guess I need the URL code.  I tried copy and paste.  It showed when I initially pasted them but disappeared when  clicked post your response.  

Bloody Pig Ahead rings out is not bad but it’s hard to pick a best. There are too many good ones!

It’s a Beautiful Day 

The Clash, London Calling - so raw, but more for what it represented to me at the time. Still a go-to LP.

@stuartk: Yep, I have Woodstock Vision, both the original 1994 edition by Continuum Publishing, and the 1996 edition that Landy published himself (LandyVision, Inc.). Both are 128 page paperbacks, with front covers different from each other and from the expanded hardcover edition you cite. I don’t need that version, as I have no interest in the Woodstock Festival.

I have two other Landy books I like much more:

- The Band Photographs, 1968-1969 (published by Backbeat Books in 2015). It is a 12-1/4" x 12-1/4" hardbound book containing 160 pages of B & W photos taken of The Band in and around the Big Pink house, as well as some color photos from the 1969 U.S.A. tour. Elliot provides copious details on the taking of the photos. Amazing! And essential.

- Dylan Woodstock (published by Genesis Publications Limited in 2000). This is a deluxe hardbound book (with leather trim) in a slipcase. 144 pages of Dylan and The Band, he in and around his home in Woodstock, they around the Big Pink house in nearby West Saugerties. Both B & W and color photos, all with detailed notes by Landy. Beautiful!

I also have some large prints of photos Elliot took of The Band, suitable for framing. I got them from Elliot himself.