The Mamas and the Papas, ‘If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears’ (1966)The original album cover showed a dirty toilet in the bottom right hand corner. The one that was released (shown) was ‘sanitized’. A dirty toilet was obviously way too unsavoury for the general public in the 60′s. |
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Poison, ‘Open Up and Say… Ahh!’ (1988)Somehow some retailers objected to this sleeve on the grounds that it was too “raunchy”. |
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Nirvana, ‘In Utero’ (1993)America’s biggest retailers K-Mart amd Wal-Mart threatened not to stock the record unless the back of this sleeve was altered and the song ‘Rape Me’ changed to ‘Waif Me’. Go figure. |
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The Residents, ‘The Third Reich N’ Roll’ (1976)The swastika on this cover caused quite an upror in Germany, where retailers refused to stock it. It wasn’t actually intended as a political statement, more of a cultural one – the figure in the foreground is Dick Clark. |
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The Rolling Stones, ‘Sticky Fingers’ (1971)A lot of people got pretty excited about this record cover because of the zipper. Many thought it was too racy. That being said, it only ever got banned in Spain, but not because of any moral issues – the zipper tended to scratch the records racked in front of it. |
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The Rolling Stones, ‘Beggars Banquet’ (1968)Another toilet cover that caused an uproar in the 60′s. Th early versions of this sleeve were completely plain as pictures of public toilets were unforgivably vulgar in 1968. |
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Roxy Music, ‘Country Life’ (1974)In some areas in the US and other parts of the world a different version of the sleeve was used – the women were airbrushed out completely, leaving only the green backdrop and the band logo. |
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Scorpions, ‘Lovedrive’ (1979)Often featured in ‘worst album covers ever’ lists, this bizarre sleeve was replaced in some markets with a more sensible black sleeve featuring a blue scorpion. The album’s artwork was named “Best album sleeve of 1979″ by Playboy magazine. |
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The Beatles, ‘Yesterday And Today’ (1966)After a public outcry over the “butcher” cover, the record company recalled copies of this record sleeve |
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Bruce Springsteen, ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ (1984)Patriotic Republicans had a major fit over this album cover, thinking that Bruce was shown to be urinating on the US flag. |
Some of the most controversial album covers ever
Posted on April 2nd 2009
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19 Comments Received
April 9th, 2009 @11:05 am
I’m totally amazed that you missed Scorpions Virgin Killer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Killer
>> MOD: We left it out because we did an entire article on it recently:
http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2008/12/scorpions-virgin-killer-cover-banned-uk/
April 9th, 2009 @11:46 am
All those albums which were censored in the US, was that by law or something the record companies did because of pressure (or because they were afraid it wouldn’t sell enough)?
April 9th, 2009 @1:46 pm
How could you leave out “Smell the Glove”?!?
April 9th, 2009 @1:49 pm
What about the “Sticky Fingers” album cover by the Rolling Stones (with a real zipper). Surely a classic.
>> MOD: it is actually listed in the article.
April 9th, 2009 @2:01 pm
The one I remember quite vividly was Bon Jovi’s “Slippery When Wet” which you can see both versions of here: http://www.sleazeroxx.com/censored/slippery.shtml
April 9th, 2009 @2:30 pm
No “Smell the Glove”?
April 9th, 2009 @4:25 pm
Lynyrd Skynyrd, ‘Street Survivors’ (1977)
You say the flames were airbrushed out, but the image you linked to is clearly a cover with a completely different photograph.
April 9th, 2009 @4:42 pm
Missing:
1. Foreskin 500: “Manpussy”
http://www.alibris.co.uk/search/music/qwork/400206369/used/Manpussy
2. Butthole Surfers: “Butthole Surfers”
http://www.austinchronicle.com/binary/0fb7/music_phases-18038.jpeg
3. Ism: “A Diet for Worms”
http://commercialzone.blogspot.com/2007/07/ism-diet-for-worms-1983.html
April 9th, 2009 @5:17 pm
I had no trouble buying Blind Faith here in San Diego. As a matter of fact, I still have the album.
April 10th, 2009 @1:37 pm
You also left out The Coup’s 2001 album showing WTC towers on fire.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_Music
April 10th, 2009 @6:01 pm
Good list. There are plenty of controversial album covers, way too many to list them all. I didn’t even know about Electric Ladyland.
April 10th, 2009 @6:47 pm
Uh, Jane’s Addiction… (they even had to release a second album cover)
April 13th, 2009 @8:24 am
What album cover was it that the PMRC got freaked out about? Something to do with a crotch if I remember correctly
September 26th, 2009 @2:35 pm
I think Virgin Killer is so controversial, even this list wanted to stay away from it. It’s automatically the winner.
October 11th, 2009 @12:32 am
A record i saw that wasn’t put on the list of censored records is Moontan from Golden Earring with the nude girl cover.later replacement cover was a picture of an earring in an ear
December 6th, 2009 @3:08 am
I don’t see the big deal with some of these. The 2nd one is basically a spoof of a painting and I don’t see what’s the problem with the 4th.
Meanwhile, I think Scorpions’ Virgin Killers and Blind Faith’s selftitled albums have somewhat offensive covers (nude underage girls, one being seen entirely (though the vagina is hidden with something looking like a break in a glass panel) and the other seems only topless though holding a plane with a shape reminding of something else…).
May 14th, 2010 @12:46 am
The most controversial cover ever released is Dawn of the Black Hearts from Mayhem. No-one else even comes close to it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_of_the_Black_Hearts
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