My Top 10 Favorite Album Covers.

Part One

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Okay so, I have just gone through some of my collection of music to find a few of my favorite album covers in rock, jazz, blues, pop, country and R&B. Some are photographs, some are paintings, some are eclectic and some are simple. Mostly, I find them interesting. Here's my picks.

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1) Banana Wind (1996) - Jimmy Buffett

I remember buying this CD back in the late 1990's because I wanted some new music to listen to when I went to the beach. Lot's of great songs on this album including, "Jamaica Mistaica" and "Happily ever after".

2) Aja (1977) - Steely Dan

My all-time favorite album in my entire collection. It's merely a photograph of a beautiful Asian girl in a dark backdrop. Arguably one of the most incredible albums of all time.

3) Hotel California (1976) - The Eagles

A sunset shot from a cherry-picker of the Beverly Hills Hotel by photographer, David Alexander. Such a famous place and a famous album. So many speculative stories, myths and legends came from this iconic album cover. Oh, and the music on the vinyl was pretty damned fantastic too.

4) Frampton Comes Alive! (1976) - Peter Frampton

I remember as a 13 year old kid seeing this album for the first time, thinking that Frampton had dyed his hair purple. I also thought that he was playing a purple Gibson guitar. This is my second favorite album of all time.

5) The Nightfly (1982) - Donald Fagen

This album and the title track remind me so much of late 1970's red-eye underground FM radio. This was the kind of music that was being played at 3:15 in the morning as the tuning dial from your stereo glowed like a nightlight in the darkness of your bedroom. Listening to the overnight D.J. talking as he kept the insomniatic night-dwellers company as they waited for dawn so they could finally go to sleep.

6) Animals (1977) - Pink Floyd

The iconic photograph of the Battersea power station in London. Dark, weird, broody, album cover reflects merely a fraction of the stories etched on this vinyl masterpiece. This is my number one favorite Pink Floyd album.

7) Little Queen (1977) - Heart

They used to say that Heart was the female version of Led Zeppelin. If ever there was an album and a cover to support that claim, this is it. This is my favorite heart album. I (and about a million other guys) had such a crush on Nancy Wilson.

8) The time has come (1992) - Martina McBride

I saw this beautiful woman in an article in a Country magazine, while I was eating lunch in the breakroom at my job. I had never heard of Martina McBride. That would change when I went out and bought the CD the very next day. I had a newfound appreciation for 1990's Country music.

9) The look of love (2001) - Diana Krall

This album cover is in a word "sexy", which is why she was sort of marginalized by jazz purists for using her appeal to seel the album. This most certainly was not the case, as this album boasts several great renditions of classic jazz standards.

10) I Robot (1977) - Alan Parsons

Such a strange photograph. Any idea where it was taken? It's the escalator tubes of the circular Terminal 1 building of the Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris. The robot image was later superimposed onto the photograph. My favorite songs on this album are, "I wouldn't want to be like you" and "Breakdown".

So, that's my first installment of favorite album covers. I will eventually write more articles on this topic. I would love to hear what some of your favorite album covers are. Perhaps I will add them to my next list.