Album cover

An album cover is a printed cardboard cover that was typically used to package 12" gramophone records from the 1960s through to the 1980s when the 12" record was the major format for distribution of popular music.

The cover served two purposes:

• To advertise the contents, as the record had little room on its own record label.
• To convey the artisitic aspirations of the original artists.

The cover became an important part of the culture of music at the time. As a marketing tool and an expression of artisic intent, gatefold covers, (a folded double cover), and inserts, often with lyric sheets made the album cover to be a desirable artifact in its own right. Notable examples are The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band which had cut-out inserts, lyrics, a gatefold sleeve though a single album; and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon which had gatefold, lyrics, no title on the sleeve and poster inserts. The move to the small CD format lost the impact though attempts have been made to create a more desirable packaging (e.g. the re-issue of the The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band which had cardboard box and booklet).

Some famous covers include:

• 
  Velvet Underground - Velvet Underground and Nico
• The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
  The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
• Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
  Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
• 
  Nirvana - Nevermind

The importance of cover design was such that some artists specialised or gained fame through their work, notably the design team Hipgnosis (through their work on Pink Floyd amongst others) and Roger Dean famous for his Yes and Greenslade covers.

There were a number of companies who specialised in their manufacture; in the UK, for example, Garrod and Lofthouse were the leading company - the G & L mark was seen on the majority of albums at the time.