Favorite Album Covers - Volume 2

The joy and excitement of buying a new record is sadly in the past. Unless you are a professional DJ, or a music purist, the large format vinyl albums are no longer part of our current music purchases. Probably pretty soon CDs will be also be seen as relics, as digital music downloads substitute the old-fashioned walk-in record stores.

I recall getting home from Modern Sound, in Copacabana, with a spanking new Blondie album in the mid 80's. The image of Debbie Harry in leopard skin and lioness hair on the cover of "The Hunter" will stay tattooed in my memory forever. The smell of a freshly open "import", like a new toy, is something you do not forget. Holding a record cover, the glossy large image, printed in sturdy carton paper is incomparable to a tiny CD's cover art. I always waited in anticipation wondering how the pull-out insert would be. Would there be lyrics (a must)? More photographs? And what about a DOUBLE album? I envied my older sister for owning the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack as it looked so immense, foreign, fascinating, to my pre-teen eyes.

Here are a few more iconic images from album covers that made history. Most are personal choices, along with a couple of reader's suggestions. If you have a favorite one let me know. Write in a suggestion in the comment box and it might show up here on the next "volume".