Abbey Road voted the most iconic album cover of all time

21 March 2024 - Press release

 

Whether you have albums on vinyl or spy the album covers while using Spotify, some are immediately recognisable. A recent study asked 2000 Brits to decide which album covers are the most iconic/recognisable, choosing from a curated list of over 60 albums which regularly feature in round up lists for their covers.

The results showed that despite being 54 years old, the Beatles’ “Abbey Road” album cover is the most recognisable, with 48% of all respondents choosing it as artwork they could immediately recognise. Surprisingly nearly half (45%) of those aged 16-24 claimed to be able to recognise this cover, demonstrating its timelessness. The album is the reason many tourists and music fans visit the zebra crossing outside the Abbey Road Studios in north west London, to recreate the famous cover to this day. Although an exact number isn’t known, a 2005 Guardian article suggested that around 120,000 people come to the crossing each year.

Next on the list was the 1987 album “Bad” by Michael Jackson. Despite the cover being relatively simplistic (featuring Michael on a white background with the title spray painted in red), 43% of Brits asked said this was one of the most recognisable and iconic covers.

The Beatles make another appearance in the top three, with 37% choosing the “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band” LP cover as one of the most recognisable. The cover for the 1967 album features the likes of Mae West, Edgar Allan Poe, Fred Astaire, Bob Dylan, Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe, and Oscar Wilde, along with many other people and objects in a collage style.

The top five also featured “Nevermind” by Nirvana, which was voted as one of the most iconic album covers by 34% of people while “Never Mind the B*llocks, Here's the Sex Pistols” was voted for by 29%.

The top 20 most recognisable album covers

Rank	Album	Year	% who recognisethe cover
1	Abbey Road - The Beatles	1969	47.9%
2	Bad - Michael Jackson	1987	43.3%
3	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles	1967	36.7%
4	Nevermind - Nirvana	1991	34.1%
5	Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols - Sex Pistols	1977	29.3%
6	Aladdin Sane - David Bowie	1973	27.9%
7	The Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd	1973	27.1%
8	The Wall - Pink Floyd	1979	22.7%
9	Get Rich or Die Tryin' - 50 Cent	2003	19.6%
10	American Idiot - Green Day	2004	19.5%
11	Born in the USA - Bruce Springsteen	1984	16.5%
12	Rumours - Fleetwood Mac	1977	16.2%
13	25 - Adele	2015	15.7%
14	Definitely Maybe - Oasis	1994	13.9%
15	Back in Black - AC/DC	1980	13.5%
16	True Blue - Madonna	1986	13.2%
17	Enema of the State - Blink-182	1999	12.6%
18	The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill - Lauryn Hill	1998	12.2%
19	Ramones - Ramones	1976	11.9%
20	Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends - Coldplay	2008	9.8%