The Best Single Covers Ever - My Top Ten

We've all read the headlines. 'The Album Cover Is Dead!', 'The Death Of The Record Sleeve!', 'Album Artwork RIP!' and so on. Endless column inches and website space has been wasted by journalists and bloggers spouting their obituaries while anguishing the loss of the “cultural institution” that is the album cover at the supposed grimy hands of downloading.

Iconic artist Peter Saville, famous for his defining artwork for New Order, Pulp and Suede, even apocalyptically complained last year “We have a social disaster on our hands.” A tad far fetched? I think so.  

While I love everything about album artwork and don't want them to “die a death” as widely and portentously predicted, if writers are going to waste their time mourning anything then surely it's the physical single cover?

I won't bore you too much with the stats, but in 2008 the BPI estimated that 95.6% of singles sold were digital in Britain, a number that's certain to rise again this year. Compare that to the measly 7.7% figure which accounts for album downloads and the figures are almost polar opposite. So technically those album purists really don't have much to worry about.

As you can probably tell, I don't think the single cover, like the album cover, will die. Admittedly, you can't beat the buzz of seeing your favourite album or 12inch record cover in a store, but the reality is that a lot of young peoples' only encounter with music is digitally when the artwork thrown in as part of the bundle – nowt wrong with that. Many older people too are warming to the idea of condensing their record collection onto an MP3 player rather than walls of plastic over-taking the spare bedroom.

What does annoy me is that physical album covers are seen as sacred cows that need protecting from technological advances, whereas defining single sleeves are omitted from the debate. On the other side of the coin, we're almost perennially treated to the Greatest Album Cover countdowns, while the Greatest Single Cover counterparts are nowhere to be seen.

I'm not knocking the zeitgeist-defining Dark Side of the Moons and Sgt Peppers of this world, but there are countless 7inch, 12inch, EP and CD single sleeves from that are just not treated with anywhere near the reverence of the long-player heavyweights.

Below I present some of my favourite single covers from over the decades, many of which will feature in complete gallery countdown on Gigwise next week. Let us know about your personal favourite single covers in the comments section below!