greatalbumcovers

Great Album Covers provides a forum for everyone to learn about and enjoy record album art. The vinyl record album provided a format that allowed the album cover art to be enjoyed. Record Albums and the cover art are collectible pieces of music history. See cover art from artists such as the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, the Cream, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles Frank Sinatra and more. The album cover art is from many genres of musical, including rock and roll, jazz, country, R&B, Soul, heavy metal, classical, etc. There is also album cover art related to movies, television shows, comedy and more.

Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy

♦ February 12, 2013 ♦ 1 Comment


GGreat Album Covers - Record Album Led Zeppelin IV by Led Zeppelin in 1971

Led Zeppelin IV by Led Zeppelin in 1971

Led Zeppelin’s fifth studio album, “Houses of the Holy”, was released in 1973 and quickly went Platinum. Considered one of the greatest albums of all time by Led Zeppelin fans, “Houses of the Holy” initially meet with mix reviews from the music critics. “Over the Hills and Far Away” was the stand out hit from the album, although the whole album is much richer than just this one song. As great as the music is on “Houses of the Holy”, this album’s cover is prehaps more notable.

The album cover of “Houses of the Holy” initially generated a lot of controversy for using images of nude children; however, the album cover received a Grammy nomination in 1974 for best album packaging. The album cover was another Hipgnosis masterpiece inspired by a 1953 science fiction novel, Childhood’s End. British science fiction author, Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, wrote Childhood’s End and later wrote the better known science fiction novel, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Often ranked as one of the top ten greatest album covers of all-time, the “Houses of the Holy” album cover concept was Hipgnosis’ second attempt to please the band members who ,according to Jimmy Page, were not happy with Hipgnosis’first proposal featuring a green tennis court. Hipgnosis’ Aubrey Powell was the creator of the ultimate Houses of the Holy album cover, which feature a collage of photographs of nude children climbing the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland. Although there were actual only two children photographed, models Stefan and Samantha Gates, the cover shows multiple images of these children. The original photography was done in black amd white and the images later tinted to give them a surreal effect. The combination of the coloration, the mysterious setting, and the multiple images of nearly identical nude children produce a haunting feeling that is part of the magic of this iconic album cover.

ALSO SEE LED ZEPPELIN IV

1 Comment

    Trackbacks

    1. Led aa
    %d bloggers like this: