Abbey Road voted the most iconic album cover of all time

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 recognise the 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% 

When the same group were asked which decade had the most iconic album artwork, the 80s won the majority of the vote at 24%, followed by the 70s with 20% and the 90s in third at 18%. But, despite two Beatles albums from the 1960s making into the top three, less than 1 in 10 (9.75%) of respondents said the 60s had the most recognisable album covers.
There is a generation gap though, as 27% of those aged 16-24 believe the noughties (2000s) have the best album covers, followed by the 1990s (23%), with these results likely influenced by the albums the respondents grew up with.

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