Under The Covers: Andy Warhol

Under The Covers: Andy Warhol

Aidin Vaziri | Andy Warhol may be most famous for silk-screening soup cans, making boring home movies and getting shot, but some of the late artist's most popular work probably resides in your record collection. Warhol's iconic images grace no less than 50 album covers, ranging from obscure jazz and spoken-word titles to seminal pop albums by the Velvet Underground, the Rolling Stones, Diana Ross, the Smiths and Aretha Franklin. To celebrate the "Warhol Live" retrospective that opens Saturday and runs through May 17 at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, we have a look at some of his finest forays into the LP rack.

The Rolling Stones: "Sticky Fingers"
(1971) Probably Warhol's most problematic album cover, in that 1) Each copy contained an actual zipper attached to the front that basically killed any other record that touched it in the record store racks; and 2) The crotch area featured is especially well defined, causing several store owners to refuse to carry the album. Never mind the underwear shot inside. Either way, combined with the raunchy music it helped the Stones reinvent their image from hapless Altamont burnouts to sexually charged rock demigods.
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