6 Album Covers That Pushed The Boundaries Too Far

Artists have been known to push the limits when it comes to their album covers, and we’ve rounded up 6 covers that got banned for pushing it too far!

Let’s kick things off the The Beatles 1966 album Yesterday and Today, where the group posed with mutilated dolls and butchered meat. At the time, this was very provocative and caused quite the stir. 750,000 copies had to be recalled and replaced in the U.S. 

Next up is the 1968 album Beggars Banquet from the Rolling Stones. This album cover featured a graffiti covered bathroom stall and the top of a toilet, which in 1968 was still seen as taboo. This album cover was replaced and didn’t resurface until the ’80s.

Taking things into the ’70s with this strange looking cover from David Bowie’s 1974 album Diamond Dogs. The cover showcased Bowie’s head and torso on a dog’s body, designed by Belgian painter Guy Peellaert. The back of the album revealed the body portion of the dog, exposing all parts. This proved to push the boundaries too far, and eventually the groin area was smoothed over.

1977, Lynyrd Skynyrd released their fifth studio album Street Survivors, with the band posing in front of a fiery blaze. Unfortunately, a mere three days after this album was released three of the band members were killed in an airplane crash outside of Mississippi. This made the album cover incredibly inappropriate and was replaced with the band standing in front of a blank back drop.

This female creature was banned from the album cover of Poison’s second album Open Up and Say…Ahh! from 1988. They didn’t scrap it entirely, but rather cropped the image so that not much more than the eyes were visible.

Lastly, Van Halen’s Balance from 1995 originally had an album cover that pushed the boundaries with an image of naked conjoined twins. It seemed to be disturbing enough that in some places the second twin was removed from the cover.