Record covers are a reflection of our life and times; like music, they speak to us about themes such as love, life, death, fashion, and rebellion. For music lovers, these covers evoke a period, a specific moment in their lives. Some are true works of art and have become as famous as the music they represent: examples include the covers by Andy Warhol, among them the famous banana he designed for The Velvet Underground.

This edition of Record Covers offers a selection of the best rock covers from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, drawn from the vast private collection of Michael Ochs, music archivist, disc-jockey, journalist, and former record publicist. Its pages, both a nostalgia for the past and an evolutionary study of record covers, invite us to better appreciate a form of artistic expression that is rarely valued as it deserves.