Album Cover Locations
Most iconic album covers were photographed somewhere real. A zebra crossing in St. John's Wood. A tenement on St. Mark's Place. A community garden on East 2nd Street. A pink-clapboard house in the Catskills. This map collects those places — the ones we can trace — and tells the story of each shoot.
Pins are colour-coded by confidence: exact when we can point at the spot the photographer stood, approximate when we know the area but not the precise frame, and a neutral grey for covers that were inspired by a real place without being photographed there. Use the filters to narrow by decade, genre, country, or confidence.
Showing 19 of 19 locations.
ExactApproximateInspired / fictional / unknown
Every location on the map
19 locations, grouped by country.
United Kingdom
Liverpool · exact
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not — Arctic Monkeys (2006)
Korova Bar. The grainy black-and-white portrait of friend-of-the-band Chris McClure was taken at Liverpool's Korova Bar after a heavy night out.
London · exact
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band — The Beatles (1967)
Chelsea Manor Studios. Michael Cooper photographed the assembled tableau of life-sized cutouts on a set built by Peter Blake and Jann Haworth inside Chelsea Manor Studios.
London · exact
Abbey Road — The Beatles (1969)
Abbey Road zebra crossing. Iain Macmillan shot the four Beatles crossing this zebra crossing outside EMI Studios on the morning of 8 August 1969. The crossing has since been Grade II listed.
London · exact
Parklife — Blur (1994)
Walthamstow Stadium greyhound track. Stylorouge photographed greyhounds rounding the bend at Walthamstow Stadium in East London — a vanished slice of working-class British leisure.
Manchester · exact
Definitely Maybe — Oasis (1994)
Bonehead's living room, Cromwell Road. Michael Spencer Jones staged the band among carefully chosen objects — a globe, a wine bottle, a George Best photo, a Burt Bacharach LP — in guitarist Bonehead's front room in Didsbury.
1990s · Alternative, Rock
United States
Burbank · exact
Wish You Were Here — Pink Floyd (1975)
Warner Bros. backlot. Aubrey Powell and Storm Thorgerson photographed stuntman Ronnie Rondell Jr. — actually on fire — shaking hands with Danny Rogers on the Warner Bros. studio backlot.
Chicago · exact
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot — Wilco (2002)
Marina City towers. Sam Jones photographed Bertrand Goldberg's twin Marina City towers on the Chicago River for the sleeve — a cornerstone of Wilco's hometown skyline.
Joshua Tree · approximate
The Joshua Tree — U2 (1987)
Joshua Tree National Park (broader Mojave shoot). Anton Corbijn shot the band over several days in December 1986 across the Mojave — including Zabriskie Point and Bodie. The single Joshua tree itself fell in 2000; its exact location is approximate.
New York · exact
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan — Bob Dylan (1963)
Jones Street at West 4th, Greenwich Village. Don Hunstein photographed Dylan and Suze Rotolo walking down Jones Street near their West 4th Street apartment in February 1963.
New York · exact
Strange Days — The Doors (1967)
Sniffen Court, Murray Hill. Joel Brodsky photographed a troupe of acrobats, jugglers and a strongman in this gated 19th-century carriage-house mews off East 36th Street.
New York · exact
The Velvet Underground & Nico — The Velvet Underground (1967)
Andy Warhol's Factory, 231 East 47th Street. Warhol designed the peelable banana sleeve at his silver-foil-lined Factory studio, the band's home base in 1966.
New York · exact
Physical Graffiti — Led Zeppelin (1975)
96–98 St. Mark's Place, East Village. The five-story tenements at 96 and 98 St. Mark's Place were photographed for the die-cut sleeve. The same buildings later appeared in the Rolling Stones' "Waiting on a Friend" video.
New York · approximate
Horses — Patti Smith (1975)
Sam Wagstaff's apartment, One Fifth Avenue. Robert Mapplethorpe shot the portrait in natural afternoon light at his patron Sam Wagstaff's penthouse — Smith in white shirt, suspenders, jacket slung over her shoulder.
New York · exact
Ramones — Ramones (1976)
Albert's Garden, East Village. Roberta Bayley photographed the band against a brick wall at Albert's Garden, a small community garden on East 2nd Street, after a CBGB shoot fell through.
New York · exact
London Calling — The Clash (1979)
The Palladium, 126 East 14th Street. Pennie Smith caught Paul Simonon smashing his Fender Precision bass onstage at the Palladium on 21 September 1979 — a frustrated swing that became the defining image of punk.
Pasadena · exact
Nevermind — Nirvana (1991)
Rose Bowl Aquatics Center. Kirk Weddle photographed four-month-old Spencer Elden underwater at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center in Pasadena over a quick afternoon shoot.
1990s · Rock, Alternative
Queens, New York · exact
Illmatic — Nas (1994)
Queensbridge Houses. The cover composites Danny Clinch's portrait of a young Nas over a photograph of the Queensbridge projects where he grew up — the largest public-housing development in North America.
San Diego · exact
Pet Sounds — The Beach Boys (1966)
San Diego Zoo. George Jerman shot the band feeding goats at San Diego Zoo — a quietly literal reading of the title that Brian Wilson came to dislike.
West Saugerties, New York · exact
Music from Big Pink — The Band (1968)
Big Pink, 56 Parnassus Lane. The album was written and demoed at the pink-clapboard house in the Catskills where the Band lived with Bob Dylan in 1967 — used here as both title and place.
Know a location we've missed?
This map is a starting point, not a finished atlas. If you can point us to the exact spot a cover was photographed — or you took the photograph — please get in touch. See our editorial policy for how we verify and credit submissions.