6 Album Covers That Reference Movies: Weird Al, Ringo Starr, And More

If you want your album cover to catch someone's eye when they're looking around for music online or in a record store, one good way is to design an album cover that looks strangely familiar. These six artists did just that by basing their album covers off of famous movies.

1. Ringo Starr - Goodnight Vienna (1974)

For the cover of his fourth solo album Goodnight Vienna, Ringo Starr recreates a scene from the 1951 sci-fi classic The Day The Earth Stood Still, portraying the film's main character Klaatu himself. Maybe they should have cast Ringo instead of Keanu Reeves in the 2008 remake.

2. Misfits - Walk Among Us (1982)

The Misfits were known for their incorporation of horror and sci-fi elements into their music and image, and for the cover of their 1982 debut Walk Among Us, the band combined the posters of two '50s sci-fi movies: Earth vs. The Flying Saucers and The Angry Red Planet.

3. "Weird Al" Yankovic - Alapalooza (1993)

"Weird Al" Yankovic has parodied a few famous album covers, including Michael Jackson's Bad and Nirvana's Nevermind, but for his 1993 album Alapalooza, he turns to the world of movies with a parody of the iconic Jurassic Park poster. The cover references the album's lead single "Jurassic Park," a parody of Richard Harris' "MacArthur Park."

4. AFI - Answer That and Stay Fashionable (1995)

In order to understand just how much AFI has changed over the last twenty years, look no further than their 1995 debut Answer That and Stay Fashionable. Instead of the gothic rock aesthetic the band is known for today, the album has a snotty hardcore punk sound, with an album cover that parodies Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. It's hard to believe that this is the same band that recorded Sing The Sorrow.

5. The Fugees - The Score (1996)

Though the Fugees' classic album The Score is pretty far removed from the gangsta rap genre, the album cover still references the ultimate gangster film: The Godfather. The cover shares the same font as The Godfather's poster, as well as the film's famously dark photography.

6. Jay Reatard - Watch Me Fall (2009)

The cover of Jay Reatard's debut solo album Blood Visions looks like it could have been one of those horrifying split second shots from The Shining, but he would pay a more explicit tribute to that classic film with the cover of his second album Watch Me Fall, which features a photograph of Jay recreating the climactic scene in which Jack Nicholson's character Jack Torrance gets lost in a hedge maze during a blizzard.

What other album covers reference famous movies? Let us know in the comments section!

Tags

The Fugees, AFI, Weird Al Yankovic, Misfits, Ringo Starr, The Beatles, Quentin Tarantino