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60 free Album Cover trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
46 free album cover trivia questions with answers. This album cover trivia quiz is about the pictures on the sleeves rather than the songs inside: who took the photograph, where it was shot, what was hidden in it and what got it banned. It covers the sleeves everyone knows, from Abbey Road and Sgt. Pepper to Nevermind, The Dark Side of the Moon, Rumours, Born in the U.S.A. and Thriller, along with cult favourites like Unknown Pleasures, London Calling, the Velvet Underground banana and Pink Floyd's flying pig. There are questions on the designers behind the sleeves too: Hipgnosis, Peter Saville, Peter Blake, Roger Dean, Andy Warhol and Klaus Voormann. Some are easy enough for anyone who has flipped through a record shop; the hard ones will test people who read liner notes for fun. Every answer is checked against Wikipedia and cited on the question, so you can see where each fact comes from before you argue about it.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On the cover of Abbey Road, which Beatle is barefoot and out of step with the others?
Paul McCartney
'Paul is dead' theorists read the bare feet as a corpse in a funeral procession, with Lennon in white as the preacher and Ringo in black as the undertaker.
Q 02How long did Iain Macmillan have to shoot the Abbey Road cover while a policeman held up traffic?
Ten minutes
He took just six frames; McCartney picked the winner with a magnifying glass.
Q 03What make of car is parked to the left of the zebra crossing on the Abbey Road cover?
A Volkswagen Beetle
Its number plate ends 28IF, which conspiracy fans read as McCartney's age 'if' he had lived; he was actually 27.
Q 04Which two pop artists designed the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band cover?
Peter Blake and Jann Haworth
The cover cost nearly £3,000, a fortune for a sleeve at the time, and won a Grammy for Best Album Cover.
Q 05EMI vetoed which two figures John Lennon wanted on the Sgt. Pepper cover?
Adolf Hitler and Jesus Christ
Elvis was left off deliberately; McCartney said he was 'too important and too far above the rest even to mention'.
Q 06Which Beatle offered no suggestions for the Sgt. Pepper crowd, saying 'whatever the others say is fine by me'?
Ringo Starr
The finished tableau includes Bob Dylan, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West, boxer Sonny Liston and Liverpool footballer Albert Stubbins.
Q 07Which musician designed the Beatles' Revolver cover and won a Grammy for it?
Klaus Voormann
He was also Manfred Mann's bassist and played on Carly Simon's 'You're So Vain'.
Q 08Which Pink Floyd member asked for something 'simple and bold', prompting the Dark Side of the Moon prism?
Richard Wright
Hipgnosis offered seven designs; all four members pointed at the prism and said 'That's the one'.
Q 09How many colours emerge from the prism on The Dark Side of the Moon cover?
Six
The idea came from a prism photograph Thorgerson found in a 1963 physics textbook.
Q 10On Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, two businessmen shake hands while one of them is doing what?
On fire
The whole album was sold in black shrink-wrap that hid the artwork, making the sleeve itself 'absent'.
Q 11Pink Floyd's Animals cover shows an inflatable pig floating over which London landmark?
Battersea Power Station
Unusually, the concept came from Roger Waters rather than Hipgnosis, whose rejected pitch involved a child walking in on his parents 'copulating, like animals'.
Q 12Nirvana's Nevermind cover shows a naked baby underwater reaching for what?
A dollar on a fishhook
Kurt Cobain got the idea from a TV programme about water births.
Q 13How old was Spencer Elden when he was photographed for the Nevermind cover?
Four months
He sued over the image as an adult in 2021; the case was finally thrown out in 2025.
Q 21On the cover of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, Stevie Nicks poses in which stage persona?
Rhiannon
All the photographs, front and back, were taken by Herbert Worthington.
Q 22Which real Los Angeles landmark is on the cover of the Eagles' Hotel California?
The Beverly Hills
The Beverly Hills Hotel threatened legal action once it was identified, and designer Kosh added a neon 'Hotel California' logo.
Q 23How much did the record company pay for the front photo of the Ramones' debut album?
$125
Roberta Bayley of Punk magazine shot the four leaning against a brick wall in New York.
Q 14When Geffen worried about the Nevermind cover, what sticker did Cobain say was the only compromise he would accept?
One calling offended viewers closet pedophiles
The label backed down and released the photo untouched.
Q 15Which artist designed the peelable banana on The Velvet Underground & Nico?
Andy Warhol
Early pressings carried the instruction 'Peel slowly and see', revealing a flesh-coloured banana beneath the sticker.
Q 16What working feature did the original vinyl sleeve of the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers have?
A real zipper
The zip damaged the records stacked against it, and it has never been settled which of Warhol's models is in the jeans.
Q 17Who took the photograph of Bruce Springsteen's backside against a flag on Born in the U.S.A.?
Annie Leibovitz
It is one of the few Springsteen studio covers not to show his face.
Q 18On the cover of London Calling, Paul Simonon is smashing which instrument?
A Fender Precision bass
He was furious that bouncers would not let the crowd stand up; the wrecked bass is now in the Museum of London.
Q 19Photographer Pennie Smith did not want her London Calling shot used because it was what?
Out of focus
Designer Ray Lowry set it in pink and green lettering as a homage to Elvis Presley's 1956 debut album.
Q 20The cover of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures is a plot of radio signals from what kind of object?
A pulsar
The star, CP 1919, was discovered in 1967 by Jocelyn Bell Burnell; the plot came from The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Astronomy.
Q 24On the cover of Pet Sounds, the Beach Boys are feeding what to goats?
Apples
Critic Peter Doggett called it 'an album cover of stark banality' wrapped around songs of high romanticism.
Q 25Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy cover was photographed at which natural landmark?
The Giant's Causeway
The band had fired Storm Thorgerson for pitching a green tennis court, a visual pun implying their music was a 'racket'.
Q 26Led Zeppelin's untitled fourth album is often called what, after the symbol Jimmy Page chose?
Zoso
The inner painting, The Hermit, was based on the tarot card of the same name.
Q 27Which photographer shot David Bowie with a lightning bolt across his face for Aladdin Sane?
Brian Duffy
The bolt was reportedly copied from the logo on a rice cooker in the studio, and it was then the most expensive cover ever made.
Q 28The Ziggy Stardust cover was shot on Heddon Street in London outside the premises of a firm called what?
K. West
The furrier moved out in 1991 and the sign came down; a plaque now marks the spot for pilgrimaging fans.
Q 29On the cover of Purple Rain, Prince sits astride what?
A Honda motorcycle
It was photographed on the Warner Bros. studio backlot in California.
Q 30The white suit Michael Jackson wears on the Thriller cover belonged to whom?
Photographer Dick Zimmerman
The gatefold shows a tiger cub at his leg, which Jackson kept away from his face for fear of scratches.