Truly great album covers are few and far between these days. All of the old hard rock/metal bands had a really good handle on what would sell.
KISS (and Gene Simmons in particular) were obviously the kings of that kind of marketing. I think we're about the same age -- don't you remember how exciting it was to open your copy of Alive II to find the booklet, the "tattoos" and that kick-ass shot of them at the Long Beach(?) arena with enough pyrotechnics going off to level a small city? You couldn't beat that with a stick. Nothing compared. And I remember the little carboard rubberband "gun" they included with the Love Gun album. And of course there was always that invitation to join the KISS Army. And they used Gibson guitars and Pearl drums because they wanted the best. It tickles the hell out of me just to think about it. I wanted a sunburst Les Paul so bad I couldn't stand it -- no one was cooler than Ace Frehley!
Maiden had great album covers, no doubt. The first three or four Blue Oyster Cult albums captured my imagination because they were so off the wall -- where's the band? Who the hell are these guys? What's all this M.C. Escher-on-acid black and white weirdness??? Zeppelin's In Through The Out Door was cool just because of the brown paper bag wrapper. And Traffic's Low Spark of High Heeled Boys album stands out in my mind, too.
Good stuff!
