Four Detroit-area Shriners, claiming that the picture was published in Newsweek a decade earlier, sued the band as well as the magazine after recognizing themselves on the front of the record. Hardcore punk innovators Dead Kennedys found this out the hard way with their 1985 album Frankenchrist, which has a photograph on the cover showing a parade by Shriners International, a Masonic organization noted for their red fezzes and childrenвЂ™s hospitals. The general guideline of first obtaining permission perhaps applies all the more when the cover art shows people who arenвЂ™t expecting to be in the public eye. Jagger is said to have apologized to Liza Minnelli, GarlandвЂ™s daughter, at Studio 54. There were multiple legal concepts in play-the right of celebrities to control their image, the wig companyвЂ™s copyright over its advertisements-but on a human level, the lesson seems to be that before putting someoneвЂ™s face on an album cover, musicians may want to check if thatвЂ™s cool with the subject. Early pressings of Some Girls became collectorsвЂ™ items, and the art has gone through multiple iterations since at one point, brightly colored blocks replaced the womenвЂ™s faces and a вЂњpardon our appearance-cover under re-constructionвЂќ warning was added.

The wig company chased down its own legal settlement. Lucille Ball was the first of the women to threaten a lawsuit, followed by Raquel Welch and the estates of both Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe. PepperвЂ™s, though, the Stones hadnвЂ™t sought out permission. Designed by Peter Corriston, who did the art for Led ZeppelinвЂ™s Physical Graffiti and went on to handle the covers of the next three Stones albums, the original die-cut art for Some Girls depicted the faces of the Rolling Stones and various female celebrities in the style of a 1950s wig advertisement. The sad-faced man in a flying helmet on the cover of a different 1996 album, Matchbox 20вЂ™s Yourself or Someone Like You, reportedly sued in 2005, citing emotional distress.ДЄn early high-profile instance of a legal challenge by cover stars occurred with the Rolling StonesвЂ™ 1978 album Some Girls. In another weirdly similar case, the 12-year-old star of the cover art for the 1996 self-titled album by Placebo, a UK band once known as the вЂњglam-rock Nirvana,вЂќ threatened a lawsuit in 2012, claiming that the group ruined his life. But Nevermind isnвЂ™t even the only 1991 Seattle grunge album to face a legal challenge over its cover art: Sub Pop, also NirvanaвЂ™s former label, had to swap out the image for TadвЂ™s 8-Way Santa after a lawsuit by the shirtless couple in the photo, which the band found in a thrift shop, hardly knowing the woman had become a born-again Christian. EldenвЂ™s reckoning with his lifelong Nirvana connection seems to have been especially complicated, considering that he has recreated the image multiple times and had the album title tattooed on his chest. Being immortalized on someone elseвЂ™s record is a concept with profound implications about identity and ownership.

Made in the am album cover art