Bob Dylan has released 40 studio albums throughout the course of his career, which means he’s come up with 40 unique album covers. But not all covers are created equal, and Rolling Stone magazine decided to take a deep dive into those covers, singling out the best and the worst of them.
Writing about the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer’s cover art choices, the mag notes, “Sometimes Dylan made iconic covers, both calculated and spontaneous; sometimes he treated them with the same regard as a grocery list.”
Topping the mag’s list as the best Dylan album cover is 1963’s The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, which features the rocker walking down a New York City street with his girlfriend Suze Rotolo.
The mag notes photographer Don Hunstein nabbed an image “full of love and art and the endless possibilities of youth.”
Coming in at #2 is Dylan’s 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home, followed by 1965’s Highway 61 Revisited, 1976’s Desire and 1966’s Blonde on Blonde.
As for the worst of Dylan’s 40 album covers, that distinction went to 1986’s Knocked Out Loaded, which features an image taken from the January 1939 cover of Spicy-Adventure Stories magazine. Rolling Stone describes the shot as “ungainly and amateurish.”
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
