Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Scorpions - Virgin Killer (original cover) (1976)


This cover stands head and shoulders above any I've ever seen. It's in such bad taste as to render the cover difficult to even look at. It plays off of societal taboos in a way that's crass and exploitative in the worst possible sense. It features a naked preteen posing suggestively with a broken glass starburst over her genitals. My friends, this is Virgin Killer.

How does an album cover like this come about? Apparently, the band's record label asked for a shocking cover, and they sure as hell got one. They got one so bad that even the band themselves started to have second thoughts about what they had done. The fact that the cover got pulled and replaced with a generic group photo of the band suggests that the record label figured that out perhaps just a tad too late.

So congratulations to you, Scorpions. You somehow managed to make the worst album cover ever. I hope you're proud of yourselves.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree its got to be the worst and it makes you wonder why a parent would want their daughter )who looks 11 or 12)posing naked to begin with but on a cover like that,yikes

Anonymous said...

Get over yourselves. You are making 21st century judgements on events that happened 30 years ago - when it was a different time and a different place.

They at least had the decency to come out with an alternative album cover - which also happens to be the one in mass circulation.

This is all 'water under the bridge'.

Di Young said...

Relieved knowing the truth....