History CoversAlwaysLie / Music

* The cover for Music/{{KISS}} ''Music/CreaturesOfTheNight'' originally featured Ace Frehley, even though he doesn't perform on the album.
** A later re-issue featured an updated band photo on the cover with Bruce Kulick, who doesn't perform on the album either

* The [[http://www.perrific.com/cds/covers/beck.jpg badass mechanical thing with the horned animal skull with glowing eyes and a fiery red background]] on the cover of Music/{{Beck}}'s ''Mellow Gold'' looks awesome, but is a bit misleading considering most of the music is more folksy than the cover would imply. Some moments of the album are trippy (if not heavy) enough to fit the cover. listen to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lec_hUZ6dIM Sweet Sunshine]] and see if you can't imagine that thing clanking around to the beat.

* If you saw the cover for [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/66/Deep_Purple_Bananas.jpg the 2003 album Bananas]] by Music/DeepPurple without knowing who the band were, you could be forgiven for thinking it was some sort of reggae/world music album instead of the blues based hard rock the band are known for performing

* When "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)" was first released as a single on Sugar Hill Records, the cover credited to Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel: In reality, Melle Mel was the only one of the two credited artists who appeared on the song, as Grandmaster Flash had already left the label a year earlier. That said, there is a version of the song that features both Melle Mel and Grandmaster Flash - both rappers made guest appearances on Music/DuranDuran's CoverVersion.

* A Canadian band who called themselves the "Rainbow Butt Monkeys" released their sole album "Letters from Chutney" with an extremely odd photo of three 50s looking women on lawn mowers. A total lack of monkeys is noticeable, as well as the fact that you would have no idea that this is a straight up grunge record until you started it up. [[http://members.tripod.com/uglee_butterfly/f11_rbm.jpg though seeing the band in the inlay may give you a hint]]

* Music/NickDrake's ''[[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3c/NickDrakePinkMoon.jpg Music/PinkMoon]]'' is an extremely sparse, short folk album, but the cover makes it look more like an avant-garde jazz album.
* A Canadian band who called themselves the "Rainbow Butt Monkeys" released their sole album "Letters from Chutney" with an extremely odd photo of three 50s looking women on lawn mowers. A total lack of moneys is noticeable, as well as the fact that you would have no idea that this is a straight up grunge record until you started it up. [[http://members.tripod.com/uglee_butterfly/f11_rbm.jpg though seeing the band in the inlay may give you a hint]]
* ''Music/OutToLunch'' by Music/EricDolphy: The bizarre clock on the album cover doesn't provide any helpful answer when the person will be back from lunch? It's not even clear whether it's actually in the middle of the afternoon?!
* ''Music/JazzFromHell'' by Music/FrankZappa: The music is not {{Jazz}} at all, but computer music with one live guitar solo, recorded during a concert.

* ''[[Music/RobertJohnsonTheCompleteRecordings The Complete Recordings]]'' by Music/RobertJohnson. It is the most complete collection of Johnson's work around, that's true, though it's not entirely complete. There is one alternate take of "Traveling Riverside Blues" missing.
* ''Music/MetalMachineMusic'' by Music/LouReed shows Reed posing in a leather jacket, sunglasses on the nose, looking badass. So you would expect this album to be a good rock record, right? Wrong, it's nothing but droning and screeching guitar feedback that is SensoryAbuse to the ears!
* Music/JohnLennon and Music/YokoOno's first three solo recordings, ''Music/UnfinishedMusicNo1TwoVirgins'', ''Music/UnfinishedMusicNo2LifeWithTheLions'' and ''Music/WeddingAlbum'' attracted countless Beatle and Lennon fans, expecting great rock music. What they got was mostly [[LeaveTheCameraRunning random background noises]], Yoko Ono's OneWomanWail and, on "Wedding Album", John and Yoko saying each other's names for half an hour to a HeartBeatSoundtrack. ''Two Virgins'' is particularly misleading as it features John and Yoko posing in the nude, yet nothing on the album alludes to this. Most random buyers probably expected it to be a pornographic tape. ''Living With The Lions'' features Lennon alongside Yoko on the cover, but you hardly hear him on the album.
* ''Music/BrianJonesPresentsThePipesOfPanAtJajouka'' is an album that was merely produced by Music/BrianJones and doesn't feature him on vocals or instruments at all. Instead we hear the wonderful performances by the Master Musicians of Jajouka, a Moroccan folk group.
* Music/ElvisPresley: Arguably the most notorious, yet atrocious concert album in his career is ''Music/HavingFunWithElvisOnStage'', a 35 minute collection of nothing but Elvis cracking jokes with the audience, without any music or context of what is going on? Not only is the record painfully unfunny, a lot of it is technically not even a joke, just Elvis saying random things in interaction with his audience. Half of the time he is clearly just rambling, before deciding his jokes are falling flat or his story isn't going anywhere.
* Music/JohnZorn: Several tracks on ''Music/MusicForChildren'' are definitely too difficult, noisy or scary for children to appreciate them.

* Some editions of Music/DanielAmos' ''Music/HorrendousDisc'' had the wrong track listing. The initial pressing for the Canadian market just reused the same sleeve and track listing as the original US version--even though the Canadian version had one less song.

* Music/JohnLennon and Music/YokoOno's first three solo recordings, ''Music/UnfinishedMusicVolumeOneTwoVirgins'', ''Music/UnfinishedMusicVolumeTwoLivingWithTheLions'' and ''Music/WeddingAlbum'' attracted countless Beatle and Lennon fans, expecting great rock music. What they got was mostly [[LeaveTheCameraRunning random background noises]], Yoko Ono's OneWomanWail and, on "Wedding Album", John and Yoko saying each other's names for half an hour to a HeartBeatSoundtrack. ''Two Virgins'' is particularly misleading as it features John and Yoko posing in the nude, yet nothing on the album alludes to this. Most random buyers probably expected it to be a pornographic tape. ''Living With The Lions'' features Lennon alongside Yoko on the cover, but you hardly hear him on the album.

* Famously, the cover for ''Music/LedZeppelin IV'' (which doesn't even feature a title!) shows a significantly weathered image of an old man on a rural road, suggesting that the record was going to be nothing but hippie folk music. While there ''is'' some of that ("The Battle Of Evermore," for instance), the tracks that most people remember from this album are the heavy metal standards "Black Dog" and "Rock and Roll" - and "Stairway to Heaven," which actually ''starts out'' as a medieval ballad, but has morphed into a full-blown headbanger by the climax.

* The cover of ''Music/PetSounds'' by TheBeachBoys, an experimental BaroquePop ConceptAlbum that would heavily influence ''Music/SergeantPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' among other albums and styles, was packaged with a photo showing the band in matching black, button-down jackets (plus touring member Bruce Johnston) feeding goats at the San Diego Zoo. None of this imagery has anything to do with the mood of the album.
* ''Music/RobertJohnsonTheCompleteRecordings'' by Music/RobertJohnson. It is the most complete collection of Johnson's work around, that's true, though it's not entirely complete. There is one alternate take of "Traveling Riverside Blues" missing.

* The cover of ''Music/PetSounds'' by TheBeachBoys, an experimental BaroquePop ConceptAlbum that would heavily influence ''Music/SergeantPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' among other albums and styles, was packaged with a photo showing the band in matching black, button-down jackets (plus touring member Bruce Johnston) feeding goats at the San Diego Zoo.

* The cover of ''PetSounds'' by TheBeachBoys, an experimental BaroquePop ConceptAlbum that would heavily influence ''Music/SergeantPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand'' among other albums and styles, was packaged with a photo showing the band in matching black, button-down jackets (plus touring member Bruce Johnston) feeding goats at the San Diego Zoo.

* The image for TheBlackKeys album, ''El Camino'' is [[http://flavorwire.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/black-keys.jpg anything but.]] No vintage muscle car is visible, only a rusted, white van with faux wood paneling.
* The band RoxyMusic always used women on their album covers despite the fact there were no women in the band. They did this because they wanted to evoke exotica covers and magazine covers of the 50s. The fact that Roxy is also a woman's name led a lot of people to buy the albums thinking it was female sung exotica from Latin America, not male sung art rock from England.

** ''[[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Lg3n9siN-H0/UIeAMq7xMgI/AAAAAAAAYJo/259npj00sZM/s320/Beck-Sea-Change-Delantera.jpg Sea Change]]'' evokes Music/DavidBowie's ''Aladdin Sane'' and not the sombre, folky and largely acoustic album it actually is.

* Music/DavidBowie's early albums ''Space Oddity'' and ''Music/TheManWhoSoldTheWorld'' got the TrendCovers treatment after ''Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars'' hit it big -- they were reissued with pictures of him as Ziggy on the covers. But while ''Ziggy Stardust'' was GlamRock through and through, those albums were folk rock and HeavyMetal, respectively.

* The cover for Music/{{KISS}} "Creatures of the Night" originally featured Ace Frehley, even though he doesn't perform on the album.

* Music/NickDrake's ''[[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3c/NickDrakePinkMoon.jpg Pink Moon]]'' is an extremely sparse, short folk album, but the cover makes it look more like an avant-garde jazz album.
* A Canadian band who called themselves the "Rainbow Butt Monkeys" released their sole album "Letters from Chutney" with an extremely odd photo of three 50s looking women on lawn mowers. A total lack of moneys is noticeable, as well as the fact that you would have no idea that this is a straight up grunge record until you started it up. [[http://members.tripod.com/uglee_butterfly/f11_rbm.jpg though seeing the band in the inlay may give you a hint]]

* Music/NickDrake's ''[[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3c/NickDrakePinkMoon.jpg Pink Moon]]'' is an extremely sparse, short folk album, but the cover makes it look more like an avant-garde jazz album.

* Famously, the cover for ''Led Zeppelin IV'' (which doesn't even feature a title!) shows a significantly weathered image of an old man on a rural road, suggesting that the record was going to be nothing but hippie folk music. While there ''is'' some of that ("The Battle Of Evermore," for instance), the tracks that most people remember from this album are the heavy metal standards "Black Dog" and "Rock and Roll" - and "Stairway to Heaven," which actually ''starts out'' as a medieval ballad, but has morphed into a full-blown headbanger by the climax.

* The Kinks' album Face to Face features an iconic 60s cover that includes a white background, and some pretty psychedelic colors and art. The Kinks' frontman, Ray Davies, has stated that he was never happy with the cover, and that he thought a simple black cover much better suited the style of the album itself.

* Music/DavidBowie's early albums ''Space Oddity'' and ''The Man Who Sold the World'' got the TrendCovers treatment after ''The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars'' hit it big -- they were reissued with pictures of him as Ziggy on the covers. But while ''Ziggy Stardust'' was GlamRock through and through, those albums were folk rock and HeavyMetal, respectively.

* Music/DavidBowie's early albums ''Space Oddity'' and ''The Man Who Sold the World'' got the TrendCovers treatment after ''The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars'' hit it big -- they were reissued with pictures of him as Ziggy on the covers. But while ''Ziggy Stardust'' was GlamRock through and through, those albums were folk rock and Music/HeavyMetal, respectively.

* The image for the Black Keys album, ''El Camino'' is [[http://flavorwire.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/black-keys.jpg anything but.]] No vintage muscle car is visible, only a rusted, white van with faux wood paneling.

* The image for the Black Keys album, ''El Camino'' [[is http://flavorwire.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/black-keys.jpg anything but.]] No vintage muscle car is visible, only a rusted, white van with faux wood paneling.