BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS, AND GRACE JONES, MAKE BILLBOARD’S “TOP 100 BEST ALBUM COVERS OF ALL TIME” LIST!

BY KEVIN JACKSON Observer writer entertainment—

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On Monday Billboard magazine unveiled its Best Album Covers of All Time list.

Jackets by Bob Marley and The Wailers and Grace Jones made the cut.

Island Life, a best-of compilation by Jones, released by Island Records in 1985, ranked at #27, while Marley’s Rastaman Vibration, released by Island in 1976, ranked at #22.

Jamaican graphic artiste and photographer Neville Garrick designed the cover of Rastaman Vibration.

The Jamaica Observer caught up with Garrick, who lives in Los Angeles, and he was ecstatic about the recognition.

“I’m very excited, considering it was the first album cover that I got to do for Bob Marley, who went on to become a musical historical figure worldwide,” he said.

Garrick, who was art director at the Daily News daily newspaper in the early and mid-1970s, is best known for designing several Marley album covers, as well as backdrops for the Reggae Sunsplash festival throughout the 1980s. He has also worked with Burning Spear, Steel Pulse, and other major reggae stars.

He shared how he got involved in Rastaman Vibration.

“At the time I was living at 56 Old Hope Road after getting arrested for possession of marijuana. It was also my first time meeting Chris Blackwell of Island Records. He came to pick up the tracks and the first album cover design that I had submitted; this was an alternative to what was eventually used. For some reason Bob Marley didn’t like the original design I had submitted; he said it looked too much like the Black Heart Man album cover I had done for Bunny Wailer a couple months before,” Garrick recalled.

He continued: “Chris said he was leaving the island in two days and if I could have the new version finished in time. I told him yes. I was working on the new concept which involved burlap to show the roots connection. Later that day someone passing my room downstairs and said, ‘A di album cover dat?’ That voice was Bob Marley. I was so overjoyed that I worked on it for the next 13 hours or so and had the finished cover for Chris Blackwell and Island Records. On seeing it Chris decided to send me to Los Angeles, California, to complete the cover art with the printers. The rest is history.”

The No.1 rated album cover is 1967’s “The Velvet Underground & Nico” designed by Andy Warhol,

No.2 The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” from 1969,

No.4 The Notorious B.I.G “Ready To Die” 1994

No.7 Cydni Lauper’s “She’s So Unusual” 1983

No. 8 Public Enemy’s “Fear Of A Black Planet” 1990

No. 9 Elvis Presley’s “Elvis Presley” 1956