Go into your record collection and check your vinyl copy of Some Girls – you just might be holding a rare version with discontinued cover art.
On this day (July 5) in 1978, the manufacturing of Some Girls by The Rolling Stones was halted at EMI’s pressing plant after celebrities featured in mock advertisements on the album sleeve – including Lucille Ball, Farrah Fawcett, Liza Minnelli (representing her mother Judy Garland), Raquel Welch, and the estate of Marilyn Monroe – threatened legal action.
When the band released Some Girls on June 9, 1978, no one expected the cover to cause more controversy than the music. The sleeve, designed by Peter Corriston and illustrated by Hubert Kretzschmar, featured an elaborate die-cut design inserting the faces of the Rolling Stones alongside famous female celebrities into a vintage advertisement. Visually striking? Yes. But there was one small problem – nobody had asked permission. The stars were furious, many feeling the album made a mockery of their appearance.
The album was quickly reissued with a redesigned cover removing all the celebrities (whether they had complained or not), replacing them with punk-style garish colors and the phrase “Pardon our appearance, cover under reconstruction.” (*Mick Jagger later ran into Liza Minnelli at Studio 54 and personally apologized.) Notably, the only celebrity whose face was not removed was former Beatle George Harrison. Valmor Products also took legal action and received an undisclosed cash award for unauthorized use of their ad design.
Despite the drama, Some Girls became one of the Stones’ greatest triumphs. It was not merely a record but a cultural artifact: a vivid document of its time that redefined rock music with its infusion of disco and punk sounds. It hit number one on the US Billboard 200 and earned The Stones their only Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. Turns out the band was prophetic – *The title track does include the line “Some Girls take my money…”.
A little controversy never hurt anyone. Except maybe their legal bills.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source parade.com ’
