Album Cover Parodies and Tributes to Dark Side of the Moon

Left: 20 album covers referencing the Dark Side of the Moon. Right: 1973 Pink Floyd - "Dark Side of the Moon" album cover.

What is this album?

The "Dark Side of the Moon" is the 8th studio album by Pink Floyd, released in 1973. This album is easily on the shortlist of many given the task of naming important music in their lives. The album has influenced generations of subsequent musicians, some of which are discussed in the post and specifically chose album covers parodying or paying tribute to the original cover.

Here we go again with "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" shtick again, but did you know that in 2013, the album was selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress. In a previous parody album post, we mentioned that Saturday Night Fever was also included in the registry, which couldn't be more different than Dark Side of the Moon.

What's on the cover?

The cover of "Dark Side of the Moon" depicts a dispersive prism breaking up white light into its constituent colors, the colors of the rainbow. The iconic cover art shows light entering one facet of the prism and separating into colors only after leaving the second facet, which is not correct. Light starts to disperse upon entering the first facet. Also, the dispersed light exiting the prism is missing the color indigo.

This album cover was designed by Storm Thorgeson (1944 – 2013), who designed many classic album covers including previous Pink Floyd albums.

How did we choose the albums to feature here?

We decided that the criteria for inclusion here should be that the album is mostly black and clearly shows light, whole and/or separated. Also, a good play on words was a plus. For example, consider the phrase: "ABC side of the XYZ". In the selected albums here, ABC = Dark, Dub, Darker, Dork side. And XYZ = Moonshine, Moon pie, Spoon, Goon, Mandolin, Tune. Love us a good pun.

There are many more parodies of the album cover and tributes to the album in general then we show here. In the age of mashups, there are many "invented" covers. We had to sort through a lot of creative covers that didn't represent real music. For lists, see this KnowYourMeme.com list and this AmIRight.com list.


Why did these artists choose to use this cover?

It's hard to say for sure, but it seems the albums fall into two categories. Half of the albums shown here just reference the cover and that's it. The other half reference the cover as well as feature the album's songs from start to finish – a more thorough referencing. Those that recreate the album from start to finish are:

- 2000 The Squirrels – "The Not-So-Bright Side of the Moon"
- 2001 Out of Phase – "Dark Side of the Moon – Celebrating Pink Floyd's Most Influential Album"
- 2002 Pink Fraud – "Darker Than the Moon"
- 2003 Easy Star All-Stars – "Dub Side of the Moon"
- 2003 The Vitamin String Quartet – "The String Quartet Tribute to Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon"
- 2005 Vocomotion – "Dark Side of the Moon a Cappella"
- 2006 Various – "Return to the Dark Side of the Moon: A Tribute to Pink Floyd"
- 2009 Poor Man's Whiskey – "Dark Side of the Moonshine"
- 2013 Think Floyd – "The Dark Side of the Moon - 40th Anniversary Edition"
- 2017 Mandol'in Progress – "The Dark Side of the Mandolin"

We listened to as many of these albums as possible and have to say the Poor Man's Whiskey, Mando'lin Progress, Vocomotions, and Easy Star All-Star's albums are standouts because they reinterpret the music in a very different musical paradigm than the original and still work very well.

Also of interest are these song-by-song covers of the original album, which we didn't include in our visual collage (they failed the criteria given above):

- 2009 The Flaming Lips, Stardeath and White Dwarfs – "The Dark Side of the Moon"
- 2010 Mary Fahl – "From the Dark Side of the Moon"

Also included in our collage are the 20th and 30th anniversary releases of the album by Pink Floyd, both using cover imagery evoking the original.

Finally, instead of the prism, some of the parody/tribute covers feature other objects such as a spoon, martini glass, moon pie, whiskey jug, pint of beer, mandolin, and glasses. In some cases, the choice of the object is clearly connected to the title or theme and others, it's a guess.

Album Cover Parodies and Spoofs of Saturday Night Fever

Left: 16 parodies of the Saturday Night Fever album cover. Right: The Saturday Night Fever album cover. 

The 1977 film Saturday Night Fever was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2010 by the Library of Congress. If the Library of Congress thinks it's important, well then so does Travelmarx. The film revolves around Tony Manero (John Travolta), a dancing and drinking working-class New Yorker who is just trying to find himself.

If you were born before this film was released, you probably remember it and it occupies part of your psyche – for better or for worse. The film burned into our psyche its catchy soundtrack by the Bee Gees and other artists, as well as that classic image of Travolta in a white disco suit, striking a pose: left hip jutted out and right arm pointing upward.

If you were born after the movie's release, chances are you became aware of the film through later parodies or remakes of the music.

That brings us to the album cover parodies of the original soundtrack. The Discogs list Saturday Night Fever - Parody Tribute Imitation Inspiration has many more parodies than what we show here. We curated the list to album covers that clearly show that classic, multi-colored dance floor, whic in our mind makes the image.

We listened to as many of these parodies as we could. It was surprising even to us how cringe-worthy some of them are. Though, the 2 Jews Live Present album is kind of cute. They are a Jewish hip-hop parody due from Miami, Florida. The Saturday Night Fever album cover spoofs come from artists ranging from America, France, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Israel, Mexico, and the UK. The album parodies go from 1977 to 2020, just to drive home the point that the Library of Congress was right.

Of mention but not show here (because the cover doesn't resemble the original) is the Hector Zazou, Barbara Eramo, Stefano Saletti – Oriental Night Fever, which is a interesting take on the some of the Saturday Night Fever songs as well as other disco songs.

Of mention, and definitely next go at the collage: Saturday Night Hay Fever.


1977 Sesame Street Fever
1978 Cepillín - Cepillin Night Fever - Mexico
1978 Ricki Gal - Chassidisco Fever - Israel
1979 Arthur Fiedler & the Boston Pops - Saturday Night Fiedler
1979 Israeli Disco Fever
1979 Les Pantheres Roses Guy De Lo and His Orchestra - The Pank Panther Discostar - France
1981 439 Golden Greats - Never Mind The Originals Here's The HeeBeeGeeBees
1995 Thumper - No One Left the Disco Alive
1998 Jane's Detd – Saturday - Belgium
2004 Saverio & Lele - Nando Discoteca - Italy
2004 Sinterklaas Fever m.m.v. Hermes House Band & Kinderkoor Prettig - Sinterklaas Fever – Netherlands. Sinterklaas is Sint-Nicolaas in Dutch, a figure based on Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children.

2008 Les Bidochons - Saturday Night Bidochons - France
2009 2 Live Jews Present - Disco Jews
2009 Various - Disco Re-Adventures
2013 The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican - Sat'day Neet Fever - UK
2007 Polkadot Cadaver - Purgatory Dance Party – recorded version of 2007 album.

The Beatles - Abbey Road Cover Spoofs (part 2)

Left:  A mosaic of nine album cover parodies of Abbey Road. Right: The Beatles 1969 Abbey Road cover.

The Beatles' Abbey Road (1969) album is one of the most recognizable album covers of all time. With recognition comes imitation, parody, and homage. In a previous post, The Beatles – Abbey Road Album Cover Spoof we showed 9 parodies of the fab four walking across that now famous intersection in north west London. In this post, we show another 9 parodies of Abbey Road, including:


Row1:
2013 – Beatallica – Abbey Load – hard rock, parody
2013 – Franciscan Road (The Community of St. Saviour's Monastery, Jerusalem) - chant
1999 – Kapanga – Un Asado En Abbey Road – rock, reggae, Latin

Row 2:
2005 – Various – Beatles Regrooved – electronic
2002 – Dave Maclean & Montana Country – Country Beatles – country, country rock, folk
2014 – 1966 Quartet – Abbey Road Sonata – classical, neo-romantic

Row 3:
1997 – Four Bitchin' Babes – Gabby Road – acoustic, folk
2001 – Various – Tribute to the Beatles Reggae Style – reggae
2005 – Língua de Trapo – Vinte E Um Anos Na Estrada – world, folk