The Beatles have had more parodies on their album covers than any other band. Abbey Road reportedly has over 200, Sgt. Pepper has over 80 and there are parodies on several more of their albums. This is Frank Zappa's third album, We're Only In It For The Money, and is the first parody of Sgt. Pepper's. It was designed by famed photographer and film director, Jerry Schatzberg. Cal Schenkel built the plaster figures, helped set up the staging for the photo and put together the collage of people in the background. The first cover that was designed had more people in it and the eyes were not blacked out. Some people objected to being on the cover so Frank had to settle on this version. The album was included in Q magazine's list of the "Best Psychedelic Albums of All Time." In 2003, the album was ranked number 296 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2005, it was one of 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.
Frank Zappa was one of the first artists to realize the significance of album cover design in the sale of music. He recorded a hundred albums in his lifetime and many of them have memorable covers. There were several respected artists and photographers that created his album covers. Cal Schenkel did the illustration on "Cruising With Ruben & The Jets", "Playground Psychotics" and "Ahead Of Their Time" he is responsible for artwork, graphics, and the design of over a dozen of Zappa's albums and for Captain Beefhearts "Trout Replica" album cover. Dave McMacken is the artist that drew the "Over-Nite Sensation" cover and "200 Motels" he also drew covers for the Beach Boys, Flo and Eddie, Kansas and AC/DC. Matt Groening, the creator of "The Simpsons" and "Futurama", designed the "Frank Zappa plays Frank Zappa" cover. Tanino Liberatore designed covers for RCA records and illustrated several Heavy Metal comics, he painted the "The Man From Utopia" cover. Alice Ochs was the photographer of the "Absolutely Free" front cover, she is the wife of the late Phil Ochs. Gary Panter was commissioned by Warner Brothers to create album covers for "Studio Tan", "Sleep Dirt" and "Orchestral Favorites" he also designed the cover for The Red Hot Chili Peppers first album. Neon Park was published in Playboy and National Lampoon, he made illustrations for David Bowie, Dr. John and did Zappa's "Weasels Ripped My Flesh".
