Famous Album Covers Brought Onto Their Original New York City Locations Where They Were Shot

The Ramones at Inscope Arch. (cover to a 45-single)

(photo by David Gahr)

Bob Egan’s hobby is really interesting. He brings classic albums to the present. He finds the actual location, where each cover was shot and alternates the angle and distance, so as the photo can match the current version of the venue.

At his website, PopSpots, Egan chronicles the detective work he does to find these places, providing multiple photos and maps that both show his process and help readers place the image within the city. While most of the covers (and other famous rock ‘n’ roll pictures) are from New York City, where Egan is a real estate agent, he’s also tracked Bob Dylan and The Who to London. See a few of our favorite PopShots photos below, and visit the site for a whole lot more.

More info: PopSpots (h/t: vintag.es)

Dexter Gordon – Doin’ Allright – 59th/Fifth.

(cover photo by Francis Wolfe; cover design by Reid Miles)

Tom Rush on a rock with carved-out steps near Cop Cot – “Take a Little Walk With Me” – (59th and Sixth Entrance)

(cover photo and design by William S. Harvey)

Chad Mitchell (folksinger, formerly of the Chad Mitchell Trio) on Gapstow Bridge – “Chad Mitchell Himself”

(album cover photo by Sherman Weisburd)

James Last next to the Pond. (This is the back cover of “Goodtimes,” one of his 65 albums, which have sold millions. He is an orchestra leader based in Germany.)

(photo by Joel Brodsky)

Bob Dylan – cover for the album MODERN TIMES (2006). The shot is from the street next to the large silver globe on the north side of Columbus Circle where Central Park West hits the roundabout at 59th Street. The cover uses a Ted Kroner photo from 1947 entitled, “Taxi, New York, Night.”

(photo by Ted Kroner)

John Lennon and Yoko Ono walking out of the Dakota (72nd and Central Park West) from the cover of the single, “Watching the Wheels.”

(photo by Paul Goresh)

Little Steven (aka Miami Steve Van Zandt) and the Disciples of Soul (1982) – The album cover.

Randy Ingram, jazz pianist & composer and his album, The Wandering (2017, Sunnyside Records), in front of the Arcade near Bethesda Fountain in Central Park.

The Rascals on top of the Bethesda Arcade steps.

Donald Byrd’s album Byrd in Flight – Bethesda Fountain Steps

(photo by Francis Wolff)

Harry Belafonte at Bethesda Terrace.

The Beau Brummels in the Arcade next to Bethesda Terrace

Herman Hermits next to the Naumberg Bandshell.

(cover by Rama)

Pretzel Logic by Steely Dan (72nd Street and Fifth Avenue).

(cover photo by Raeanne Rubinstein)

The Horace Silver Quintet – album cover of the album: 6 Pieces of Silver – 77th and Central Park West.

(cover photo by Francis Wolff)

New Dimensions in Banjo & Bluegrass (1963) by Eric Weissberg (“Deliverance”), Marshall Brickman (co-wrote Sleeper, Annie Hall, Manhattan, and Manhattan Murder Mystery with Woody Allen), and Various Musicians. That’s Judy Collins’ son in the picture with them, as she wrote in one of her books.)

(photo by George Pickow /3 Lions)

The Boomtown Rats “Ratrospective” (1983 EP) on the MET Steps.

(design by John Berg / Peter A. Alfieri)

Simon and Garfunkel on the east side of The Reservoir, from the back of “Greatest Hits”

(photo by Bill Silano)

SANDANISTA! – THE CLASH (1980) – ALBUM COVER LOCATION – Camley Street (under the railroad tracks from St. Pancras Station), London. Photo by Pennie Smith.

(cover photo by Pennie Smith)

Here’s the cover of ‘West Side Story’, the 1957 Leonard Bernstein musical, superimposed on the street as it looks tonight, tonight. It’s taken in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York.

The location for the cover of The Who’s soundtack to the 1979 documentary ‘The Kids Are Alright’ is 116th Street and Morningside Drive, Morningside Heights, New York City. The site is part of the Carl Schurz Monument.

Van Morrison fans can go for some backyard chicken at the site where the cover of ‘Too Long In Exile’ was shot outside 246 Pearl Street between Fulton Street and John Street.

The Velvet Underground’s ‘Live At Max’s Kansas City’ (1972) was shot at 213 Park Avenue South, east side between 17th and 18th Street, New York.

Bob Dylan was photographed on the front steps of 4 Gramercy Park West, New York City for the cover of ‘Highway 61 Revisted’ (1965).

The full story behind our sleuth’s discovery of the exact spot where the cover for Neil Young’s ‘After The Gold Rush’ was taken is well worth reading. If you’re in a rush: it’s the corner of Sullivan Street and West 3rd Street, Greenwich Village, New York.

This cover for ‘The New York Dolls’ (1973) by The New York Dolls was taken outside the Gem Spa at the southwest corner of St. Mark’s Place and 2nd Avenue.

You might have been to the location of the cover of Ramones’ ‘Rocket To Russia’ (1977) without knowing it. It was taken outside the back door of popular nocturnal haunt CBGB’S at the end of Extra Place, a small alley running north from East 1st Street between Bowery and Second Avenue.

KISS shot the cover to their 1975 album ‘Dressed To Kill’ on the southwest corner of 23rd Street and Eighth Avenue, looking north, New York.

This is another account worth reading in full. Egan found the exact site (at the Central Park entrance called Miners’ Gate) where the legendary pretzel vendor worked and starred on the front cover of Steely Dan’s ‘Pretzel Logic’.