So convincing was Bowie as his androgynous extraterrestrial alter-ego Ziggy Stardust that the F.B.I. caught him in a sticky net and began to probe, to poke, to tickle him - to see what he was made of. It turned out that he was simply David Robert Jones of Brixton and so released back into the wild. So this super iconic album artwork, photographed in London’s Heddon street – which has now become something of a Bowie shrine - might have helped him enhance the illusion of his Starman persona but its success also came back to bite him in the bum – a standard test, they claimed. You win some, you lose some. (Not much of this is true.)

On one level this cover works simply because it’s got a big naughty word on it and is so lurid it would stand out amongst a mountain of liquorice allsorts. More than that however, the mix of random typography, intended to be reminiscent of a ransom note, along with the swearing and blinding palette provided a reflection of the spontaneity and rebelliousness of both the band and the movement itself.

How many albums can you peel? With The Velvet Underground disguising their dark, surreal themes and lyrics beneath a swathe of lush, exotic instrumentation, Andy Warhol, 60s art icon and the band’s manager, producer and figurehead, did a little disguising himself. A typically bold pop-art statement, the banana skin peeled back to reveal a suggestive pink flesh.