Over the years Mick Jagger, John Lennon and Paul McCartney have each graced the cover 17 times, either by themselves or with their band mates or spouses; Bob Dylan has appeared 13 times and Bruce Springsteen 11.
Our newspaper-style first issue, featuring John Lennon on the cover, was read by several thousand people; the issue you’re holding will be read by nearly 8 million.
Although it’s hard to picture Nixon as being thrilled (after all, this was during Watergate), appearing on our cover has always been the sign that you’ve arrived in the music industry.
The first photo of an athlete to grace the cover of Rolling Stone was Brian Hamill’s 1971 portrait of Muhammad Ali, which accompanied a story titled “The Second Coming of Muhammad Ali.”
The first photo of an athlete to grace the cover of Rolling Stone was Brian Hamill’ s 1971 portrait of Muhammad Ali, which accompanied a story titled “The Second Coming of Muhammad Ali.” As you can see in Hamill’s photograph, the still-undefeated boxer was unscratched — the only scar on his face came from running his bicycle into a wall as a kid — but readers would see the toll of the years in our subsequent 1975 and 1978 cover stories (Ali holds the record for the most covers by an athlete).
Over the years Mick Jagger, John Lennon and Paul McCartney have each graced the cover 17 times, either by themselves or with their band mates or spouses; Bob Dylan has appeared 13 times and Bruce Springsteen 11.
Annie Leibovitz nearly missed the deadline for her 1976 Linda Ronstadt cover because of an L.A. mudslide; she had to rent a four-wheel-drive vehicle to get the film in. When Bruce Springsteen was shot by Albert Watson for this 1987 cover, he’d topped our annual Readers Poll for a record-setting third straight year.
Richard Nixon would appear on our cover three times, more than any other politician, and proved to be perfect grist for Thompson: He later dedicated one of his books to Nixon, “who never let me down.”. George McGovern, in art as in life, ran second to Nixon with two covers.
We would move on to early cover stories on drug use in the army, Japanese rock, the 1969 People’s Park insurrection and legalized prostitution. Rolling Stone ‘s coverage of Woodstock was indicated by the simple cover line Woodstock: 450,000. Four months and a day later, after Altamont had been hyped elsewhere as Woodstock West, our story had another simple cover line: “Let it Bleed.” Rock & roll, and any concept of the Woodstock Nation, had suddenly become more complicated, and Rolling Stone would go on to publish cover stories on Charles Manson, the Kent State massacre, POWs, Jesus freaks, the National Rifle Association and the Cincinnati Who-concert tragedy.
Underground Comic Books began to emerge at around the same time as Rolling Stone. We heralded the phenomenon with a 1968 story featuring Rick Griffin’s Mickey Mouse-like Zap Comix character on the cover and R. Crumb’s Mr. Natural inside.
The courtly painting, however, did much to solidify Browne’s hard-won reputation as a noble, wistful romantic. The very next issue, Maurice Sendak ’s whimsical Wild Things jumped off of our Christmastime cover. Sendak, the author of some 70 children’s books, spoke at length in the issue of his inspiration and his recent collaboration with singer-songwriter Carole King on the children’s television program Really Rosie, which King later released as an album.
The song's success led to the band appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone in 1973, albeit in caricature.
The Cover of "Rolling Stone". " The Cover of 'Rolling Stone' " is a song written by Shel Silverstein and first recorded by American rock group Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show. Produced by Ron Haffkine and released in 1972, it was the band's third single and peaked at No. 6 on the U.S. pop chart for two weeks on March 17–24, 1973.
Buck Owens and the Buckaroos parodied the song as "On the Cover of the Music City News" on the 1974 album It's A Monster's Holiday and the 1976 album Best of Buck Owens, Volume 6 .
BBC Radio refused to play the song, as it contained the name of a commercial publication ( Rolling Stone) and could therefore be considered advertising.
Sammy Kershaw on his 2010 album Better Than I Used to Be, with his version featuring Jamey Johnson; Black Francis on the album Twistable, Turnable Man: A Musical Tribute to the Songs of Shel Silverstein in 2010, and Jackyl on their 2012 studio album Best in Show.
The first issue of "Rolling Stone" with just a picture on the front page, no articles, was published on April 6, 1968, with a picture from the Monterey Pop Festival on the cover. Source: Author guitargoddess.
He was also used on the November 28, 2002 cover as the naked baby in a spoof of Nirvana's "Nevermind" album. Mike Myers has been on two covers: June 10, 1999 in full Austin Powers get-up, and March 19, 1992 with Dana Carvey as their characters from "Wayne's World".
The Cobain tribute issue did not come out until June 2, 1994. It was just a picture of Kurt and the only writing on the cover, other than the "Rolling Stone" banner was the simple "Kurt Cobain, 1967-1994". Jar Jar Binks, from "Star Wars", was on the June 24, 1999 cover.
Jar Jar Binks, from "Star Wars", was on the June 24, 1999 cover. He was pictured reading an old copy of "Rolling Stone" that had the original "Star Wars" gang on the cover (an actual cover photo from 1977). Bart Simpson was on the June 28, 1990 cover.
Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Nirvana, died on April 5, 1994, as a result of suicide (though that ruling is still controversial). Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers was on the "Rolling Stone" cover that week, on an issue that was released on April 7, 1994.