How 'Sticky Fingers' Zipper Cover Set Both a Design and Chart Record

Andy Warhol’s cover for Sticky Fingers was the first album sleeve to include a working zipper. When you unzipped it, you revealed a pair of cotton briefs printed on the inner sleeve — a tactile, semi-pornographic gimmick that no record label had dared to try before. The physical interactivity made it stand out on shelves, but it also caused chaos: the metal zippers snagged, scratched vinyl, and damaged other records during shipping. Stores had to handle them with care, and some retailers refused to stock them.

Despite the logistics nightmare, the gamble paid off in a big way. Sticky Fingers became the first album with a fully functional, built-in mechanical element to reach No. 1 on both the U.S.