COVER UP

The most unusual album cover ever? L.A.-based rock archivist Michael Ochs picks a 1966 collection called “Symposium in Blues” that was put out by RCA.

“What makes it unusual is it was sponsored by Elavil, a drug that was used to treat depression,” he says. “It included a whole Physicians’ Desk Reference statement and on the back says, ‘You got the blues--take Elavil.’ It’s the only album I saw that publicly pushed drugs.”

It’s one of the featured selections in “1,000 Record Covers,” a new book compiled by Ochs for German publisher Taschen. Among other highlights: the original cover from the Chantels’ 1958 debut (a photo of the African American singers that was soon replaced with a picture of a white couple standing at a jukebox) and the original version of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s 1977 “Street Survivors,” with the band surrounded by flames--which were airbrushed out when three group members died in a plane crash shortly after the album’s release.