Last Updated on 25 January 2026 by Massimo M.

Look sharp ! cover story

One of the most powerful albums to come out of the British new wave scene was Look sharp! Joe Jackson’s first album, an excellent debut performance from an artist who in the years to come will give us a series of albums, each more beautiful than the next.

For an innovative and at the same time refined album, an equally refined cover image was needed, capable of immediately capturing attention.
As sometimes happens with the best things, the shot chosen for the cover of Look sharp! it is the result of an unexpected event. As stated by Joe Jackson himself, the image was basically taken because the artist wanted a photo of the Denson brand shoes purchased the previous day.

Brian Griffin, to please Jackson, took a couple of shots with shoes as the subject, then continued for the whole day to take portraits of the artist in a more or less classic manner. One of these portraits was later used for the back cover.

Although the series of portrait shots were of good quality when the proofs of the images were viewed everyone agreed that they wanted to use the “random” shot taken of the footwear as the cover image.

At this point someone will wonder what happened to these shoes? The marketing manager borrowed these shoes to use for advertising purposes but never returned them to the rightful owner. Years later Rolling Stone located these shoes. They were inside the office of Paulette Rapp, executive assistant of Jerry Moss.

Buy Look sharp! on Amazon

🙂Purchasing from these links the price does not change for you, I receive a small payment which helps me keep MyBestReview alive.🙏As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases