Spencer Elden on the cover of Nirvana's <i>Nevermind,</i> 1991
Photo: DGC

Most of us buy records for the music, but an album's cover imagery can also play a role that can't be overlooked. Think back to some of your favorite records: Don't the covers of those discs immediately jump to mind? A cover image can help a band's earnings: From posters and T-shirts to key chains and lunchboxes, that single image is an important promotional tool used to market an LP.

Some of the most vivid album covers in history featured young kids — where are they now? MTV News tracked down some of our favorites to see what they've been up to since finding their ways into our CD collections — and to find out how being on some of rock's most iconic album covers has affected their lives.

(Check out then-and-now snaps of the Nirvana baby, Korn's little girl and more.)

Spencer Elden
Famous For: His appearance on the cover of Nirvana's breakthrough 1991 LP, Nevermind

When Spencer Elden's parents agreed to let their friend, photographer Kirk Weddle, snap a whole roll of film of their infant son swimming underwater in a crystal-clear swimming pool, they couldn't have known that, eventually, more than 9 million people would own a picture of their naked son.

"Yeah, it's kind of creepy that that many people have seen me naked," Elden said. "I feel like I'm the world's biggest porn star."

While that might be a stretch, Elden has become something of a celebrity because of his appearance on Nevermind, and often sits for radio and camera interviews (he gets a fee for the latter) to discuss his life as the Nirvana baby. But otherwise, now-17-year-old Spencer is like most teens. He's about to enter his junior year at Eagle Rock High School in Eagle Rock, California, and works a typical high-school job at a local juice shop. He has aspirations of one day becoming an airline pilot; he surfs, snowboards and loves playing water polo.

"It's kind of cool, knowing that I've been on an album cover, but I feel pretty normal about it because growing up, I've always known I was the Nirvana baby," he said. "It never really struck me as like, 'Oh, sh-- — that's me on the cover.' It's always just been whatever for me. At the time, my parents didn't know who Nirvana was. No one really knew who they were. And then all of a sudden, it took off, and I just happened to be on the album cover."

Elden said he is a true Nirvana fan but has never met any of the bandmembers. He's had a platinum record for Nevermind hanging in his bedroom since his first birthday. But Spencer hasn't seen any royalties from the record's sales; his parents were paid just $200 for allowing him to be photographed.

"My dad went to art school over here in Pasadena, and while he was going there, he had a good friend named Kirk, who was, at one time, a Navy Seal and an underwater-demolition expert," Elden, who is often asked to sign copies of the album, explained. "And so, to go to art school, he gave up diving. One day, he and my mom were sitting at the dinner table during a party, and my mom actually came up with the idea. He was saying how he missed scuba diving, and she said, 'Why don't you just do underwater photography?' When he graduated, the first gig he got was the Nirvana album, and he needed a baby. So they just threw me in the pool, snapped a whole roll of film in like a second, and that's how it happened."

Of course, being the Nirvana baby has helped him with the ladies: "I have to use stupid pickup lines like, 'You want to see my p---s ... again.' " But being on the album's cover has led to some strange encounters as well. He was once invited to swim in a rather wealthy woman's pool for the mere fact that he was the Nirvana baby. Another time, he even met "Weird Al" Yankovic, who famously lampooned the cover on his 1992 disc, Off the Deep End.

"I ran into him when I was going to do a TV interview," Elden said. "He was in the hallway, and he actually signed the back of my platinum record."

Billie Jo Campbell
Famous For: Gracing the cover of the Violent Femmes' self-titled 1982 debut

Believe it or not, that little girl on the cover of the first Femmes record wasn't posing. In fact, she wasn't even aware that she was being photographed. Really, that 3-year-old girl, named Billie Jo Campbell, was perturbed at the moment that picture was snapped.

"I remember looking into that building, and they kept telling me there were animals in there, and I was pissed off," explained Campbell, who's now 27. "I didn't know why they were making me look in this building. I had no idea there were photographers there. I was ... pissed off that I couldn't see the animals and I was all cranky by the end of it."

Like Elden, Campbell, who is engaged and plans to wed next spring, was paid a paltry fee for being part of rock and roll history — $100. She was chosen for the album cover after being discovered by a photographer outside her mother's work.

"My mom is a designer, and I went with her to work one day," she said. "We were walking down the streets of L.A., and this guy came up and said, 'Your daughter is adorable,' and that he wanted me for the album cover. My mom is a free spirit, and thought it was great, and they set it up — I guess that house is somewhere in Laurel Canyon. It wasn't this crazy photo shoot, because the band was unknown at the time."

These days, the graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder lives in Los Angeles and works with her mother running Hangover Designs, their women's-casual-wear company. A framed copy of the vinyl album's cover in her apartment often strikes up conversation during dinner parties.

"People are always like, 'Wow, you're like a Violent Femmes junkie,' and I tell them the truth," said Campbell, who notes that she is a Femmes fan. "You always have people who go, 'Oh you're lying.' It's something I am very proud of. It's a neat thing. It's not like being on the cover of a Britney Spears album. I do get some respect from people when they find out. Sometimes people are totally shocked and they can't even believe it. You will find people my age who [say] that's their favorite album of all time. It's just a cool aspect of who I am, and I think it makes me more dynamic."

The album didn't really resonate with her until her teens, when she'd hear "Add It Up" and "Blister in the Sun" at high-school dances and bat mitzvahs. And when she was in school, and even in college, Campbell said she used to get a great deal of attention because of the picture.

"If it came on at a party, people would point out that I am on it, but it never dawned on me what a huge deal it was until I got to college," she said. "This was my bragging point. I'd be at parties, and if the girls in the dorm knew you were trying to meet cute boys, they'd tell them I am on the cover."

Campbell said whenever she's in a record store, she checks to make sure the album is in stock, and yes, she has been asked to sign several autographs. There was one time when she was actually recognized.

"When I was in junior high, a bunch of us went to a record store, and our whole day was shaped around going to see how many stores we could find my picture in," she recalled. "So we were looking at the CD, and some guy was just like walking by, and was like, 'Oh my God.' He actually recognized me, and was like, 'That pointy nose — I'd recognize it anywhere.' It gave me quite a complex, especially for a girl at that age: 'Oh my God — is my nose that pointy?' "

Justine Ferrara
Famous For: Being the little girl on the cover of Korn's 1994 self-titled debut

All Justine Ferrara can remember from the shoot that eventually led to her being on the cover of Korn's inaugural studio outing was how nice the man standing in front of her was. He stood there, innocently casting a long shadow across the sand beneath her swing — but later on, the image was digitally manipulated so that it appeared he was carrying some lethal tools.

"It confused me," she said, recalling the first time she held the record in her hands. "He was a super-nice guy; he was doing me a favor, by blocking my eyes from the sunlight."

Ferrara, who was 6 at the time of the shoot, is now a 20-year-old communications major at New York University. She was approached for the album cover by her uncle, Paul Pontius, who had signed the band to Immortal/Epic Records. "They were pretty insignificant at the time, and no one knew who they were, and they needed a little girl for the cover," she said. "My uncle was like, 'I know one.' "

Ferrara, who was paid $400 to be a part of nü-metal lore, never thought being on the album's cover was a big deal; she was in second grade at the time, and it took a while before the record became popular. Her parents, though, were somewhat miffed by the imagery inside the album sleeve, and feared their daughter might get in trouble for wearing her actual private-school jumper in the picture. Oh, and the idea that Korn fans would always recognize her wasn't something her folks were too kosher with.

"I think my parents were a little shocked," she said. "They didn't want a lot of our acquaintances to see it because they thought it might have made them look a little crazy. I never was really one to let people know. My close friends knew, and [a platinum Korn record] is in my room at home. It's weird that millions of people have my picture in their house. It's weird even seeing the CD in the store; it's something I'll never get used to."

But a Korn fan, she is not — she prefers bands like Bright Eyes, she said. She does, however, have aspirations of working in the music industry; she has interned for Island Records, and hopes to one day work as a publicist. "But I appreciate Korn and what they did for their genre," she said. "It's just never been my taste in music."

Carl Gellert
Famous For: Being the boy on the cover of the Goo Goo Dolls' 1995 LP, A Boy Named Goo

The picture of a 2-year-old Carl Gellert — with dirt smeared across the lower half of his face — that serves as the cover imagery for the Goo Goo Dolls' breakthrough release wasn't actually commissioned by the band's label, Warner Bros., for the disc. It was a photo his father, Vance, a professional photographer, had taken of him for a book he later published called "Carlvision."

"At the time the album came out, I was just going into seventh grade, so I was 12 or something like that," Gellert remembered. "I don't really know how it happened. I think somehow my dad knew the band's publicist, and the Goo Goo Dolls discovered the book, and they really liked the one picture so they went with it."

Carl's dad was paid $6,000 for use of the image that helped earn Gellert, now 24, the nickname "Goo" — one that's stuck with him throughout his entire adult life.

"I was actually going into a new school that year, and pretty much instantly earned the name 'Goo' before I even started school," he said. "At first, it was kind of lame, and I didn't like people calling me Goo. But by the end of that year, I had pretty much embraced it, and my friends still call me Goo."

Like Ferrara, Gellert's not what you could call a Goo Goo Dolls fan ("I didn't dislike the album, I just wasn't a fan at all"). But his residence hall director in college was maybe a little obsessed.

"He had the poster up in his room, and had me autograph things," Gellert said. "He'd pester me almost every day about it. When he found out they were coming to town to play, he'd ask if I could get him free tickets, or get him backstage and meet the band. But in my apartment, there's no Goo Goo Dolls paraphernalia. The album is hanging up in my parents' houses, and I had it hanging up for a while. But I can't stand having it up any more. I have seen that picture way too much."

Like Elden, Gellert — who lives in Minneapolis and will be entering grad school soon to work on his doctorate in art history with a focus on archeological research — was initially, well, "mortified" when he learned his naughty bits (which are barely visible in the picture) were plastered across posters, T-shirts and billboards. "I thought it was cool after I got over my initial embarrassment," he said.

He also looks for the record when he goes into music stores, and has been asked more than a handful of times to sign copies of the disc. And he's often introduced to people by his friends as the kid who was on the Goo Goo Dolls' album cover, which sometimes leads to confusion.

"Most people, when they see me again, mistake me for the Nirvana kid," he said. "I'm always like, 'Nope, that was someone else.' Other people think I'm in the band — I'm just the baby on the CD. I'm not even the same guy anymore. It does make me feel like I have some small niche of fame. But at the same time, it wasn't anything I did for myself, so I'm not terribly proud of it. It is pretty cool, and I like that people think it's so cool and want my autograph."

Lisa Farnsworth
Famous For: Appearing on the cover of the Lemonheads' 1987 debut, Hate Your Friends, with her brother David Peretz

Lisa Farnsworth wasn't photographed chomping down on a slice of pizza and holding a semi-automatic explicitly for the cover of Hate Your Friends, but rather, was related to one of the band's founders, bassist Jesse Peretz. (He now directs music videos and was awarded a Grammy for helming the Foo Fighters' "Learning to Fly.")

The photo of Farnsworth — who is 45 and lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with her husband and two children — with David, who is a teacher in Boston, was snapped by their mother in Vermont. Brother Jesse liked it so much that he later asked his mother if he could use it for the cover of his band's first record.

"It was taken 40 years ago, when I was 5 or 6," Farnsworth, a former therapist, said. "I think I was 26 when the album came out, and back then, they weren't really that well-known, so nobody really thought anything of it. I don't have a copy of the album hanging up in my house; I own the album on vinyl, but it's stuffed in a box in the basement."

And no, her kids don't think it's even remotely cool that their mom's on an iconic album cover. "They're so jaded," Farnsworth said. "My friends think it's funny, but most people who look at it think it's two boys, so they don't really believe it's me anyway. Really, I don't think it's even such a big deal. My brother and I think it's funny, because my mother would always say, 'No guns.' We never even had water pistols when we were young, and there's this picture of us walking up a road with semi-automatics. They must have belonged to the neighbors."

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• Then And Now: Nirvana Baby, Korn Girl And More

• Nirvana
• Korn
• Violent Femmes
• Goo Goo Dolls
• The Lemonheads

Alicia Keys is thinking about her next album. The five-time Grammy winner will start writing the LP in July, she said at Urban Aid 2 in New York on Tuesday. ... Guitarist Aaron Kamin returned to duty with the Calling Tuesday in Melbourne, Australia, after suffering a severe electric shock during sound check in Bangkok, Thailand, on April 4 that forced the group to cancel that evening's show. In a post on the band's Web site, singer Alex Band said Kamin was "pale as a ghost" after receiving the jolt and "had gotten the strings of the guitar melted in the palm of his hand and fingers." ...

"The Kingpin" of New York radio, Funkmaster Flex, is readying his new album, 60 Minutes of Funk, Volume 5: The Mixtape for release sometime this year. "I always go for the big dogs: DMX, Jay-Z, Ja Rule, Fat Joe. Those are the people I wanna have, and those are the people I'm going to continue to have," he said on Tuesday. ... Blink-182 fans will get an even closer look at the band on May 7 when the group releases the home video "Urethra Chronicles II: Harder Faster Faster Harder," the sequel to 1999's "Urethra Chronicles." The package will include interviews, tour highlights and videos for "The Rock Show," "First Date" and the original version of "Stay Together for the Kids," featuring footage of a wrecking ball slamming into a house which was removed by the group's label after the events of September 11. ...

Counting Crows' Adam Duritz appears on "Songs About You" from former Dogs Eye View singer Peter Stuart's first solo album, Propeller, which is available at his official Web site, www.peterstuart.com. ... Goo Goo Dolls have announced a handful of dates for their upcoming tour in support of their latest release, Gutterflower. The outing thus far kicks off in Long Beach, California, on Saturday and finishes up in Chicago on May 29. ...

"Top Dog/Underdog," a play by Suzan-Lori Parks which features Mos Def in a starring role, was awarded the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for drama. ... Rufus Wainwright has a cameo role in the April 30 episode of NBC's "Frasier." Those hoping to catch a glimpse of the romantic crooner will be disappointed, however — only Wainwright's voice takes the spotlight, as he plays a teenage boy named Jeremy who phones in to Dr. Crane's radio show. ...

Ill Niño frontman Cristian Machado is featured as a guest vocalist on "One," a track from Soulfly's next album, III, due June 25. ... The Violent Femmes are reissuing their 1983 self-titled debut, which featured time-tested classics such as "Blister in the Sun" and "Kiss Off," as a double-CD set, according to the Los Angeles Times. The second disc will feature 26 tracks, 23 of which have never been released. ...

04.09.02

Getting sent to the principal's office may not be such a bad thing after all if Eve or Ricky Martin rule the school. Along with more than 1000 civic leaders and celebrities, the First Lady of Ruff Ryders and the hip-swiveling pop star will serve as principals for a day as part of an education initiative in New York City taking place April 19. ...

Outkast, Nickelback, P.O.D., Godsmack, Alien Ant Farm, Sevendust, Default and Injected will take the stage for the third annual Rolling Rock Town Fair, taking place July 27 at the namesake beer's birthplace of Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Last year's concert featured Stone Temple Pilots, Staind and Incubus, among others. ...

Sheryl Crow, the Goo Goo Dolls, Jewel, Five for Fighting, Ryan Adams and John Mayer will perform at the second annual Fan Nation concert April 27 at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Irvine, California. Each of the acts will participate in autograph sessions at a special interactive tent. ... No Stranger to Shame, the second album from Kid Rock DJ Uncle Kracker, will hit shelves in mid-summer. Among the tracks slated for the follow-up to 2000's Double Wide is a version of Kracker's concert staple, Dobie Gray's 1973 hit "Drift Away," featuring Gray himself on backing vocals. ...

Sarah McLachlan and her drummer husband Ashwin Sood welcomed their first child Saturday, a baby girl named India. McLachlan and the baby are doing well. ... SoCal punks Lit are going back to school — Paloma Valley High School in Menifee, California, that is, to host a fund-raising concert on April 10, called the Punk Rock Prom. Proceeds from the advance sale of 1,500 tickets have helped the school — located in Riverside County, adjacent to Lit's home turf of Orange County — meet its financial goal of building a new athletic complex. ... Barenaked Ladies keyboardist Kevin Hearn will hit the road for a few weeks to promote his 2001 solo album, H-Wing. The tour begins May 5 in Montreal and ends May 18 in Ferndale, Michigan. ... Goldfinger will release their fourth full-length album, Open Your Eyes, on May 21. The band recently filmed a "Twilight Zone"-like video for the title track first single. ...

Trance wizard Paul Van Dyk has remixed "Be Angled," the latest single from fellow German electronic artists Jam & Spoon. ... Charleston, South Carolina's Jump, Little Children recently filmed a hometown show to be the centerpiece of a DVD titled "J,LC Return to the Farm," due this summer. Meanwhile, the band, whose 2001 album, Vertigo, is a favorite at college radio, will sing the national anthem at a Boston Red Sox game May 1. ... Ohio roots rockers O.A.R. will release the double-disc live album Any Time Now on May 7.

• Alicia Keys
• The Calling
• Funkmaster Flex
• blink-182
• Mos Def

Post-modern rock pioneers the Violent Femmes will up their visibility in a big way in the coming months with a concert special, a live album, a studio album, and a U.S. tour.

• Violent Femmes

Cake's is winding down its spring tour, but the Sacramento-based band is already considering who it would like to tour with later in the year.

• Ben Folds
• Cake
• Violent Femmes

In what has the makings of a seminar on the true meaning of "alternative" music, new wave futurists Devo will join the Violent Femmes and Ween for a one-off show in Los Angeles later this month.

The show, set for the Universal Amphitheater on January 21, marks a rare appearance by Devo, who resurfaced in 1997 to play Lollapalooza with Korn, Tool, Tricky, Snoop, Prodigy, and others. The band then went on to play the four-date Silicon Planet Experience last fall with Beck, and also turned up on the "Chef Aid" episode of "South Park." The Los Angeles date is, so far, the only show Devo has planned for 1999.

Meanwhile, the show will mark the start of a brief tour of the western states for the Femmes, who will visit Utah, Washington, and various points in California. Here's where they will be:

• 1/23 - Salt Lake City, UT @ University Of Utah
• 1/24 - Boise, ID @ Doubletree Ballroom
• 1/25 - Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre
• 1/26 - Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre
• 1/28 - San Francisco, CA @ Fillmore
• 1/29 - Temecula, CA @ Pechanga Entertainment Center

• Devo
• Violent Femmes
• Ween

Violent Femmes leader Gordon Gano is working on a solo album and according to the L.A. Times, he's getting lots of high profile help. The paper reports that the record will include Lou Reed and Reed's former Velvet Underground bandmate John Cale, along with Polly Jean Harvey, Frank Black and Mary Lou Lord. Also onboard is Cynthia Gayneau, who is Gano's sister. Gayneau is the original spelling of their surname. Brother Glenn is also a singer-songwriter based in Alaska, but he takes after brother Gordon with the 'Gano' spelling.

The Femmes are without still without a label deal at the moment, the release of their new album, "Freak Magnet," has been postponed, but the band notes on their official website that the record has not been canceled as rumored. They say they didn't think Interscope was the right label for the project and are currently shopping for another contract.

"If any adoring fan has an extra million dollars that they would like to give the band to expedite the release of this fabulous album please contact us thru this website," posts the band. "Serious replies only."

The lack of a label hasn't stopped them from playing live, however. Pending dates are as follows:

• 06/21 - Birmingham, AL @ City Fest
• 06/26 - Milwaukee, WI @ Summerfest -headlining, 10 PM)
• 07/11 - Brewery District Pavillion, Columbus, OH
• 07/30 - Atlanta, GA @ Newport Folk Fest
• 08/1 - Philadelphia, PA @ Newport Folk Fest
• 08/2 - Jones Beach, NY @ Newport Folk Fest
• 08/18 - Washington DC @ Newport Folk Fest
• 08/20 - Indianapolis, IN @ Newport Folk Fest
• 08/21 - Chicago, IL @ Newport Folk Fest
• 08/22 - Detroit, MI @ Newport Folk Fest
• 08/23 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Newport Folk Fest

• Violent Femmes

Seminal alternative punksters the Violent Femmes have been dropped by their label, Interscope Records. The break comes at a rather inopportune moment for the band, which was slated to release its seventh album, "Freak Magnet," on May 19.

A representative for Interscope could only comment that the label would not be releasing the new record, while a source at the band's management company said that the split with Interscope -- which came last week -- was an "amicable parting" and denied that the label had rejected the album.

"The Femmes haven't released a record in four years," the management source said, "so we don't think that a delay will have much of an impact overall." The group's last album, "New Times," was released by Elektra in 1994.

The Femmes are currently said to be shopping "Magnet" around, and hope to have the album out "in the near future." The source also said that the interruption in the release schedule wouldn't affect the band's current tour.

Since you won't be able to hear the Femmes on record for a while, you may want to catch them live instead. Other dates for the band's spring tour:

• 4/7 - Louisville, KY @ Knights Hall
• 4/9 - Johnstown, PA @ University of Pittsburgh
• 4/16 - Stevens Point, WI @ University of Wisconsin
• 4/17 - Marquette, MI @ Northern Michigan University
• 4/18 - Winona, MN @ Winona State University
• 4/19 - Fargo, ND @ Civic Memorial Auditorium
• 4/21 - Peoria, IL @ Madison Theatre
• 4/24 - Charlotte, NC @ Central Cityfest
• 5/2 - Salisbury, MD @ Salisbury State University
• 5/3 - Atlanta, GA @ Music Midtown Festival
• 5/15 - Burlington, WI @ Chocolate Festival

• Violent Femmes