I thought this might be interesting to look at. On this link are forty covers selected as the best of the past forty years by the American Society of Magazine Editors. Covers were nominated by their magazine. It's all very subjective, but you also have to keep in mind existing tastes at the time they were published. What was revolutionary in a 1970s cover may not seem so startling today.

http://nile.doceus.com/editorial/top40covers.htm

A note about number 10: this is one of National Geographic's most famous pictures, with the subject's hynotic light green eyes. A couple of years ago, the photographer sought to find this Afghan girl using only contacts and tireless questioning of locals (he never got her name). He found her, happy to see she was alive and well with a husband and two or three kids. She even remembered him.

Rolling Stone, Esquire and The New Yorker Garner Top Honors in
ASME’s Magazine 40/40 Competition

Fajardo, Puerto Rico (October 17, 2005) – The 40 greatest magazine covers of the last 40 years were unveiled today at the American Magazine Conference (AMC) 2005 at the Wyndham El Conquistador in Puerto Rico, by Mark Whitaker, President of American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) and Editor of Newsweek magazine, and AMC Chairman Evan Smith, Editor of Texas Monthly.

Rolling Stone’s January 22, 1981 cover of John Lennon and Yoko Ono was named the top magazine cover to appear since 1965, while Vanity Fair’s cover featuring a naked, pregnant Demi Moore (August 1991), ranked as the # 2 cover. The # 3 cover from Esquire’s April 1968 issue depicted Muhammad Ali with six arrows in his body. Three Esquire covers were ranked among the top 10 covers of the past four decades, while The New Yorker had two covers among the top 10.

Saul Steinberg’s March 29, 1976 The New Yorker cover, View of the World from 9th Avenue, which has come to represent Manhattan’s telescoped perception of the country beyond the Hudson River, was ranked the # 4 cover. Esquire’s other top covers (in addition to Muhammad Ali) included Andy Warhol in a Campbell’s tomato soup can (May 1969; # 5), the Vietnam-era “Oh my God – we hit a little girl” cover (October 1966; # 8), and Bill Clinton (December 2000; # 19).

The New Yorker’s haunting black-on-black depiction of the World Trade Center (September 24, 2001; # 6) received the most votes of the nine 9/11 covers that were submitted for judging. Two other magazines were cited for their 9/11 covers: TIME (September 14, 2001; #25) and Fortune (October 1, 2001; #29). A third New Yorker issue (December 10, 2001; # 14), featuring a conceptualized map of New York title New Yorkistan, gave the magazine three covers among the top 40.

Rounding out the top-ten were National Lampoon’s infamous “If you don’t buy this magazine we’ll shoot this dog” cover from its January 1973 issue (# 7), the September 1992 cover of the dramatically redesigned Harper’s Bazaar, featuring Linda Evangelista in the “Era of Elegance” (September 1992; # 9), and the National Geographic cover with the striking image of a 12-year-old Afghan girl, a refugee from her war-torn homeland (June 1985; # 10).

Of the top multiple-winners, Esquire, Time and Life magazines each had four covers, which were ranked among the top-40 submissions.

Other winners* in the Magazine 40/40 Competition included everything from large-circulation magazines such as Vanity Fair, Newsweek and People to a wide range of smaller magazines and niche publications, including Details, The Economist, Fast Company and The Nation.

“The breadth and quality of the 444 submissions we received was striking, and showed the creativity and innovation of our industry,” said ASME Executive Director, Marlene Kahan. “Clearly, the top-ranked covers were resonant and iconic, striking a deep chord with our judges. In total, these covers provide an evocative snapshot of our nation and its preoccupations throughout the past four decades.”

The array of submissions included: Gourmet (whose March 1970 cover dared to present a raw fish entrée), urban music and culture magazine Vibe, PC World (whose cover “How to Connect to the Internet” in 1995 reflected a watershed moment in connectivity), The Advocate (whose February, 1983 cover featured a little known epidemic among gay men), Travel & Leisure, Spy, Forbes, Texas Monthly, BusinessWeek and the online magazine Slate (whose November 2003 cover carried the chilling headline, “Another way terrorists can down passenger planes”).

ASME created the “Magazine 40/40” competition earlier this year. A judging panel of 52 magazine editors, design directors, art directors and photography editors was charged with picking the 40 top covers from a pool of 444 images representing 136 magazines. The contest was open to all consumer magazines published in the United States. Magazines were invited to submit up to four entries from their respective publications. Entrants were also encouraged to nominate covers of magazines that were not published by their company or were no longer being published.

“This diverse and surprising spectrum of covers is a fascinating cultural montage, and beyond that, points to the role that magazines play in shaping our culture and telling our history,” said Whitaker. “From newer magazines, such as Budget Living and Details, to venerable titles such as Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, these images reflect and shape decisive moments in American society – revolutions in design, technology and landmark geo-political events.”

In total, of the 41 winning covers, 32 were photographs, seven were illustrations, and two displayed typeface, only. The decade-by-decade breakdown was as follows: 11 winning covers from the 1960s; eight winning covers from the 1970s; three winning covers from the 1980s; ten winning covers from the 1990s, and nine winning covers from the 2000s.