The American Society of Magazine Editors has compiled a list of the 40 most famous covers of American magazines.

The American Society of Magazine Editors (Asme) has compiled a list with the 40 most famous covers of North American magazines of the last 40 years.

The compilation gathers those iconic covers that have represented the most outstanding events in modern society in North American culture.

In the list we can see the most representative covers of Esquire, Rolling Stone, Time, National Geographic, The New Yorker or People among others. The cover of the Rolling Stone by John Lennon and Yoko Ono is the most famous of them all. The photograph taken by Annie Leibovitz and was published on January 22, 1981.

Another one of the covers that more controversy generated was the one of Vanity Fair with a naked and pregnant Demi Moore. The photograph, made by Annie Leibovitz, helped Demi Moore to rise to fame after Ghost.

Closing the top3 is the controversial cover of Esquire with Muhammad Ali impaled by six arrows. This cover was made after the fighter refused to be recruited by the army because of his religious beliefs. The cover is the second of the three that the magazine dedicated to the most famous boxer. The photograph was taken by George Lois, Art Director of the magazine in the 1960s.

You have all the list on the Asme’s website with a brief explanation of each cover.