In the mid-1970s, a bootleg containing rare singles and B-sides entitled The Dark Side of the Moo appeared, with a similar cover. Also, a pink balloon shaped like a cow udder accompanied the album as part of Capitol's marketing strategy campaign to 'break' the band in the US. More cows appear on the back cover, again with no text or titles, and on the inside gatefold. The cow's owner identified her name as 'Lulubelle III'. Storm Thorgerson, inspired by Andy Warhol's famous 'cow wallpaper', has said that he simply drove out into a rural area near Potters Bar and photographed the first cow he saw. They thus requested that their new album had 'something plain' on the cover, which ended up being the image of a cow. This concept was the group's reaction to the psychedelic space rock imagery associated with Pink Floyd at the time of the album's release the band wanted to explore all sorts of music without being limited to a particular image or style of performance. Some later editions have the title and artist name added to the cover. The original album cover, designed by art collective Hipgnosis, shows a Holstein-Friesian cow standing in a pasture with no text nor any other clue as to what might be on the record. This was a trend that would continue on subsequent covers throughout the 1970s and beyond.

The cover was designed by Hipgnosis, and was the first one to not feature the band's name on the cover, or contain any photographs of the band anywhere. Ron Geesin, who had already influenced and collaborated with Roger Waters, contributed to the title track and received a then-rare outside songwriting credit. A remastered CD was released in 1994 in the UK and the United States, and again in 2011. It was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London, England, and was the band's first album to reach number 1 in the UK, while it reached number 55 in the US, eventually going gold there.

It was released by Harvest on 2 October 1970 in the UK, and by Capitol on 10 October 1970 in the US. Atom Heart Mother is the fifth studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd.

Atom heart mother vinyl back