Rolling Stone's 1000th issue; Q magazine's worst albums ever

Magazines love making lists and running critics' and readers' polls, and those issues tend to sell well on newsstands and generate collateral publicity for the publications.

Hence yet another "special issue" from Rolling Stone; the mag, once a must-read for music fans, for its 1000th issue celebrates itself yet again with yet another fairly pointless list -- the best 100 RS covers or something.

But you gotta admit: The 3-D cover, an homage to the Beatles, is pretty impressive. The Fab Four's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club was released in 1967, the same year that Rolling Stone made its debut, with that unforgettable shot of John Lennon in a publicity pic from Richard Lester's forgettable anti-war flick How I Won the War.

Here's Wenner's pitch for the covers, from the issue's introduction:

"The covers in this issue were chosen based on aesthetic criteria: the quality of the image, its uniqueness and how forcefully it communicates. On that basis, there are probably another hundred more that could have been included. These were not chosen because they sold the most issues, though some of our all-time best sellers are featured, from Bart Simpson to Elvis. We had plenty of choices. The Beatles, together or individually, have been on our cover more than thirty times; the Rolling Stones, in various configurations, twenty-three. Bob Dylan has appeared thirteen times (note to self: more Dylan!), Bruce Springsteen a dozen, Jimi Hendrix ten, Madonna ten."

Much more fun than Rolling Stone's latest special is the "50 Worst Albums Ever" cover story for British music magazine Q. It's a cheeky, funny piece of work, but is Duran Duran's 1995 disc "Thank You" really the worst?