According to Storm T., the idea for this cover came from a dream - a dream in which his subject's face was melting as if it were made of hot wax (maybe too much time watching "Night Gallery"?). Peter said ‘OK, I can handle that - I can handle being in your dreams so long as you are not in mine’. He wanted the effect to look more painted than photographed, and experimented with some possible solutions before discovering a simple-yet-effective way to do it.
The effects were achieved by smearing the image on a recently-taken Polaroid SX-70 photograph (before the chemicals all set). It is said that it looked like so much fun that Mr. Gabriel did a few examples, too, before they all finally settled on the one used for the cover.
The recording was Gabriel's third self-titled album (he likes to keep the titles simple, it seems) and contained two of his most-loved hits - "Games Without Frontiers" and the moving tribute to a slain African leader, "Biko".
