Nobody sets out to make a mistake. Not the designer staying up late to finish a sleeve. Not the executive signing off on the artwork. Not the secretary answering the phone. And yet sometimes, through a misread note, a hurried spell check, or a geography lesson nobody thought to take, something slips through. Something wrong ends up pressed onto a million copies of an album and sent out into the world forever.

These are five of the best.

No Answer - Electric Light Orchestra (1972)

The greatest accidental album title in music history begins with a phone call that nobody answered.

When United Artists was preparing to schedule Electric Light Orchestra's debut album for release in the US, someone from the label placed a call to find out, among other things, what the LP should be titled. The caller, having failed to reach the desired party, jotted down the notation "no answer"; a phrase which was mistaken for an album title and assigned to the US version of the group's debut record.

Bev Bevan, ELO's drummer, confirmed the story. The American record company phoned to discuss the title with ELO manager Don Arden, but his secretary couldn't contact him and replied with the two words that became immortalised on the album sleeves. "It was quite a good title, though, wasn't it?" says Bevan.

Nobody planned it. Nobody approved it. A secretary left a note. And Electric Light Orchestra's debut album went out in America under a title the band never chose, never discussed, and never quite got around to correcting.

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Untitled - The Byrds (1970)

Here is the remarkable footnote to the ELO story. In an odd coincidence, a similar mix up at about the same time resulted in a Byrds LP mistakenly being released with a title of Untitled.

Two bands. Two phone calls. Two accidental album titles. Within months of each other. Both released and never corrected.

The Byrds' Untitled is actually a double album, one disc live, one disc studio, and the absence of a proper title gives it an accidental mystique it was never meant to have. Like a filing system that got out of hand. Like a Post-it note that ended up in the wrong meeting.

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Odessey and Oracle - The Zombies (1968)

One of the most celebrated albums of the psychedelic era has a spelling mistake right there in the title. And it has been there since 1968.

The misspelling of "odyssey" in the title was the result of a mistake by the designer of the LP cover, Terry Quirk; a friend of bassist Chris White. The band tried to cover this up at the time of release by claiming the misspelling was intentional.

They maintained that position for years. Fans online constructed elaborate theories about hidden meanings in the strange spelling. And then Quirk himself put the record straight on his own website: "I ended up spelling odyssey wrong, so that's my claim to fame. There's lots of theories online about why it's spelt wrong, but there's no conspiracy."

No conspiracy. No hidden meaning. Just a designer who spelled odyssey wrong and a band too embarrassed to admit it for thirty years.

Odessey and Oracle is now widely regarded as one of the greatest albums ever made. The misspelling is part of its charm. Terry Quirk's claim to fame is secure.

Loaded - The Velvet Underground (1970)

The Velvet Underground's fourth album features artwork depicting the Times Square subway station entrance in New York. It is a evocative, perfectly chosen image for an album called Loaded; raw, urban, underground in every sense.

And the word "downtown" on the artwork is spelled "dowtown."

The artwork for the album, by Stanislaw Zagorski, features a drawing of the Times Square subway station entrance, with "downtown" misspelled as "dowtown".

One letter. Missing. On one of the most important albums in the history of rock music. Pressed onto every copy. Shipped to every record store. Noticed, presumably, by someone. Corrected by nobody.

Lou Reed was not known for suffering fools. Whether he noticed the missing T and simply didn't care, or whether it slipped past everyone entirely, has never been fully established. Either possibility feels completely in character for The Velvet Underground.

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London Bridge - Fergie (2006)

The final entry is less a music industry accident and more a geography lesson that a multi-million dollar production team collectively failed to take.

On the artwork for her 2006 single "London Bridge," Fergie stands proudly in front of a famous London landmark. One small problem: that's Tower Bridge.

Tower Bridge. Not London Bridge. Two different bridges. Separated by roughly half a mile of the River Thames. Distinguished by, among other things, the fact that Tower Bridge is the one with the towers.

London Bridge, for the record, is a fairly unremarkable concrete structure built in 1973. It does not make for a striking single cover. Tower Bridge, with its Victorian Gothic towers and famous bascules, absolutely does. Which is presumably why someone chose it.

They just chose the wrong name to go with it.

Spotted a mistake on an album cover we missed? Let me know in the comments.